Overheards #7 - Heil Pacino

Overheards are where you overhear a stranger in public say something amusing. This is more of an over-conversed, because it took place during a group conversation that I was a part of, and I knew the other people involved.

In 2002, I had quit my job and returned to education to gain a new qualification, an HND in Computing, in order to help me change my career. There were a few other older students like myself on the same course, but most were typical 18-21 college age students. During one tutorial session, we were in a computer room typing up our project work, and since the tutor wasn't teaching or speaking, there were various chatty conversations going on in the classroom. A conversation between three of us older students and a college age student called Darryl, went from talking about films and onto the subject of World War Two.

"What's that thing the Germans used to do with their arm and the A-HOO-HAA?", asked Darryl, sounding a bit like Al Pacino in 'Scent of a Woman'.

The rest of us just stared at Darryl, completely puzzled as to what he meant.

"You know, the Nazi arm raising thing, where they say A-HOO-HAA, or something!", continued Darryl with less confidence, raising his right arm up straight.

"You mean the Hitler salute, where they say Heil Hitler?", someone asked, almost in disbelief.

"Oh, is that what they say, Heil Hitler?" said Darryl, looking slightly embarrassed.

The rest of us then fell about laughing in absolute hysterics at how he could mistake "Heil Hitler" for "A-HOO-HAA", and the thought of how ridiculuous the Nazis would have seemed if the Hitler salute had actually been "A-HOO-HAA!" Darryl saw the funny side as well.