Sometimes children misunderstand language with hilarious results. But sometimes even adults can be tripped up by homonyms. Working behind the seafood counter in a supermarket, John from San Diego, California, had some embarrassing miscommunications when customers were looking for crab crackers and lox. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Crab Crackers Misunderstanding”
You know, we often talk on the show about kids misunderstanding this word or that,
but as you get older, sometimes you still have misunderstandings,
particularly in the case of homonyms.
And we heard a great example of actually a couple of examples from John Rodriguez,
who lives here in San Diego, California.
He writes, my first job was in the seafood department of a local grocery store.
I was young and inexperienced, and I didn’t want to show how nervous I really was.
One day a customer came up to me, opening and closing her hand repeatedly, and asked,
do you carry crab crackers?
I was so wet behind the ears, I said, I’m not sure, but you can definitely find oyster crackers on the soup aisle.
It wasn’t until later I realized crab crackers are tools used to crack the shell of a crab.
Not a thing that you eat with crab, but a thing that you crack a crab with.
Yes.
And then he continues, another day a customer asked me, do you carry lox?
You’d think the boy behind the seafood counter would know that lox is cured salmon.
I thought to myself and said, you can find lox on the hardware aisle?
And he said when he thinks back to those moments, he laughs about it now that he tried to help and technically gave honest answers.
He says, miscommunication makes the best comedy sometimes, and those two moments will always bring me joy.
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