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Notable users[edit]
U.S. presidents who have used this pronunciation include Dwight D. Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush [11] as well as U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale.[12] In his 2005 book, Going Nucular, linguist Geoffrey Nunberg suggests that the reasons underlying the differing pronunciations of this word may be different from president to president. Whereas Eisenhower's pronunciation most likely arose from his lack of familiarity with the word (having first learned it in mid-life), Bush's usage may represent a calculated effort to appeal to populist sentiment,[13] though this theory is rejected by linguist Steven Pinker.[12] This analysis is repeated in the second edition of Charles Harrington Elster's The Big Book Of Beastly Mispronunciations.[9]
Oxford Professor Marcus du Sautoy was heard to use it in a BBC documentary.[14] The actor and narrator Orson Welles said "nucular" while speaking at the 1982 "No Nukes" rally in New York City's Central Park.[citation needed]
Edward Teller, "father" of the American hydrogen bomb, supposedly used this particular pronunciation, and this usage is a limited tradition within the American nuclear research establishment.[15] However, a clip from a 1965 interview with Teller on the ill-fated Project Plowshare seems to contradict this claim.[16]
Uses in fiction[edit]
In Woody Allen's 1989 film Crimes and Misdemeanors, Mia Farrow's character says she could never fall for any man who says "nucular."[17] The pronunciation was satirized in the 1996 science fiction film Mars Attacks!. Later, the pronunciation was utilized earnestly by the titular character in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull after Indiana survives an atomic bomb test by crawling inside a lead-lined refrigerator. This pronunciation was also used in the 2012 animated family film Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted.[18]
Homer Simpson (a nuclear power plant employee) of the popular American animated TV series The Simpsons[19] and Peter Griffin of the animated comedy series Family Guy both pronounce nuclear this way (during the episode "Da Boom," Peter 'corrects' Lois Griffin's correct pronunciation of the word).[20]
In the video game Starcraft II, the Ghost exclaims "Nucular launch detected" if he is clicked on repeatedly.
This bothers me immensely
originally posted by: hutch622
a reply to: Greathouse
Probably not a thread for an Australian , aye .
It's amazing how quickly it changes too, go back, say 50 years and listen to how Australians talked..the King's English is very present.