Thaaat's right! The one where Wreckerators wrestle with the seemingly simple "Congratulations."For some reason, various unholy alliances of the words "graduation" and "congratulations" keep popping up:
"Gratulation"
"Gradulation"
"Congraduations"(Your soul dies a little more with each one of these, doesn't it?)
"Whatever this says."
"Whatever this says."
"Happy Graduations"?!?Oh. Wait. Actually, that's almost correct. I wonder if someone forgot the "L."
There's a theory floating around that some of these word mash-ups are intentional; a "cute" misspelling to save the decorator from writing out the overly long and excessively complicated "congratulations graduate."
To this I say: [rude noise].
Good grief, people, you're celebrating an educational achievement! This is not the time for "cutesy" misspellings! So just write out "Congrats" and be done with it! That's not so hard, is it?!?
Excuse me. [sound of head hitting desk repeatedly] This may be a while.In the meantime, enjoy your cake with the bottle of urine/beer on it.
(Either way, someone's getting pissed.) (Because in Britain "pissed" = "drunk." See? I'm even funny in different languages.*)
Shelby, Angie M., Briana G., D.H., Pam G., & Anony M., Gradu...Congalu...Gradcon...Uh. Good job!
* Yes. We know.
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Oh, lovely, looking at those cakes when I'm having to host a graduation party tomorrow with about 100 graduates and family members. However, I will get a cake with NO writing on it to keep from being represented on this web site!
OMG, I can’t get past cake #5, the “Sucking Vortex of Death” cake! What is it saying? “Your soul is now the possession of a corporate, cubicle-death nightmare?” Aaaaaaaaaaauuuuugggghhh!!!
^..^
At least Michelle's cake is pretty and fixable. Take a butter knife and scrape off the "s."
The last one is just completely WTF. And gross looking, too! What IS all that crap?
LOL. Love the translation of English on the last cake.
My graduation cake had a flask of urine on it too. But that was less because of a wreckorator and more because of my crazy Uncle Jim.
The truly irritating thing is that I keep seeing "congradulations" for events that have nothing whatsoever to do with commencement!
But I will say that Michelle's cake has some of the prettiest writing I've ever seen...
You know, if someone is graduating from Con Artist School, then Con Grads is appropriate. :)
http://agirlinherkitchen.blogspot.com
I am hoping that Michelle is graduating from more than one place. Does anyone else see the smiley face in the swirls on the bottom left of cake number 5?
Jessica
I worked as a decorator in a grocery store bakery and I cannot tell you how many times the order taker would fill in these requests as 'congradulations'. Luckily I knew to fix it. Then one day the order taker walks by and sees me making it correctly and asks if I am spelling it right! The educational system these people are 'gradulating' from!!
That fifth cake is a masterpiece. I love how the wreckerator apparently wrote "Gaadulalions" and then caught him/herself and went back to add "Con" to the beginning.
ConGaadulalions!
Maybe we could have a non-wrecky graduation cake assortment for Sunday Sweets? Pretty Please!
Unfortunately, this is our future….
A couple weeks ago, I got to read through Scholarship application essays for high school seniors at Unnamed High School. All I have to say is God help those of us who still know the English language and how to use it appropriately.
What I read was horrific. The district superintendent and I discussed the problems afterwards and I wasn’t very kind about the issue. I don’t care how good UHS’s standardized test scores are, kids need to be learning how to spell, properly punctuate a sentence, and properly format a formal paper for life in the real working world. I don’t think they even know how to use the flippin’ spell/grammar/usage check that comes with MS Word.
I had a headache after reading through the garbage; and my teenager said if he was grading papers, he would have failed 75% of them.
ConDnadulaliona!
Ooohh.. I thought that urine/beer was a badly drawn bong. Either way, very classy.
The worst part is the more I see these, I begin to forget how the word is actually spelled!
I can't even handle whatever the pictures on that last cake are suppose to be - but they're definitely disgusting!
Why does the last cake look like it has drug paraphernalia on it? Looks like somebody picked a party college.
