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Monick
What means "playing with forces beyond your ken" and "your ken can kiss my Barbie"
I was watching The Big Bang Theory and then I saw theses phrases that I could not understand. In the context, Sheldon and Penny are fighting:
Penny: Oh, no, are all the machines taken? What are you gonna do?
Sheldon: No problem, I’ll just do my laundry another night.
Penny: Another night? Well, I guess you can try, but deep inside your heart you’ll know that laundry night is always Saturday night.
Sheldon: Woman, you are playing with forces beyond your ken.
Penny: Yeah, well, your ken can kiss my Barbie.
May 8, 2020 3:49 PM
Answers · 4
1
"playing with forces beyond your Ken" means "playing with forces beyond your knowledge", which means "you have no idea what/who you are dealing with". "your Ken can kiss my Barbie" is a witty play on words: Ken=knowledge but it is also Barbie's boyfriend: Ken. Penny is basically telling Sheldon to bring it, that she's not afraid of him.
Hope this helps :)
May 8, 2020
Thank you all for the explanations!
May 10, 2020
Its a play on words, Ken has a different meaning in each of the sentences
May 9, 2020
'Kiss my Barbie" is also a deliberate word play on a ruder expression. See. https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/american/kiss-my-ass
May 8, 2020
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Monick
Language Skills
Chinese (Other), English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
Learning Language
Chinese (Other), English, French, Spanish
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