tighty whities (or tidy whities?) in birdman

last weekend at the 87th academy awards, mexican director alejandro gonzalez iñárritu won the award for best director.

alejandro gonzalez iñarritu wining the oscar for best director.

during his acceptance speech, he talked about his good luck charm (an item that attracts good luck)

tonight I am wearing the real michael keaton tighty-whities. thank u. they are tight, smell like balls….but it worked. i’m here. thank u, michael.

keaton levitating in tidy whities
the former birdman levitating & meditating in his tighty whities (foxsearchlight)

there is some disagreement about how to write the underpants mentioned. sometimes they are called tidy whities. perhaps the solid white color gives the idea that they are clean, but they don’t always look tidy or white.

tightywhitey
joe lee from true blood demonstrating that tidy whities aren’t always tidy. or white.

most of the media reported iñarritu’s oscar speech using the phrase tighty whities, most likely because he described keaton’s underpants as tight.

the confusion in spelling is also casued by another phonetic phenomenon in amercian english: a t between two vowel sounds is often pronounced more like a d than a t. words like better, tomato, fighter, waited, later, little, matter, metal, hater and getting, are good examples of this. for this reason tidy and tighty sound the same in this underpants expression.

inarritu best director
iñarritu thanking michael keaton for lending him his tighty-whities, that smell like balls(abcnews)

iñarritu’s mention that keaton’s drawers (another name for underwear) smell like balls (testicles) may be an obvious observation given the tight fit of tighty whities in the crotch area (between the legs). it is a reference to a line in the movie as well, that appears at the :08 of the trailer

also interesting in the trailer–

the first words are

how did we end up here?

end up is a common phrasal verb that indicates a more detailed process than just end or finish.

fun efl practice :) richyrocks english on youtube

at :30, keaton is referred to as a washed-up comic book character. washed-up means that his talent and fame have disappeared.

keaton tighty whities
washed-up super hero in his tighty whities (foxsearchlight)

finally,

we should have done that reality show they offered us

can be heard at :45 and shows regret for not accepting that opportunity.

do u know any other words that contain a t that sounds like a d? did u see birdman?  what did u think?  share your comments under leave a reply


 

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