via languagelog

[rone]

[From] Bobby Ray Miller's United Press International Stylebook (1977, p. 29):

burro, burrow  A burro is an ass.  A burrow is a hole in the ground.  As a journalist you are expected to know the difference.

More about the history of this bit of humor here.

Comments

[zadcat.livejournal.com]

Also reminds me of a bit from Fawlty Towers in which Basil is trying to explain something about butter to Manuel, and he calls it burro and Manual tries to explain that this is a very small donkey.

It's burro in Italian though. Where did mantequilla come from, I wonder.

[madbodger.livejournal.com]

That bit well predates the 1977 reference. The first time I heard it, it was couched as "as a Marine, you are expected to know the difference."