Uranus
I remember when Voyager (I think) finally reached Uranus. Until that point, it had always been pronounced 'Yer Anus' much to the amusement of sniggering schoolboys such as I was.

But once it became something to be mentioned on the Six O'Clock News, Moira Stewart had obviously been instructed to pronounce it 'You're a nuss'. That was really annoying.

I hadn't thought about it for years until the other week when I watched Wonders Of The Solar System, and heard Prof Brian Cox pronounce it the Moira Stewart way. Brian! WHY?
(vertigo, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 9:35, 7 replies)

Patrick Moore pronounces it properly
without so much of a snigger. Though he has been in the business since space was invented. Some people say he actually discovered the moon.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 9:37, closed)

I've heard him pronounce it as 'OORanus'
with the 'OO' grunted as in 'Ooh! Suits you, Sir!'
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 15:25, closed)

I think it was when
they discovered that Uranus had a ring that they lost their bottle.
(Cameltoad, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 12:40, closed)

I was also disappointed in Brian
for saying it wrong.

But then again, did you hear how he said Saturn? I'm thinking (hoping) he has some strange regional dialect that makes him pronounce Planets incorrectly.

Every one else is an idiot for not saying Uranus properly.
(Beacon, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 12:55, closed)

I'm not sure even a Manc accent can turn Yer Anus into You're A Nuss.

You'd think with a surname like Cox, he'd be used to infantile sniggering over rudies.
(vertigo, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 13:24, closed)

Isaac Asimov (I think) wrote a whole essay about it. About how Ur-Anus sounds filthy, but how "U-Ranus" also sounds like Urinous - similar to, or having the properties of urine.

If I recall, he proposed the use of U-RAH-Nous. Which is just silly.
(jajwhite, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 15:00, closed)

I remember Spitting Image taking up this refrain...
...and then rounding off the report with the news that Voyager had identified a new moon of Uranus called "Boom-holay" (spelled Bumhole).
( Amish Information Systems hates misplaced, commas, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 17:37, closed)