What is the meaning of the expression 'nice to wheat you'?

Question

According to OxfordDictionaries.com, the word 'wheat' can be only a noun. However, in a scene from the television cartoon Rick and Morty, it was used as a verb in the phrase "nice to wheat you".

What is the meaning of the expression 'nice to wheat you'? (my guess is 'to ground you to the powder')
Is it an idiom?

Perhaps it was "nice to eat you" - (said the spider to the fly). — WS2, May 1 '17 at 21:01
Definitely a pun f*** you very much which is very close to thank you very much for getting me into much trouble. — Yuri, May 2 '17 at 10:54

relaxing · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-01 21:05:03Z

25

It's a pun, not correct English.

The proper idiom is "Nice to meet you" but the character is throwing wheat crackers, so he substitutes the rhyming word (meet/wheat) to make a joke.

answered May 1 '17 at 21:05

relaxing

2,3467 silver badges13 bronze badges

8

Either wheat crackers, or wheat cereal. (I'm not sure which it is, but either one explains the corny pun.) – J.R.♦ May 1 '17 at 21:06
6

@J.R. If you want to get technical, they're Wheat Thins :) – relaxing May 1 '17 at 21:07
1

I'll take your word for it. (It just looked like cereal to me, the way they were stacked up in that bowl.) – J.R.♦ May 1 '17 at 21:09
2

They mention the brand in the cartoon: youtube.com/watch?v=jRB6GkFPt18 – relaxing May 1 '17 at 21:11
4

I would not call an intentional pun on the part of the speaker a malapropism. In the case of fiction, the intent that matters is the character's, not the writer(s); Sheridan presumably intentionally created all of Mrs Malaprop's substitutions, even if she was unaware of the errors in the context of the play. In this case, both the screenwriters and the character intend the pun, so it is not a malapropism. – 1006a May 2 '17 at 3:03

| show 8 more comments

1 Answer 1