Cerveaux aux laboratoire, you mean? According to my French-English dictionary, “laboratoire” is masculine and takes “le” rather than the feminine “la”. And when referring to cuisine, I’m told it’s “a la” if feminine or “au” if masculine.
But then again, what do I know? Nous Americains ne parler jamais tout langue mais Anglais, n’est-ce pas? -_^
Actually, a _truly_ refined zombie would know that one _never_ uses the salad fork for brains, as Unity is doing above. One uses the fish fork for brains, and the salad fork for lady fingers–or for gentleman fingers.
(TUNE: “The Flowers That Bloom In The Spring”, Gilbert & Sullivan)
The brains that we grow in the vat (yum yum!)
Are scrumptious and cruelty-free!
As over our supper we sat (yum yum!),
Our visitor commented that
She enjoys an occasional spree
With a smidgen of cruelty, oui!
She seems disappointed when finding out that
We eat only brains that we grow in the vat!
A tasty sensation
That helps cogitation! Nommy nom nom, yum yum!
Strictly speaking, Ed, given that Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was strictly the words man (unless you feel that his words provide some kind of shell for you to fit yours into) then you might just as well have just credited Sir Arthur Sullivan for the tune (he always wanted to be known as a serious composer – if only he’d known that one day he would have a filk about zombies set to his music, he would have been so proud 🙂 )
Since “The Flowers That Bloom In the Spring” is a duet presenting opposing viewpoints…
The brains that you grow in the vats (ho hum)
Are bland, inoffensive and mild.
Plus they’re saturated with trans fats (ho hum)
They’re just not as good as one that’s
Been plucked from a skull in the wild
Yes, the lack of the chase has me riled.
I don’t require brains from high-class diplomats
I just don’t like brains manufactured in vats
I couldn’t say why
perhaps it’s that I
just don’t like the way that it splats.
An intelligent Unity? Dear God, what have they done? So, who thinks that Unity is now going to solve all the mysteries plaguing the team on this mission in the classic Sherlock Holmes style (preferably while wearing the Sherlock Holmes hat)?
Unity gets smarter when she eats brains! Eating a monkey brain gave her the brainpower to be suspicious of Violet during their initial meeting, remember, and on Nick’s blog, it’s shown that eating the brains of smart people Nick was supposed to be transporting to be studied caused her to black out. When she woke up, she’d invented an advanced thought-to-text converter she uses, because she’s not the best speller normally.
The actual basis for this in the comic alone was… one or two strips at most, so it’s pretty easy to forget. Which is why I recapped the context for this! 😀
…..’while wearing the Sherlock Holmes hat’….. AAACK NO. Remember where Unity gets her hats? Dead (maybe) fox hat, dead (definitely) werewolf hat, etc. My mind just produced a mental image of her wearing a hat that– um, well, let’s just say that it involved Benedict Cumberbatch from the BBC Sherlock and it HAD NOT ENDED WELL FOR HIM. ;__;
That always made me a little sad. I wanted to ship all the trolls to a cryogenic chamber when I read that. Everyone should live in an evvironment where they are intelligent. And as my brain melts when it gets above 80 I sympathized.
Yes, agreed! Especially when it was pointed out that trolls from the mountains who moved to Anhk-Morpork tended to have made that decision up in the mountains, and thus when they were operating a lot closer to their optimal temp. And then as they went down, they got stupider, and everyone (non-troll) would basically make fun of them because ‘hurr hurr stupid troll, lookit them struggle with basic things.’
I thought that. I was going to ask that. But… I have no idea why I didn’t. Somehow I can’t imagine her having a conversation in her pre-equisite brain ingesting state where that would come up.
It’s probably just a contextless joke in the strip, but my first thought was that she was recounting a conversation she had with Remy (sort of, with her being smarter in hindsight) and he called her “Petite mort” as an endearment.
Probably was talking to Tip, given what la petite mort means, before he figured out that asking her to get physical ends with dislocated everything and gnaw marks.
It’s damned funny. But I don’t think she ever got intimate enough with Remy to discuss “la petite mort”. Don’t think tip goes in for such poetic phrases. Still I wouldn’t let any lack of occurance prevent me from making a joke that good.
Since the original post was from 2012 and responses were in 2013 and then 2016 I’ll insert my own grain of salt without shame !!
The correct french would be “Cerveaux du laboratoire” (Brains from the lab), for they came from the laboratory and the correct translation for “from” would be “de” so the sentence would be “Cerveaux de le laboratoire” (laboratoire is indeed masculine) but “de le” isn’t pleasant to the ear and is thus contracted in “du”.
“Cerveaux aux laboratoire” would imply the brains were in the lab, plus “aux” is plural and correct accord would be with the singular “laboratoire” so “Cerveaux au laboratoire” (Brains in the lab).
Cloned brains? Brilliant.
Darrrling, it is cerveaux du la laboratoire, you must learn to be cultured!
Cerveaux aux laboratoire, you mean? According to my French-English dictionary, “laboratoire” is masculine and takes “le” rather than the feminine “la”. And when referring to cuisine, I’m told it’s “a la” if feminine or “au” if masculine.
But then again, what do I know? Nous Americains ne parler jamais tout langue mais Anglais, n’est-ce pas? -_^
A truly refined zombie would keep one’s little finger extended whilst consuming cranial tissue, eh wot?
I’m glad I’m not the only one who imagines UNITY developed a sudden upper middle class British accent.
Unity reminds me of the Tony Randall gremlin in Gremlins 2.
Yeah, I’m imagining some dinner party back in the 80’s..”You don’t mean to say you bought CANNED salmon?”
She totally turned into D.O.R.O.T.H.Y. P.A.R.K.E.R. in today’s segment, yes.
