View source for Colemanballs

{{short description|Verbal gaffes}}
'''Colemanballs''' is a term coined by ''[[Private Eye (magazine)|Private Eye]]'' magazine to describe verbal [[error|gaffes]] perpetrated by [[sportscaster|sports commentators]].<ref name="bbc">[https://h2g2.com/edited_entry/A6564341 "TV and Radio Sport's Howlers"], BBC.co.uk, 16 December 2005</ref> ''Coleman'' refers to the surname of the former [[BBC]] broadcaster [[David Coleman]] and the suffix ''-balls'', as in "to balls up",<ref name="bbc"/><ref>[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/balls-up Definition of "balls up" at FreeDictionary.com]</ref> and has since spawned derivative terms in unrelated fields such as "Warballs" (spurious references to the [[September 11, 2001, attacks]]), "Dianaballs" (sentimental references to [[Diana, Princess of Wales]]), "Murrayisms" (broadcasting [[gaffe|gaffes]] by [[Murray Walker]]), and "Borisballs" ([[Boris Johnson]]). The all-encompassing term "mediaballs" has since been used by ''Private Eye'' as its coverage of gaffes has expanded.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hislop |first=Ian |title=Mediaballs |publisher=Private Eye Productions Ltd |year=2003 |pages=96pp |url=https://archive.org/details/mediaballsvol10000unse |url-access=registration |isbn=978-1-901784-33-6}}</ref>

== Background ==

The term "balls" was first associated with Coleman in 1957 when he was at [[BBC West Midlands|BBC Midlands]], [[Sutton Coldfield]], presenting a Saturday night 15-minute roundup of the day's football in the Midlands. A technical hitch occurred and there was a black-out, but Coleman could be heard calling out to the technician in the studio, "Trust you to make a balls of that." Coleman's association with these verbal slips is so strong that he is often given erroneous credit for the earliest example specifically referenced as a Colemanballs;<ref name="bbc"/> in fact the broadcaster responsible was a fellow BBC commentator, [[Ron Pickering]].<ref name="ios">[http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_20040808/ai_n12758672 "Olympic Games: Days of abandon and the one grim day they did abandon"]{{dead link|date=May 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, [[Barry Davies]], ''[[Independent on Sunday]]'', 8 August 2004 {{dead link|date=September 2010}}</ref><ref name="retire">[https://web.archive.org/web/20080915081005/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20001215/ai_n14362974 "Coleman retires without a word: it's probably safer that way"], Brian Viner, ''[[The Independent]]'', 15 December 2000 {{dead link|date=September 2010}}</ref> At the [[1976 Summer Olympics]] in [[Montreal]], Pickering commentated on a race involving the [[Cuba]]n double-[[gold medal]]list [[Alberto Juantorena]], whose muscular build and nine-foot stride contributed to his nickname ''El Caballo'' (The Horse).<ref>[http://www.olympic.org/uk/athletes/profiles/bio_uk.asp?PAR_I_ID=42129 "IOC Profile - Alberto Juantorena"], Olympic.org</ref> Pickering said "and there goes Juantorena down the back straight, opening his legs and showing his class".<ref name="ios"/>
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|"[[Damien Hirst]] tends to use everyday objects like [[The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living|a shark in formaldehyde]]."<ref>Colemanballs 10, 2000, p 65</ref>{{Attribution needed|date=October 2025}}
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Until his retirement, [[motor racing]] commentator [[Murray Walker]] frequently featured in the column. His excitable delivery led to so many mistakes that they began to be labelled "Murrayisms".<ref name="bbc"/>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]).|date=September 2024}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Noble |first=Jonathan |last2=Duxbury |first2=Anna |date=2021-03-13 |title=The magic moments that made Murray Walker an F1 legend |url=https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/the-magic-moments-that-made-murray-walker-an-f1-legend/5715348/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406103635/https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/the-magic-moments-that-made-murray-walker-an-f1-legend/5715348/ |archive-date=2023-04-06 |access-date=2024-09-19 |website=[[motorsport.com]] |publisher=[[Motorsport Network]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Eurosport |date=2021-03-13 |title=Funniest ever Murrayisms: A tribute to the great Murray Walker |url=https://www.eurosport.com/formula-1/funniest-ever-murrayisms-a-tribute-to-the-great-murray-walker_sto3958254/story.shtml |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211027064533/https://www.eurosport.com/formula-1/funniest-ever-murrayisms-a-tribute-to-the-great-murray-walker_sto3958254/story.shtml |archive-date=2021-10-27 |access-date=2024-09-19 |website=[[Eurosport]] |publisher=[[TNT Sports]] (owned by [[Warner Bros. Discovery]])}}</ref> Examples include "We've had cars going off left, right and centre", "do my eyes deceive me, or is [[Ayrton Senna|Senna]]'s [[Team Lotus|Lotus]] sounding rough?", "with half of the race gone, there is half of the race still to go", "There is nothing wrong with the car, apart from that it is on fire", "That car is totally unique, apart from the car behind it, which is identical", and "The gap between them is now nine-tenths of a second; that's less than a second!".

