WII WII WII, ALL THE WAY HOME

Okay, what marketing idiot at Nintendo came up with the name "Wii" for an American game system? Do you know what that sounds like? ("Wee.")

Or should I say, what marketing genius came up with it? Because people buy them. Alan, age sixteen, is very happy that he camped out in the Target parking lot and got his when they first came out, because apparently they are still hard to find. Who would have thought that teenage boys would find it cool to play with something called a Wii?

The name leads to lots of fun jokes. When are they coming out with a smaller model? (The "Wee-Wii.")

When asked where Alan is, my husband loves to say that he's "at home playing with his Wii." Luckily, Alan finds this funny. Fred also loves the typical response, which is, he says, "He HAS one?"

So, are Americans kindly overlooking Japanese ignorance of the subtleties of English language, accepting the Wii in spite of its ridiculous, double-entendre name? Or are the Japanese simply so much smarter than we are that they know the name is silly in translation, but they also knew that we'd accept it anyway, that it would become part of the language?

Somewhere at Nintendo there are a bunch of Japanese game designers laughing their heads off because, single-handedly, they created an America full of guys sitting around playing with their Wiis.