For the last cake, I suspect Ashley majored in chemistry and the decorations are supposed to represent lab glassware. Or perhaps I'm overinterpreting. Yellow is not the best choice, in any event.
All Cake Wrecks fans would like the movie "Spellbound," which is a documentary about the National Spelling Bee.
When one young contestant wins the regional round of the competition, her hometown Hooters restaurant (yes, Hooters) posts a sign saying, "Congradulations Alma."* Now nobody can deny that Hooters values good spelling.
*Maybe her name wasn't Alma. It's been a few years since I saw the movie. But I couldn't forget the "Congradulations."
The last cake is obviously for a chemist. Many chemicals do look like urine, so they did a pretty good job. I would be slightly afraid of the crazy vapors going up the neck of the flask.
Guys, that's not drug paraphernalia. Ashley is clearly a graduating chemistry major.
The beer/urine bottle is a Florence flask. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_flask--the image even contains yellow fluid!
The other drawing is obviously a test tube full of poo.
I’d say the last cake is for a chem major, looks like a test tube and a round bottom flask.
And “Gradulation” must be the adoration and gifts (aka money) expected by the young adult simply because they have managed to complete 4 years of college or whatever!
Interestingly, I know both a Michelle and a Briana graduating this spring. Wonder if either of these cakes belong to them?
I had to spell Congratulations on a cookie yesterday, and I made VERY SURE that I spelled it correctly. And I agree about the school system. I have worked with several high school students in the last few years and all they had to do was file. They don't know how to spell or even know their ABC's, and these kids were the "Best of the Best" that were allowed to work with our office. That's scary....that's our future????
Sharon's Edible Art
I believe "Congraduations" came from a Laverne & Shirley episode where the landlady's mentally challenged daughter was graduating and Shirley made a banner that said that.
Or at least that's what I remember from watching the show in my youth.
*headdesk* *facepalm*
I congraduated in 2001 and I didn't get a cake this cool. JEALOUS.
Daniel, I think you're right. I wondered why the "G" in ConGaadulations was capitalized, but it makes sense if the "Con" was added afterwards.
I work at a newspaper and used to handle all the birthdays/weddings/engagement notices that came in for what were then free postings. I saw "congradulations" more times than I saw "congratulations" in those messages. I always corrected them and hoped people realized their mistake.
The last one is for a science major. It's a beaker & test tube, of course! LOL!
Dear Jen, as I try to reach the end of an academic goal (and I'm afraid there is no "congraduations" cake waiting for me...), you provide me with one means of procrastination. And for that I have been a loyal reader for quite a long time, as I've been "studying" for quite some time. But you make procrastination all the harder when the posts first appear at 9:30 (EST?). You see, for those of us on the "other side of the pond," that means the AFTERNOON. Not even "right after lunch procrastination time" afternoon, but actually right at the "after lunch procrastination time is over, so now I should actually be working time". Now, as a life-time enrolled student, I appreciate sleeping in more than anyone, but I suspect you don't have German punctuality and are actually setting everything up to just be automatically posted at exactly 9:30 EST. So, could you help out a loyal reader in their procrastination and set up that automatic posting time to a be a bit earlier so that the procrastination may commence a bit earlier? I have now banned myself from all the usual websites and facebook to finish my thesis, and your site is one of the few "allowed" ones -- what else am I to do during my lonely mornings?
All the thanks in any case for this great service to humanity -- I'm sure we're all slowly improving our spelling one day at a time! :D
Congraduationns, I've now forgotten how to spell both words.
What a shame. That one undecipherable cake was really pretty--until they put a swirling airbrushed brown VORTEX on it. Is it a black hole sucking down the word? is it supposed to mesmerize (wreckerator version: memorize) the viewer? I liked the flowers and vines otherwise.
Anyhoo, I think it says something like this: ConGoadulaliona (without the dot on the i)
Still, WTF does THAT mean?
