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5 Worst Typos of History

2011-12-05 · list · John · 3:21 · watch on YouTube

Topic: History & curiosities (also: Books & writing) · mode: Curiosity & trivia · tags: self promotion, community lore

Formerly titled The 5 Worst Typos Ever.

Having found a typo in the finished copy of The Fault in Our Stars (Gaiman's Law), John counts down his five favourite typos in history, from The Pasta Bible to the 1631 'commit adultery' Bible, noting people have lamented bad proofreading for centuries; he admits the list was a way to ask forgiveness for his own typo and points to signed pre-orders.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The finished copy of The Fault in Our Stars arrives; back-cover blurbs from Zusak, Picoult and Lockhart

  • ★★★ John shows the finished copy of The Fault in Our Stars that came in the mail, one of the few unsigned copies. — 00:00:03 · The Fault in Our Stars
  • ★ John notes the book's back cover carries quotes from Markus Zusak, Jodi Picoult and E. Lockhart; Zusak calls it John Green at his best. — 00:00:12 · The Fault in Our Stars
  • ★ John thanks Markus Zusak for the blurb and, more importantly, for writing The Book Thief. — 00:00:20

00:00:29 — Gaiman's Law: John finds a typo in the book's author's note; introduces his top five typos

  • ★★ John explains Gaiman's Law, named for Neil Gaiman: an author who opens a book they wrote will inevitably find a typo. — 00:00:29 · Gaiman's Law

    “if an author opens a book he or she wrote, he or she will inevitably come across a typo”

  • ★★ Gaiman's Law held again: John found what he thinks is the book's only typo, in the author's note, immediately. (hedged) — 00:00:29 · The Fault in Our Stars, Gaiman's Law

00:00:51 — Countdown: The Pasta Bible, the name Imogen, the Washington Post FDR headline, the Constitution's its/it's, the 1631 and 1716 King James Bible misprints

  • ★★ John says The Pasta Bible had a tagliatelle recipe calling for salt and ground black 'people' instead of pepper, so the publisher destroyed every copy it could find. — 00:00:51
  • ★★ John says the name Imogen comes from Shakespeare's Cymbeline and is probably a transcription error for Innogen, so Imogen Heap's name rests on a typo. (hedged) — 00:00:51 · Imogen
  • ★★ John's favourite headline: the Washington Post printed that FDR was in bed with a 'coed' instead of a cold; FDR asked for 100 copies, but they had been pulped. — 00:01:37
  • ★ John adds that Franklin Delano Roosevelt did have a lot of affairs, though never with a coed. — 00:01:37
  • ★★ John says the US Constitution's clause barring states from taxing imports and exports writes 'it's' where the possessive 'its' is meant. — 00:01:37
  • ★★ John insists that 'it's' with an apostrophe is only for the contraction of 'it is', and is outraged that the Constitution gets it wrong. — 00:01:37
  • ★★★ John says that in 1631 two printers making a new King James Bible left 'not' out of the seventh commandment, so it read 'thou shalt commit adultery'. — 00:02:18
  • ★★ John quotes the Archbishop of Canterbury lamenting that great care was once taken in printing, Bibles especially. — 00:02:40
  • ★★★ John concludes that people have been declaring the decline of good proofreading for five centuries. — 00:02:40
  • ★★ John says the printers were fined, as were those behind a 1716 King James Bible in which Jesus tells an adulterous woman 'go and sin on more'. — 00:02:40

00:03:08 — Forgive me for any mistakes; pre-order signed copies via the doobly-doo; sign-off

Humor (significant)

  • The Pasta Bible's tagliatelle recipe calls for salt and ground black... — 00:00:51

    “People. They meant pepper, but they wrote people.”

  • John reads his favourite Washington Post headline, 'FDR in bed with...' — 00:01:37

    “Coed. Cold. They meant cold. But they wrote Coed.”

  • After shouting at the Constitution's 'it's' where the possessive 'its' is meant, John proposes a fix. — 00:02:18

    “I think Amendment 28 should be, we acknowledge that earlier in this very Constitution we screwed up its and its and we are sorry.”

  • In 1631 printers of a new King James Bible left 'not' out of the seventh commandment, so it read 'thou shalt...' — 00:02:40

    “commit adultery.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: The Fault in Our Stars · typographical error

Also: People: Archbishop of Canterbury (1630s, unnamed) · Franklin Delano Roosevelt · Imogen Heap · Markus Zusak · William Shakespeare

Works: Bible · Constitution of the United States · Cymbeline · King James Version · The Book Thief · The Pasta Bible

Organizations: The Washington Post

Terms: Gaiman's Law · giant squid of anger · Imogen

Concepts: declinism · linguistic prescription

Myths: Jesus

Only in the description or credits: E. Lockhart · Jodi Picoult · Neil Gaiman

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