It probably happens everywhere just as much as it happens in Duluth. Someone intentionally replaces the name of a well-known person, place or thing with a similar sounding word or words, almost always in a belittling way, and other people think it’s funny and repeat it.

There should be a list of those, right? Well, here it is.

Dull-youth – Duluth
Inferior – Superior
Siberior – Superior
Two Hardboards – Two Harbors
Norse Whore Theatre – NorShor Theatre
Cowhart Hall – Crownhart Hall at UW-Superior
Satan’s Residence – St. Ann’s Residence
Fondle-youth Casino – Fond-du-Luth Casino
Wanker Bar – Anchor Bar
Android Hotel – Androy Hotel
The Qweef – Reef Bar
Seedy Lounge – Cedar Lounge
Krawl-on-Out – Kom-on-Inn
Ski Slut – Ski Hut (“Pizza Slut” for Pizza Hut is more common, but not specifically local)
Cakeside – Lakeside
West to Lose – West Duluth
Dumbfeld – Denfeld High School
Ordeal Middle School – Ordean Middle School

And below are a few that refer to local operations that no longer exist.

Electric Penis – Electric Fetus
Center for Personal Fatness – Center for Personal Fitness
The Clap Room – The Tap Room at Fitger’s
Phallus Bar – Palace Bar
The Limplifter – The Lamplighter (strip club now known as Lady Vi’s).
The Crappy – Capri Bar
The Debris – Capri Bar
Shoppers’ City – Shopper Shitty

These lists were largely built from an older list published on PDD in 2003. There were likely many suggestions that were added in the comments back then, but the platform that supported comments in the early days of blogging eventually folded and the comments were lost. So the list we have here is an effort to start over. If you’ve got a new one or an oldie not mentioned here, spout off in the comments.

Also, if you have any sense of what terminology could be used to describe this kind of twisting of nouns, please share. They don’t really seem to be puns or alliterations or malapropisms or catachreses exactly, but they are kind of like those things. The term we have most recently landed on, based on initial comments, is “brand parody.”