Refudiate, Propulgate, Malaprop, Portmanteau, Art, Life
I realize I make this connection very, very late in the game, but it occurred to me this afternoon just how uncanny it is that Aaron Sorkin*, in The West Wing, prefigured Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's portmanteau malaprop "refudiate".
In the episode titled "Disaster Relief", fictional Vice President "Bingo Bob" Russell uses the word "propulgate" at a conference at the White House in the Roosevelt Room.
From the West Wing script:
In the episode titled "Disaster Relief", fictional Vice President "Bingo Bob" Russell uses the word "propulgate" at a conference at the White House in the Roosevelt Room.
From the West Wing script:
VP Russell (played by Gary Cole): Excuse me, Toby, if I may. You're right, Congressman. If we lower cap gains taxes, we reward the small business owners who took a risk for the economy and I'd be the first in line to pat 'em on the back, but the thing is, the Speaker is trying to "propulgate" a tax bill onto an appropriations package. We start allowing that, we're never going to get budgets passed.
[Leo, Toby, and Will look confused at the VP's word choice.
* * *
CUT TO: INT. - WHITE HOUSE - HALLWAY - DAY
Leo and Will are walking through the hallway.]
LEO [con.] (played by John Spencer): ... although I'm pretty sure there's no such word as "propulgate". Maybe he meant "propagate", or "promulgate".
--The West Wing, from the episode titled Disaster Relief
The fact that the two neologisms rhyme is icing on the cake.
*Credit for the prophetic malaprop perhaps should go to Alexa Junge, author of the teleplay.
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Written By
Alexa Junge
Story By
Alexa Junge &
Lauren Schmidt
Directed by
Lesli Linka Glatter