Word Play
Many of the names of characters and places in this album are puns in Brussels dialect:
- Ben Kalish Ezab – kalische zap, liquorice juice
- Bir El Ambik – bière lambic, a type of Belgian beer
- Yussuf Ben Mulfrid – moules-frites, a Belgian dish consisting of French fries with mussels
- Bab El Ehr – babbeleer, chatterer
- the Well of Bir Kegg – beer keg
- Wadesdah; What is that?
- Hasch Abaibabi; Hush-a-bye baby
"Boum !", the iconic song by Charles Trenet, appears in parody as the car breakdown repair company's advertising jingle, which plays on Thomson and Thompson's car radio at the very beginning of the story.
Read more about this topic: Land Of Black Gold
Famous quotes containing the words word and/or play:
“What satire on government can equal the severity of censure conveyed in the word politic, which now for the ages has signified cunning, intimating that the state is a trick?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Mr. [John] Barrymore’s smile was the smile of an actor who hates actors, and who knows that he is going to kill two or three before the play is over. I am not an actor-killer, but I like my Hamlets to dislike actors, if you know what I mean, and I think you don’t.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)