Ashley's cake...did she have a problem with drinking in school and she finally graduated? was she a chemistry major? why do the beakers have to have urine yellow and poo brown contents? THAT ARE SPELLING OUT HER CAKE INSCRIPTION by the way.
I know! maybe she's a graduating wreckerator! And she had to learn how to make poo brown and urine yellow icing, hence the inscription creeping out of the beakers.
That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.
I love that although there are strange misspellings going on, at least the script is nicely done in *most* of them! As if that makes up for the errors.... but imagine how pretty they would have been if written correctly! ;)
Julie319 - I was just ranting about this yesterday. I work in customer service answering emails and it appears that no one knows how to put together a coherent sentence any more. My parents live in a small town (300 people) and received a letter from the town stating that their water/sewer/garbage bill was going up $5.00 to cover the cost of some new system they need to put in, only it took at least a dozen partial sentences to convey this idea. It was horrifying.
That being said, the ConGaa cake was really pretty, except for the misspelling and the airbrushed brown smear in the middle.
My parents ordered half a sheet cake for my high school graduation. It was supposed to be green and yellow with "Congratulations Valedictorian!" on it. It was white and yellow, with "Congratuation Valedictation" scrawled in off center red icing.
Classic.
Unfortunately, this seems to be another of those annoying/depressing new words.
I weep for the English language!
I weep for the English language!
This merger of words has run amok!
Hey, we get pissed in Canada too. I didn't know that Americans don't really use that phrase. Interesting......
This is why I couldn't spell congratulations until I was like 12. And I was a good speller. But because of all the "cutesy" cards that said "congradulations," I'd always get confused. Grrrrr!
And hey, maybe the Happy Graduations cake was for multiple graudations. Maybe it's actually grammatically correct! (too much to hope for)
I was in tears by "beer/urine" but completely lost it at "even funny in different languages."
I had almost regained my composure when I noticed Tigerwolf's "Sucking Vortex of Death" comment.
*wiping tears*
Yeah, some days I'm glad I got out of bed.
Pfff. I prefer to think the last cake is a bong and a cigar. Because it's funnier.
I like that on the second one (before I was really paying attention to the THEME here) I thought the handprint of roses, the random paper hat and the 'H' trying to make a wiggly escape were all valid reasons to be featuring this cake.
Then: "Oh! Gratulation...and then there's that."
Are those bongs in the last one? Oh man!
Congraduations or Gradulations almost almost almost sounds like it could be a pun. I can imagine that, right?
I'm not sure what schools are teaching these days other than test-taking, but it is clear that the spelling drills I went through may be a thing of the past. I've heard many posit that spelling and proper grammar, punctuation, etc are not important "as long as the message gets across". I say that the message can't get across if these things are not observed. Tweeting and texting are further serving to degrade the language.
I will now get down off my soap box. Thanks for listening.
I kind of like the scroll work and flowers on the 5th cake, minus the misspelling and the poo swirl in the middle!
At least the cake with "Briana" on it spelled that right (for our house anyway)
Seriously, why don't these bakeries post "commonly misspelled words" over the tables/counters where their employees do their job. Or atleast give them a simple spelling test as part of the hiring process.
I realize that the last one is supposed to be a chemistry cake, but all I think when I look at it is a bong and a smoking poo-cigar!
Still trying to get over the bloody handprint rose arrangement in #2.
Wow, just wow. You know, I don't believe my own "gradulation" cake had these problems XD
Every year I see these and hang my head in shame for the spring I worked in a bakery when I was about 20. I must have wrote "Congradulations!" on about a dozen cakes before someone pointed it out. I just pretended it was intentional and underlined the "grad", so everyone thought it was cute.
I'm sorry, funny as this post was, the funniest thing about it was the ad for the South Beach Diet Cookbook next to the pictures of all the cakes.
WV: projdser - better than am amateur jdser!
I wonder if Michelle is graduating from multiple things??? Thus the "Happy Graduations". :)
ConGaadulalions?
*giggles* Wow.