''Private Eye''{{'}}s "Colemanballs" column has now expanded to include occasional quotes from sportsmen themselves (e.g. [[Frank Bruno]]'s "That's cricket, Harry, you get these sort of things in boxing"), politicians ([[John Major]]'s "When your back's against the wall it's time to turn round and fight"), and [[malapropism]]s from other public figures.
<!-- seems to be nothing to do with colemanballs. if sourced to Private Eye, or to a reliable source specifically discussing Private Eye, it would be valid
In terms of classification of the individual examples, these fall into a number of distinct groups including: [[tautology (grammar)|tautologies]] such as "Stronsay is an island surrounded by sea" and Coleman's own "He's 31 this year &ndash; last year he was 30"; unintentional juxtapositions where the viewer or listener knows what is meant such as "Brendan Foster, by himself, with 20,000 people", or "I am not a man of faith, but my wife is"; and complete nonsense such as "Here they come, every colour of the rainbow: black, white, brown". Others include the addition of pointless words or ''[[Non sequitur (logic)|non sequitur]]s'', intended to add effect, as in:  "He came in from the outfield there like an absolute rabbit". Yet another group is that of unintended [[pun]]s, such as "There were 150 drug-related deaths in Glasgow last year, an all-time high".{{fact}}-->

In the United States, [[Jerry Coleman]], a former baseball player not related to David Coleman, became known for similar statements as an announcer, such as, "[[Rich Folkers]] is throwing up in the bullpen",<ref name="Almanac" /> and "[[Dave Winfield|Winfield]] goes back to the wall, he hits his head on the wall! And it rolls off! It's rolling all the way back to second base. This is a terrible thing for the Padres."<ref name="Almanac">''[[Baseball Almanac]]''. [http://www.baseball-almanac.com/quotes/quocole.shtml "Jerry Coleman Quotes"]. 6 January 2014. Retrieved on 27 May 2014.</ref> In spite of these statements, which earned him the nickname "The Master of the [[Malaprop]]", he was honored by the [[Baseball Hall of Fame]] with the [[Ford Frick Award]], their lifetime achievement award for announcers.

== Books ==
A series of Colemanballs [[Book|books]] has been published by ''Private Eye''. As of 2025, 15 editions have been released.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Colemanballs Series by Barry Fantoni |url=https://www.goodreads.com/series/158556-colemanballs |access-date=2025-07-06 |website=www.goodreads.com}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Damaging quotation]]
* [[Malapropism]]
* [[Yogiisms]]
* [[Bushism]]

== Footnotes ==
{{Reflist}}


{{Private Eye}}

[[Category:British humour]]
[[Category:Private Eye]]
[[Category:1980s neologisms]]
[[Category:Speech error]]
[[Category:Terms for quotations of notable persons]]