Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Classic Singaporean Jokes

These jokes are so classic, I think many people in my generation haven’t even heard of them. You can trace their origins to my father’s generation. This is a tribute to our nation's addiction to shorten everything....but have you ever wondered what those acronyms REALLY stand for?

I’m sure most people know the political ones:
PAP (People's Action Party) = Pay and Pay (I’m sure it’s a reference to the countless fines imposed for each offence one can think of)
WP (Workers' Party) = Why Pay?
SDP (Social Democratic Party) = So Don’t Pay

But here are the everyday (but no less political) ones:

PUB (Public Utilities Board ) = Pay Until Broke
PWD (Public Works Department) = Purposely Wanna Dig
TAS (Telephone Authority of Singapore - the predecessor of Telecoms) = Telephone Always Spoil
JTC (Jurong Town Corporation ) = Jokers’ Training College
SBS (Singapore Bus Service ) = See Buay Slow or See Buay Squeezy
SDU (Singapore Development Unit) = Single, Desperate, Ugly or So Damn Ugly
MRTC (MRT Corporation - the predecessor of SMRT ) More Road Tax Coming

I tried my hand at this, and here’s what I came up with:

HDB (Housing Development Board ) = House Dem Big (it’s sarcastic, lah)
MOE (Ministry of Education) = Mugging Only Everytime
ISD (Internal Security Department) = Increased Security Demanded!
MINDEF (MINistry of DEFence) = MINute DEtails also Fret
LTA (Land Transport Authority ) = Later Then Act (jam sommore, nehmine)
GST (Goods and Services Tax ) = Going Soon, Ten (percent lah,)
NEA (National Environment Agency) = Newater Enough Already
SMRT (Singapore Mass Rapid Transit) = Some More Road Tax?!

Vote your favourite acronym! 2 awards to be given:
1. Best classic Singaporean acronym
2. Best newcomer Singaporean acronym

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