"Gratulation" is German, but I doubt anyone would ever write something like "Fröhliche Gratulation" on a cake. (^v^)
Hey, on that last cake, that's not a container of urine or beer, it's an Epcot and a Spaceship Earth. Or maybe a couple of bongs.
Maybe Michelle is graduating from more than one place? Then it would be right, right? sigh. no, probably not.
#5. Poor pretty blue and white flowers, and nice scroll work. You never realized that you were being applied to the dirtiest toilet in Scotland did you. It must be Scotland, 'cause that looks like Gaelic to me.
WV: kinde. Are these cakes for graduation parties? kinde.
But is "congraduations" a malamanteau?
I wondered if graduations meant multiple people graduating. But wouldn't it be graduates Then again, Congraduates would be a terrible pun.
What I find vexing is people say "Congrats", which is the abbreviated form of congratulations, but people spell out the full word as congradulations. Weird eh?
Google Chrome has spell-check now, so what excuse remains for the chronic non-spell checker asides from indifference?
Oh.My.Goodness. I am trying to figure out if lions are "congratulated" in cake #5. On another note, I was so proud to see your book featured in the May's Reader's Digest! *Congradulations* for the well-deserved recognition!
Maybe "Michelle" is the mother of multiples that are graduating? heh
It looks like someone with a bad case of mudbutt sat on #5.
Also...Gigi is my kid's name. Sad face.
Well at least they make good roses! I'm sadly a bit out of practice on that skill.
Oh gor blimey, missus - a bottle of beer ain't wot I saw, nudge nudge wink wink ;-)
nearly pissed meself larfin'
I work at a college. Not too many can spell congratulations right here either.
And all you party poopers! Quit telling us that the last cake is for a chemistry major. We'd much rather think it was a bong and a beaker of urine!
OH wow! Thanks Jen! I will be graduating from college on Saturday and I couldn't be more happier! To keep away from wrecks like this I'm making cupcakes! YUM lol
On the last one, I thought it was a women's bedroom friend and, well, a bong. I guess it's chemistry stuff? I think the former is more accurate in most cases.
Am I the only one that thinks Ashley's cake looks like it has a "marital aid" on it? Albeit one with an antenna for a remote control.
Except for the questionable green oil slicks on the first one and the plastic happy face flotsam on the other (well, and the 'chem major'? cake), these are actually your standard "oh that's a nice cake" cakes. Simple, tasty, thoughtful.
It's when someone with a less than hearty grasp on spelling and/or grammar (and also maybe a bit of a shaky grip) takes up a piping bag that these become wrecks. It's like magic.
I think we should have a telethon. "Don't let innocent cakes become wrecks. Donate today to the 'Training for Cake Decorators' fund and eliminate these wrecks for good."
that looks like a bong! how'd she gradulate?
Congladulalions!!!
-Sarah at www.theoddbookout.blogspot.com
I'm with one or two people who've already said it: I've seen the word spelled incorrectly so many times that I'm beginning to second guess myself every time I have to write it out!
And we've established that the last one is a pair of flasks (with obviously some sort of urine-like substance), but as for the 'rising vapors' why does it rise up the tube in harsh, diagonal lines? Wouldn't they be wispy, wavy, or swirly lines to indicate some sort of air?
I kinda feel like some of these could have happened purposefully in an effort to humorously combine the two words that sound alike, you know, kinda like "frenemy" -- "congraduation." I think it works.
The decoration on no#6 looks like half melted vitamin e capsules plonked on icing swirls. It's probably not, but damn...
I was thinking the gold thing was a bong because the top word looks like smoke coming out the top.
The second cake, "Gratulation"? At first glance I thought the flowers were a bloody hand print. YIKES!
It's nice to know the decorators got "A"s in Penmanship, even though they got "Fs" in Spelling.
Whaddaya mean, "Whatever this is"? It's a Spanish saint's name: San Geadulaleona. ;)
Yeah, people's spelling would be bad enough without the unfortunate combination of similar words in "Congratulations, Graduates!"
Best spelling test I ever saw was one that deliberately threw together words with confusable spelling just to make it harder: "Which of the following words is incorrect? Succeed/Recede/Proceed/Concede/None of the Above."
