A little bit pregnant?
So, as some of you may know, I’m not a native English speaker. I’m certainly no native American speaker, even less than English. Today’s Dilbert leaves me bewildered – I was pretty sure I knew what the expression “a little bit pregnant” meant. There’s a similar expression in (my native language) German, and a Google search for “a little bit pregnant” doesn’t reveal anything I wouldn’t have expected. But that comic strip doesn’t make the least bit of sense to me… anybody care to explain?
If it’s any consolation, I’m a native American English speaker and I don’t understand the cartoon either.
Comment by Eric Bergman-Terrell — 28/11/2006 @ 3:53 am - 1 year, 10 months ago
Good to hear
Comment by Oliver Sturm — 28/11/2006 @ 9:36 am - 1 year, 10 months ago
Well… I found this blog as a result of my search attempt on google… to find the meaning of "a little bit pregnant". Another search result just above this blog entry was Yahoo Answers and there were some explanations there. Although the question is still open and will be closed in another couple of days.
From what I have gathered, the term is used to express affirmation I believe… One is either totally pregnant or totally not pregnant! So probably The Boss wanted Asok to confirm if the customer was in for the deal or not! or may be it was intended to confuse the customer… regardless, Asok, being in the same boat as you and me, went in for a genuine attempt
Hope it helps! Hehe!
Comment by Burhan Habib — 29/11/2006 @ 7:22 am - 1 year, 10 months ago
After same searches, I raeched the same conclusion.Except for the Boss request, which was, I guess, to try to explain the customer that lihe is neighter black nor white, and to force her to accept an impossible compromise on the bad performance of anything made by the Company…
But, like all of you, I am not native American (only French), so it’s all assumptions.
Comment by psam — 29/11/2006 @ 10:29 am - 1 year, 10 months ago
I’d say that two characteristics of Dilbert’s boss is (1)he is completely clueless; and (2)He uses to make bad analogies. So, he is very likely to use an expression like "you can’t get just a little bit pregnant" improperly and tell Asok: "Make our client a little bit pregnant". I agree with psam: probably the boss wanted Asok to convince the costumer of something impossible.
Cluelessness example: Once he asked Dilbert to put the company database to work on the e-mail system.
Bad analogy example: When Dilbert told him that he needed to know the requirements for the new project in order to make a design, the boss said to him: "That’s like saying you can’t play on the beach unless you know how many grains of sand there are".
Comment by Alvaro Arraes — 29/11/2006 @ 4:12 pm - 1 year, 10 months ago
Hm… I understand your comments and I agree with the assessments of Dilbert’s boss
Problem is, why would he ask Asok to "make the client a little bit pregnant"? That does still not conform with any meaning of "a little bit pregnant" that I heard of so far. Of course that could just be the point here, but then I don’t see how that would be funny… plus, the last image of the strip seems to point to the fact that the misunderstanding is supposedly on Asok’s side, not on the side of the boss. I mean, I see how Asok is taking the whole thing literally, but I still can’t understand what the point is, as the boss is apparently making this totally useless and meaningless request in the first place. Hm…
Comment by Oliver Sturm — 29/11/2006 @ 4:27 pm - 1 year, 10 months ago
I think that what he was saying was to get the client interested (a little bit pregnant) before they realised what they had signed up for. (the whole 9 months!)
Not a classic though.
Comment by Stu — 30/11/2006 @ 8:54 am - 1 year, 10 months ago
Stu - I understand and I assume you’re right. If only anybody had ever said something like that before, so we could find it in Google
Not a classic, no.
Comment by Oliver Sturm — 30/11/2006 @ 9:24 am - 1 year, 10 months ago
probably just means, to load her with some work or may be trouble.
Comment by bugs — 30/11/2006 @ 5:33 pm - 1 year, 10 months ago
Pregnant also means convincing , so get our customer a little bit convinced.
Comment by Chano Pedersen — 21/12/2006 @ 2:13 pm - 1 year, 9 months ago
well i’m here in india .. and just the same comic strip appear in the paper today.. maybe they appear a little later here than in the west its December 22 here and I see its been over month since this discussion started.. and i googled the same phrase ..and WHOLA!!! not only do i find some explanations about the phrase …but the context is the same ..the same strip…well i am little pregnant…hehehe … it’ll help to get some native americans to comment on this…
Comment by daindivin — 22/12/2006 @ 11:41 am - 1 year, 9 months ago
Unfortunately the link to the cartoon is down so I can’t really comment.
Comment by Giving Birth World — 11/9/2007 @ 1:37 pm - 1 year, 1 month ago
I’m an American, and I assumed the boss meant something like get her interested or ready before the official meeting, but I also wasn’t familiar with the term, and my dad has never seen it used that way.
Comment by Darya — 13/11/2007 @ 6:58 pm - 11 months, 1 week ago
I am not sure myself
Comment by Maternity Wear — 19/1/2008 @ 3:36 pm - 9 months ago
‘A little bit pregnant’ is just a joke - the joke is that it is impossible to be a little bit pregnant.. you either are or you aren’t!
Comment by Anna — 27/1/2008 @ 8:03 am - 8 months, 3 weeks ago
I found this page in google and I do not get it as well.
Comment by Joe — 19/2/2008 @ 11:38 am - 7 months, 4 weeks ago