It’s bad enough that an optometric office is using a wretched bilingual pun as its name.
Eye Carumba, 4 Embarcadero Center, San Francisco
What’s worse is that, having opted to go with a wretched bilingual pun, the optometrists didn’t get their vision checked before ordering the sign. The second word of that Spanish interjection is spelled caramba, not carumba.
Even that proud underachiever Bart Simpson—whose first words, after all, were “¡Ay, caramba!”—knows better.
(By the way, caramba is a minced oath, the sort of thing you get when you substitute goshdarnit for goddammit. In this case, the word being minced is carajo, a vulgarism for “penis”; idiomatically, “¡Ay, carajo” means “Oh, fuck!”)
I might accept “Eye Caramba” (not “Carumba”) as the name of a hip, whimsical retailer of eyeglass frames à la Warby Parker. Or, even better, a hip, whimsical retailer of children’s eyeglass frames. But the name is out of focus for an optometrist’s office: a silly, misspelled pun just doesn’t say “skilled and experienced medical professionals dedicated to the improvement of my vision.”
Unless, along with improving your vision, they also give dance lessons?
Posted by: Jan Freeman | February 28, 2012 at 11:38 AM
What a great band name! The Minced Oaths!
Reminds me of a cool band called The Sixths, who had an album called "Hyacinths and Thistles".
Posted by: Mark Gunnion | February 28, 2012 at 01:46 PM
Look at the Eye Carumba website: One of their two doctors is described thus:
"A third generation Mexican-American, Dr. Torres is fluent in Spanish [...] He is a firm believer in education [...] "
The plot thickens.
Posted by: Tom Goodwillie | February 28, 2012 at 02:48 PM
Sad to see professionals join the ranks of the tragically hip.
Posted by: heydave | February 28, 2012 at 04:33 PM
And the sign wasn't cheap! Always stunning to me when businesses don't copy-check before plunking down big bucks on print ads or signage.
Posted by: Diana Landau | February 29, 2012 at 07:12 AM
It seems that this may be a
pop culture reference: http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Eye_Caramba .
The word does not seem to have been misspelled on "The Simpsons", but it is misspelled on at least one Simpson's trivia site: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096697/trivia .
Posted by: Tom Goodwillie | February 29, 2012 at 08:22 AM
Bonus: I see "crumb" in "carumba," which wouldn't be there if it were spelled correctly.
Posted by: Jessica | February 29, 2012 at 08:39 AM