My daughter is anxiously awaiting to see her graduation cake in hopes that it IS a wreck.subc
Ok....as a grad student in chemistry, my thoughts with that last cake were as follows:
"What are those things?!?! Oh crap! I think it's supposed to be lab glassware. Maybe?"
I'm still not sure what they are!
The last cake with "CONGRADS" comes from how horribly people mispronounce "congraTulations" by saying "congraDulations." I think we have Bob Sackett to thank for that.
That last one with the pee beer on it...ewww. lol
Seriously, how many times have they had to spell out congrats, or graduation? You would think after a few hundred times they would get it right.
I'm hitting my head on the desk over here too... some of these are really unbelievable.
Hm.. I'll take a crack at it: ConGradulaliono or Con(Guiness harp)radulaliono.
-CaseyCannolis
ha!!!!!!
British slang does not constitute as a different language. LOL. just sayin'.
Are there any ProGaadulalions? Do they get a cake?
Wow, humour that crosses oceans. I thank you! xxx
The one where Wreckerators wrestle with the seemingly simply "Congratulations."
Seemingly simply?
Jen, another addition to your idea of flash cards.
I always laugh at these cakes and descriptions, but "I'm even funny in different languages" actually made me cry tears of laughter. Tears.
Wow, thanks. And ConGaadulalions on your multilingual hilariousness.
HILARIOUS! It's called spell check or grab a dictionary. It would have taken 2 minutes to look up the spellings and make sure they are correct.... or at least go with the oh-so-easy slang way of: CONGRATS!!!!
check out my blog: nikkiscakery.blogspot.com
LOL THis is okay my friend went to Bandanas the other day and of all the parts to screw up she wrote Bandanaise? WHy!?!?
(P.S. Gibbly, I still love you!BUt your spelling sucks. YOu should do cakes.)
The cynic in me wonders how many of the recipients realized there was an error (other than the person who sent the photos to CW)?
I'm with Anonymous @ 11:25-- while "getting the message across" is nice, if someone wants to be taken seriously, they have to be able to look intelligent on paper (ie good grammar, spelling, etc). While grammar modules in school are not fun, the consequences are even worse. When I hired students for their first career type job, I had them do a written exam-- I could train them on the topic, but I needed basic skills. It was scary how many couldn't get their resume right, let alone the timed exam .
PS I saw a hand in the flowers on the second cake too. And I agree with others about the lovely scrollwork on the Vortex cake (ConGaadululions? really??), and the script on Michelle's cake.
WV Midas: Jen has a midas touch with her photo captions!
The icing on the second cake is so ashamed of its bad spelling that it's trying to run away!
The "beer" reminded me...
When my daughter graduated from high school last year, the principal gave the 400 graduates an engraved 16 oz "drinking" glass (with a handle) as a gift.
A BEER mug!! Hahahaha! Apparently he was pretty embarrassed after the kids pointed it out, and made sure to stress that they were for sodas! Everyone I polled agreed it was clearly a beer mug.
Alex
Wv: forphoty - That gift would be appropriate forphoty year olds.
Also, I have volunteered for a blog (wetwebmedia) that answers questions for aquarists (usually fairly well educated geeks if I might stereotype - hang around in ana aquarium store).
Anyway, the only price for the free advice was that their question had to be spelled and structured in proper English. (Exceptions for those in non-English countries and the handicapped or under 10 groups)
If not well composed, we answered to please resubmit. If minor, we corrected before publishing (with a reprimand). Those of us who know better HAVE to take a stand.
Alex Again. :)
Wv: emeni - I don't care if I make an emeni by correcting their spelling and grammar.
Anony @ 2:02pm, you get the gold star for spotting what thousands of others missed! I'll be sure to chide John, my official proof-reader, for missing my "simply" mistake. :)
New idea: before a student graduates (or, 'gradulates'), they must first be able to point out the errors on these graduation cakes. And if they fail: they get cake #5.
hahahaaaa!
awesomely bad.
also, 3rd from the bottom says 'ConGradulationo', i think.
