Colemanballs Totally Explained

Everything about Colemanballs totally explained

Colemanballs is a term coined by Private Eye magazine to describe verbal gaffes perpetrated by (usually British) sports commentators. It is derived from the surname of the now retired BBC broadcaster David Coleman and the suffix -balls, as in "to balls up", and has since spawned derivative terms in unrelated fields such as "Warballs" (spurious references to the September 11, 2001 attacks) and "Dianaballs" (sentimental references to Diana, Princess of Wales). Any other subject can be covered, as long as it's appropriately suffixed by -balls.

Background

Coleman's association with these verbal slips is so strong that he's often given erroneous credit for the earliest example specifically referenced as a Colemanball; At the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal Pickering commentated on a race involving Cuban double-gold medallist Alberto Juantorena, whose muscular build and nine-foot stride contributed to his nickname El Caballo (the horse). Pickering said "and there goes Juantorena down the back straight, opening his legs and showing his class.", although this may be apocryphal.

Books

Private Eye has issued compilations of Colemanballs in book form

Footnotes

Further Information

Get more info on 'Colemanballs'.

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