back to article Yahoo! News confused on theft of Lego giraffe's todger

Editors at Yahoo News are either horribly bad at anatomy or have a better sense of humor than they're given credit for. Or maybe both. How else to explain an article on the UK version of the site reporting the repeated theft of a 30 cm penis from a Lego giraffe at a Berlin tourist attraction? At time of writing, it read: …

COMMENTS

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  1. Mike 119
    Happy

    lol

    that is all.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm guessing...

    ...this is just a translation problem since Schwanz means both tail and dick in German.

  3. Robert Ramsay
    Boffin

    and talking of prosaic...

    The German word "schwanz" means "tail" and is also a slang term for penis.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    @Mike 119

    that'd be "lots of lego" then?

  5. Glen 9
    Happy

    OMGWTFBBQ

    that is all.

  6. Alan Esworthy
    Coat

    gender error

    "Tail", after all, is a common vulgar euphemism for *female* play gear, not male.

    [mine has Johnson outboard]

  7. SirTainleyBarking
    IT Angle

    Thats a lot of plastic

    "It takes model workers about one week to restore the long-necked animal's manhood at a cost of 3,000 euros (2,600 pounds), the spokeswoman said"

    a 12" plastic animal appendage? I'm sure that a *Ahem* "Friend" says that Ann Summers sell them for a lot cheaper than that. And they come with batteries.

  8. Player_16
    Thumb Up

    I'm gonna wait for the full ERECTION...

    ... on Playmobil!!

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    I can't help but think that

    The next one will be build with an erector set.

    Coat and AC for a reason

  10. thomas k.

    Uh-uh

    Not going to touch this one.

  11. Allan George Dyer

    Blame the translation software...

    Penis in Latin means tail, and it was a polite euphemism that became the standard term.

    However, the elaboration in the articles points to over-excited journalists. Didn't they think to question why a statue made of rectangular bricks at a children's theme park featured such an anatomical detail... or is this the Lego Reproductive Biology theme park?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Don't look Ethel

    Too late, she looked...

  13. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    2600 pound dick

    A 2600 pound dick? There's a joke there somewhere....

    Welp, machine translation FTW.

  14. Steve Evans
    Coat

    Hmmm...

    "A more prosaic version"... Surely you mean "A more mosaic version"

    Mine's the one with the lego technic racing car in the pocket.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    The whole truth revealed here (warning! explicit graphical content linked!)

    You might check here for a picture, revealing the whole truth:

    http://www.dnews.de/kuriosa/101806/schwanz-von-lego-giraffe-in-berlin-gestohlen.html

    So, sorry Paris, it was all just a misunderstanding...

  16. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    There are some problems with your comment

    "It takes model workers about one week to restore the long-necked animal's manhood at a cost of 3,000 euros (2,600 pounds)"

    I'm in the wrong job. 130K a year, to make one 'tail' a week!

    AC 'cause I don't want my boss to find out and apply for the same job.

  17. Geoff Johnson

    Nano lego?

    From one of the links... "The tail is made out of 15,000 Lego bricks..."

    That's a lot of bricks for 30 cm.

  18. Neil Barnes Silver badge

    This picture from last year

    http://www.reisenews-online.de/2008/07/11/lego-giraffe-ohne-schwanz/ rather suggests it is the posterior rather than the anterior appendage which is being removed.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    15,000?

    In the way the story has been garbled by bad translation and sloppy journalism I think that the 15,000 and cost of over £2,600 is for the whole giraffe not the "tail".

  20. Chris King
    WTF?

    What ARE these people smoking ?

    "The centre is now erecting a metal construction to protect the giraffe's genitalia"

    Does that mean they're building a codpiece for this monstrosity ?

    Surely it would be easier to rebuild the giraffe as a female, but then you'd only end up with drunken revellers trying to mount it...

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    As others have said

    This is happenning in a country where Tail is a slang word for Dick.

  22. Mr Larrington
    Paris Hilton

    Is it...

    ...a tail or a no-tail, Edward?

    Paris, coz she knows the difference.

  23. Elmer Phud

    Come again

    ""It's a popular souvenir," a spokeswoman for the centre said Tuesday. "It's been stolen four times now ...""

    Much more and Lego will be selling a Giraffe Knob set due to popular demand.

    That and the version with little servos.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    The protective construction

    Surely a "wood"-en construction would be better?! Or maybe something made from rubber-latex should be used as 'protection'?!

  25. Fred Flintstone Gold badge
    Coat

    This story's flaws are in ..

    .. de-tail.

    Mine's the one with the German dictionary, thanks.

  26. Gav
    Thumb Down

    A better sense of humour??

    "a better sense of humor than they're given credit for."

    So they, like, replaced the word "tail" with the word "penis". Genius! Good job they didn't call it its willy, otherwise I fear my sides may have split with mirth.

    Who would have thought that wit was so easy supplied through use of a find/replace dialog? I guess if your sense of humour is arrested at age 12, life just must be a riot of easy lols.

  27. Simon B
    Grenade

    HOW MUCH?!!!

    It takes model workers about one week to restore the long-necked animal's manhood at a cost of 3,000 euros (2,600 pounds) - HOW MUCH?!!! a 30cm piece of lego building costing £2600 you're having a laugh ffs! It's not exactly something that;s gonna take months to build, useless!!

  28. Jay Louvion
    FAIL

    Manhood...

    ...for a giraffe ? Really ?

  29. david 63

    Superglue

    that's all

  30. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    "The tail is made out of 15,000 Lego bricks..."

    No I do not think so!

    That is just not a very likely number! First of all the tail is 30 cm and the bricks are most likely not "Lego" bricks - they appear to be Lego "Duplo" bricks on the picture...

    Anyway some-one is not telling the whole truth as even if you were to make a tail with the small Lego bricks (which it does not seem to be in the picture) it would be impossible to fit 15000 bricks into a space 30 cm tall - even if you made it a solid cube shape!

    People are just making things up as they go perhaps? And the numbers presented in this article are just so much more fun then the missjudgement of what got stolen...

    ... I for one would like to see any evidence for where those 15000 bricks actually are supposed to go...

  31. Field Marshal Von Krakenfart
    Coat

    May I be first to say

    what a load of bollocks

  32. lukewarmdog

    model workers

    It's staffed by lego people?

  33. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Having a Giraffe?

    "...the giraffe's genitalia. (Reporting by Caroline Copley, editing by Tim Pearce)"

    Two names we won't be seeing again for a while, then.

    Still, it's a big job for those little 2-inch guys to climb up a 6m giraffe to do the repair. Think of the health and safety.

  34. northern monkey

    @Simon B

    Have you seen the admission cost for legoland!! The money has to be going somewhere, and now we learn it's replacing missing body parts.

  35. Francis Boyle Silver badge

    Here in Australia

    we avoid these embarrassing mistranslation problems by going straight for the, er, bollocks -

    http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/from-horse-tails-to-sex-dolls-were-a-weird-thieving-mob-20090814-ek8z.html

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    o'rly, a metal wanger hanger

    Hard to believe they've got up to such tricks...

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