ConGradulaliono??
the sad thing is... if they had just left the airbrushed poo circles off of the cake (and spelled the inscription right) it would have been a really nice cake....
sadness
-Yiskah
I am graduating with my Masters of Education degree this month.
I'm having a huge party.
.......I think I will serve cookies instead of cake. o_0
Or make the cake myself! LOL
Just absurd.
It's ONE WORD.
I can't believe they think it's cool.
Just disgustable.
No one's trustable.
They need to ALL GO BACK TO SCHOOL.
=^>.<^=
In the wrecker's defence... If you spell something wrong in your order, they will spell it that way even if they know it's wrong. (I mayyy know this because I had a typo on my order *whistles innocently*)
After re-reading these comments (especially Julie319's), I get a very large and scary feeling that going "back to school" isn't the answer.
Even the spell check things can be a joke; I use mine when I want a good laugh. The one on Yahoo mail gives you crazy options, and some of them aren't even actual WORDS!
It may sound awful, but when I see consistently terrible spelling, I "see" :
a. laziness
b. not caring
c. sloppiness
d. all of the above
Why don't people want to CARE?
the last one looks like it has a bong and a blunt on it.
I thought it was a bong...that would explain the yellow-ish water.
The last cake (Congrads Ashley) is on a board that has "congratulations" printed on it. All they had to do was copy it!!!
wv: virst
These cakes have the virst spelling I've seen in a week.
On that mysteriously misspelled one, I see "ConGradulaliona!"
What was that saying about crossing your Ts and dotting your Is...?
Ashley deserves a cake worthy of her brand new degree in urine chemistry. Congraduation, Ashley!
-Liz in Seattle
these are funny! they look really good though! (besides the mistakes on the cakes) :)
please check out my blog? i just started
http://www.bubbles-thelifeofme.blogspot.com/
I have a feeling that the "beer/piss" bottle is actually a bong.
It's heartwarming how many of my fellow readers are apparently terribly familiar with drug paraphernalia (had to look that spelling up!).
I wish I had known of your website three years ago! I throw a yearly Awards ceremony for my Medical School, The Medical College of Wisconsin. It's called the Standing Ovation Awards. You can imagine the troubles the local bakery had with putting that on the cakes..... Standing Aviation Awards was my favorite. So this year we just asked for Congratulations! - and they also miss-spelled that!
Bottle of urine ROFL
Thanks for the laugh... love your site!
I'm sure you've already seen... but CakeCentral.com had a contest for Steam Punk cakes. There were some AMAZING entries! The winning cake was particularly cool :)
Getting worried by the common usage of 'Gradulations'. I can just see Websters adding it because it is now in popular usage.... *buries head in hands*
We continue to use pissed for drunk in Canada.
I think the last one has chemistry beakers on it... presumably for a chem major? But when I first looked at it, it looked more like drug paraphernalia! Maybe a subtle hint that someone thought that the grad was expanding their mind with more than just classes? Doesn't seem like that belongs on a cake...
This makes me glad my graduation cake was spelled properly. My brother's cake was spelled right too but they screwed up the school colors. Our colors are the same as the last cake, maroon, white and gold and the bakery did yellow and green, which are school colors for another local high school. Luckily the bakers were able to fix it, and this was the day before my brother's party too.
Cake #2 has some of the ugliest writing I've ever seen. Was the baker drunk or suffering from Parkinson's?
A *hand*?
I must be more violent minded than I thought. I see a flower launching bud-missiles on cake#2. PWWWOOOSH! >boom!< (petals fall)
I had that same problem with wanting to spell it "congradulations." Then I graduated 2nd grade. Congratulations to me.
*clutches dictionary*
The horror! The absolute horror! I know I've seen worse, but the fact people order it that way intentionally is just- *shudders*
Seriously, people? Are we so lazy that we can't write "Congratulations on Graduating". Ok, so it's bit long, but the fact that someone actually misspelled "congrats" astounds me. I'm starting to prepare a eulogy.
