Cleveland, OH—

Former Speaker of the House John Boehner made a startling admission this morning on a Reddit-sponsored Ask Me Anything (AMA), announcing that, yes, his name really should have been pronounced “Boner” all this time.

“It’s German, so it was originally pronounced a different way, but, when my ancestors came over to America a century and three-quarters ago, it was pronounced ‘Boner’ by all the original Ohioans living in the small town my great, great, great, great grandparents moved to,” Boehner wrote. “Of course, back then the word ‘boner’ wasn’t a dick joke yet, and my ancestors were of polite, hard-working German stock so they just rolled with it. I believe my grandparents were the first ones to change the pronunciation, but their parents were against the idea because the family had built up the ‘Boner’ reputation and everybody loved us ‘Boners.’”

The AMA then shifted to other topics, but talk about years’ worth of wasted newspaper headline joke opportunities.

(Picture courtesy of Gage Skidmore.)

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