Actually, a _truly_ refined zombie would know that one _never_ uses the salad fork for brains, as Unity is doing above. One uses the fish fork for brains, and the salad fork for lady fingers–or for gentleman fingers.
(TUNE: “The Flowers That Bloom In The Spring”, Gilbert & Sullivan)
The brains that we grow in the vat (yum yum!)
Are scrumptious and cruelty-free!
As over our supper we sat (yum yum!),
Our visitor commented that
She enjoys an occasional spree
With a smidgen of cruelty, oui!
She seems disappointed when finding out that
We eat only brains that we grow in the vat!
A tasty sensation
That helps cogitation!
Nommy nom nom, yum yum!
Strictly speaking, Ed, given that Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was strictly the words man (unless you feel that his words provide some kind of shell for you to fit yours into) then you might just as well have just credited Sir Arthur Sullivan for the tune (he always wanted to be known as a serious composer – if only he’d known that one day he would have a filk about zombies set to his music, he would have been so proud 🙂 )
Since “The Flowers That Bloom In the Spring” is a duet presenting opposing viewpoints…
The brains that you grow in the vats (ho hum)
Are bland, inoffensive and mild.
Plus they’re saturated with trans fats (ho hum)
They’re just not as good as one that’s
Been plucked from a skull in the wild
Yes, the lack of the chase has me riled.
I don’t require brains from high-class diplomats
I just don’t like brains manufactured in vats
I couldn’t say why
perhaps it’s that I
just don’t like the way that it splats.
Filks _and_ Gilbert and Sullivan! It’s too much happiness!
Maybe they’re made of tofu.
Do vegetarian zombies eat heads of lettuce?
@Prodigal – unless it falls off, of course. Then one is excused.
But then would not one perforce be required to pick up said digit and extend it using one’s spare hand?
“la grande mort”? Oh, Unity! How risque! I’m not sure the world is ready for… well, the world isn’t ready for *any* of this…
An intelligent Unity? Dear God, what have they done? So, who thinks that Unity is now going to solve all the mysteries plaguing the team on this mission in the classic Sherlock Holmes style (preferably while wearing the Sherlock Holmes hat)?
Unity gets smarter when she eats brains! Eating a monkey brain gave her the brainpower to be suspicious of Violet during their initial meeting, remember, and on Nick’s blog, it’s shown that eating the brains of smart people Nick was supposed to be transporting to be studied caused her to black out. When she woke up, she’d invented an advanced thought-to-text converter she uses, because she’s not the best speller normally.
Nope, I don’t really remember those parts. Guess I need to archive binge. Or eat some brains…
Thanks for the recap 🙂
The actual basis for this in the comic alone was… one or two strips at most, so it’s pretty easy to forget. Which is why I recapped the context for this! 😀
Here you go. http://zerhakker.livejournal.com/17404.html
…..’while wearing the Sherlock Holmes hat’….. AAACK NO. Remember where Unity gets her hats? Dead (maybe) fox hat, dead (definitely) werewolf hat, etc. My mind just produced a mental image of her wearing a hat that– um, well, let’s just say that it involved Benedict Cumberbatch from the BBC Sherlock and it HAD NOT ENDED WELL FOR HIM. ;__;
-__- Stupid italics. Screwed ’em up.
Incidently, Unity’s variable intellegence level reminds me of Discworld trolls, who have silicon brains and are smarter the colder they are.
That always made me a little sad. I wanted to ship all the trolls to a cryogenic chamber when I read that. Everyone should live in an evvironment where they are intelligent. And as my brain melts when it gets above 80 I sympathized.
Yes, agreed! Especially when it was pointed out that trolls from the mountains who moved to Anhk-Morpork tended to have made that decision up in the mountains, and thus when they were operating a lot closer to their optimal temp. And then as they went down, they got stupider, and everyone (non-troll) would basically make fun of them because ‘hurr hurr stupid troll, lookit them struggle with basic things.’
to whom did she say that? i’m sort of hoping remy.
I thought that. I was going to ask that. But… I have no idea why I didn’t. Somehow I can’t imagine her having a conversation in her pre-equisite brain ingesting state where that would come up.
It’s probably just a contextless joke in the strip, but my first thought was that she was recounting a conversation she had with Remy (sort of, with her being smarter in hindsight) and he called her “Petite mort” as an endearment.
Um…”la petite mort” refers to something else.
Probably was talking to Tip, given what la petite mort means, before he figured out that asking her to get physical ends with dislocated everything and gnaw marks.
I would have thought it referred to only one other “something else” ’til I ran into more than one other euphemistic use for it.
(I should say, that I figured it wouldn’t stop Remy from making a punnish endearment out of it anyway. I mean, she is uncoventionally lifed.)
It’s damned funny. But I don’t think she ever got intimate enough with Remy to discuss “la petite mort”. Don’t think tip goes in for such poetic phrases. Still I wouldn’t let any lack of occurance prevent me from making a joke that good.
*morte
Small die? I am the big die!
I think you’ve got a good grasp of french
Since the original post was from 2012 and responses were in 2013 and then 2016 I’ll insert my own grain of salt without shame !!
The correct french would be “Cerveaux du laboratoire” (Brains from the lab), for they came from the laboratory and the correct translation for “from” would be “de” so the sentence would be “Cerveaux de le laboratoire” (laboratoire is indeed masculine) but “de le” isn’t pleasant to the ear and is thus contracted in “du”.
“Cerveaux aux laboratoire” would imply the brains were in the lab, plus “aux” is plural and correct accord would be with the singular “laboratoire” so “Cerveaux au laboratoire” (Brains in the lab).
The joke in panel one has a permanent residence in my sense of humor.
Oooh also, I just remembered – *this* is the first update I read live. And I remember because “la grande mort” stuck in my head.