"We are gathered here today to honor the deceased English language..."
I think the brown one says "This is not a graduation cake; this is a cake celebrating mud puddles." I mean, seriously, what ELSE can the brown center mean?!
obviously SOME PEOPLE didn't graduate or is it gradulate? Seriously, some ppl. (my google chrome tells me gradulate is not a proper word, maybe they need chrome.)
Congradulations to Congraduates everywhere!
Years ago one of my high school classmates worked part-time in a bakery. As graduation day approached, she iced many, many cakes with "Congradulations" ... and when called on it, said, of course that's right, it's ConGRADulations as in GRADuate. Made perfect sense, to her anyway!
Hmm that last cake didn't look like a bottle of beer to me.. looked a bit more like ahem some misshapen male anatomy lol. These wreckerators should just give up on the congratulations graduates it seems too hard for them to even try to spell correctly..sends them all back to school.
Okay, am I the only person that thought the items on the last cake were a black cigar and a yellow bong? :/
WV: Hensa - The wreckarators cannot spell, hensa lot of cakes are open to interpretation.
different languages...HA! too funny, lol!!! XD
"Congraduations" is definitely an intentional portmanteau. The others...not so much.
I have to say, the mash up of Graduation and Congratulations is a legit pop culture reference.
On Three's Company, Chrissy hung a sign up that said "Congraduations Jack" when she and Janet held a party to celebrate his graduation from culinary school.
Still, this does not excuse the horrible cakes out there :)
Is it just me or is the bouquet on cake number 2 reminiscent of a bloody handprint? And if so, what kind of school did Angie "gratulate" from?
The last cake really looks like it has a police baton and a bong on it. Now try making THOSE three themes come together??
I just like how, on the 2nd cake, the roses make a pattern as though someone laid a bloody hand on the cake.
HAHAHA Your last paragraph reminded me of So I Married an Axe Murderer where the dad says, "Let's get PISSED!" (That is, drunk...) So, yes, even in other languages (or cultures, really, since English is English) you're funny. Besides, "pissed" is just a funny word to begin with. It's entire underutilized in my book. I'm kinda pissed about that. **giggle**
ConGoadulalions?
Okay, I know it's a little besides the point, but seeing as how I am still a person who feels the urge to double check the spelling of "congratulations," I feel slightly irked at the harsh criticisms about how "idiotic" our English-speaking society is becoming. So, I wanted to offer a little linguistical explanation for why it is so easy to get confused about this word (and nevermind how confusing it is in close proximity to the word "graDuation.")
The sounds /t/ and /d/ are synonymous: they are pronounced the same way, except /d/ has "voice" and /t/ is considered "voiceless." (http://www.uoregon.edu/~l150web/conson.html) How we pronounce /t/ or /d/ depends upon the context of the sounds surrounding it. For example, we say walked "walk-t" because the proceeding k is voiceless, but we say paired "pair-d." With all the voiced vowel sounds surrounding that poor "t" in "congratulations" it's nearly impossible for us to pronounce it like it's spelt in rapid/normal speech!
Whether or not people should be responsible and double check these things is another issue, but I've learned from experience that laptops or books don't mix well with flour. :)
When my mom graduated, we actually wanted a cake that said, "Congraduations." I think we saw it on a Hallmark card. Yes, we learned our lesson. The bakery folks were stumped and tried to tell us we were misspelling it. I wrote it in block letters and explained the word. The bakery gave us a cake that said, "Congradualations."
Oh these are so precious. They never, never get old.
PS Love the site guys! And now that I've finally gone and bought 3G I no longer have to limit my viewing to a few rushed minutes at work. I can giggle and sniggle and choke from the comfort of my home.
I feel like the 5th one says "Gradulaliona." Whatever that might mean.
Is it just me or do those roses on cake #2 resemble a very creepy hand?
"CongraDulations" is a major pet peeve of mine. MAJOR. These, as usual, are hilarious.
