How do you pronounce Mr. Mxyzptlk?

[The Red Monk]

I've been reading Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow, and this might be a stupid thing to get hung up on, but it's been bothering me this whole time.

Is it Mister Mc-syz-pitlik? Mx-z-pitlik? Mix-pitlik? Or are all of those wrong, and it's something else?

[Penguin Truth]

I pronounce it "Mix... Mix... Mickey... Mix... Mixy-plittel... that guy with the derby hat."

[DanReed]

I don't know if it's the "right way" but I pronounce it "Mix-yez-pittle-ick"

[DochaDocha]

I think the better question is how do you pronounce "Kltpzyxm."

[Lokimaru]

Here ya go. this is how Stas said it.

[MykeHavoc]

Mix-ee-iz-pit-lick

Kill-tip-zi-ee-skim

[Jim Kelly]

I don't know if it's the "right way" but I pronounce it "Mix-yez-pittle-ick"

Ding ding. You are correct sir! We have a winner.

They gave this pronunciation in a very old letter column, and that's what I always use. It also makes it easy to remember how to spell it. Mxyzptlk. I'd also accept Mix-yez-pit-lik--as I've heard that used sometimes.

There really should be a FAQ for these kind of questions--which come up with some regularity.

The original spelling was Mxyztplk (the order of the t and the p are reversed) and this was supposed to be pronounced as: Mix-yez-tip-lik.

[dupersuper]

Here ya go. this is how Stas said it.

Same here: with a Z at "Yes" though.

[Adekis]

The original spelling was Mxyztplk (the order of the t and the p are reversed) and this was supposed to be pronounced as: Mix-yez-tip-lik.

Really? I always pronounced that as "Mix-ye-zit-plik"! Huh. Live and learn, guess I was wrong.

[Hoosier X]

When I was a kid (the 1970s), we said "Mix ta pilk." But I think I saw in a letter column (at some point, probably post-Crisis) that it was "Mix yez pittle ick."

Of course, we also said Sub-MarEENer until cousins from the city who had cable (and thus had seen the cartoons) told us it was Sub-MARinner.

[SSJ4JW]

Yep learned from STAS too.

[tib2d2]

I'm not a subscriber to the "pittle" version. The way its spelled, along with him saying it in the Superman Animated show makes me a supporter of the Mix-yeh-spit-lik

[Jim Kelly]

Check out the wikipedia entry for Mxyzptlk for all the background on the pronunciations of the name. E. Nelson Bridwell said it was Mix-yez-pittle-ik and I accept his word as gospel. And that's the pronunciation that was used for the cartoon show (in the '60s).

I would spell it phonentically as MiX-YeZ-PiT-eL-iK, however, as this is the easiest way for me to remember how to spell the name. You just leave out all the vowels and write only the consonants. When I say it, it sounds like a backwards tape.

Siegel was probably thinking of Hebrew, where only the consonants appear in ancient texts (his religion clearly had an influence on a lot of what Jerry created). You have to fill in the vowels between the consonants when voicing the words. If you follow that theory and put a schwa /ə/ (a reduced, unstressed mid-vowel) after each consonant, then it comes out as: MəXəYəZəPəTəLəKə; sounding roughly like mixayezapitelika. Using the original spelling it would be: MəXəYəZəTəPəLəKə--mixayezatepalika.