Anon@12:25 -
"Congraduations" is less a malamanteau than it is a half-witted Hallmarkism. "ConGsadulaliona," however, meets all the criteria for malamanteaux.
@Tigerwolf- spot on with "sucking vortex of death." I was remarking yesterday that what I really need to get my baby brother, who is graduating from high school this month, is a card that says outside, "Welcome to adulthood!" and, when opened, plays a recording of my own derisively maniacal laughter.
And I too would like to congradulate the decorator of the Michelle cake for her lovely penmanship (icing-bagmanship?). It's too bad one must concoct an elaborate backstory for "Happy Graduations" to make sense, because the cake is otherwise lovely.
That last cake with it's personal "massager" on it kills me.
When my mom graduated from college, she had two wrecky cakes. One was ordered from a bakery. My grandmother requested it to say "Congratulations, Peggie!" and have an image of a girl graduate. The cake she received said, "Congratulations, Peggie, Girl Graduate."
The other cake was made by my uncle and aunt who consulted the dictionary for the proper spelling of "congratulations." The text they came up with was "Congregations Peggie."
"Congradulations" I can accept as a pun- sometimes. All the others are just plain fails.
So British people using an English word to mean drunk is somehow a completely new language? Slang, maybe. Language? Not so much. =p
Oh yes.. and this unholy alliance seems to make people actually believe that the word "congratulations" actually contains a D. I seem to see it spelled as "congradulations" constantly... and 99% of the time nobody is graduating.. AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
Anon @ 10:06,
Yeah we could have used "dialects" but it's funnier to think of British as a completely different language. But it does raise the question of whether a common language spoken with such a different dialect or accent should be considered a language on its own. Hmm.
john
For anyone who is ACTUALLY confused about the two words:
GRADUATE is related to GRADE. Both are spelled with D, from a root word meaning a step. Which step are you on? You just went up another step. Related terms: Gradual, gradient, gradation, etc.
CONGRATULATIONS is related to GRATEFUL, from a root meaning of pleasant or agreeable, so the word means something like "To wish joy together."
So as long as we can remember that "Graduate" is relevant to school here only, while "Congratulations" applies to lots of celebrations, it's not hard to sort out.
On the other hand, for some reason, there's no Wilton Cake Decorating Class in Latin or IndoEuropean word roots. Unreasonable people!
--Nonie
"Your soul dies a little more with each one of these, doesn't it?"
Just knowing that bakers everywhere will continue wreck these words forever makes my soul sad...
But knowing Jen will pick on them makes it a bit better. ;-)
At first I thought... Wait, what is that thing on the last cake supposed to be, a test tube? Anyway, at first I thought it was Pyramid Head's Great Knife. Then again, even if it was, it would still look poorly drawn.
I think the brown one says "Conggadubliona." I think it might be a country. Maybe that day was Conggadubliona Celebration Day?
Hahahahaa! #5 looks like ConGraduloliona
Oh man... I thought this was a really, really funny day in the world of cake wrecks, and then I got this in my inbox:
"Hello Graduands, As you know, Convocation for the School of Education is Wednesday, June 2 at 3pm. Each graduand's name is read aloud to family and friends who are in attendance."
The message goes on to explain that I should send the correct pronunciation of my name to them so that they get it right ;-)
I'm a foreigner (DANISH, even!), and I can spell congratulations just fine. It's actually really sad to see just how spelling has gone down the drain for a lot of people - especially those using texting/IM English... Eugh...
Seriously. When you're at a point where most non-native English speaking college students (who probably has not spoken/written English for even half the years that these wreckers have!) write better English than a lot of adults who have English as their first language do, you KNOW it's getting bad. :P
That was supposed to be a flask of chemicals??? I thought it was a hand giving the middle finger!
The "Whatever This Says" cake has got to be one of my all-time favorites. I've decided that it says "Con Gradubliona"! Basically I nearly died laughing, especially because seeing it in type is even better than seeing it in frosting. And it just begs to be said out loud. Go ahead. Try it.