Obviously, he had never heard the name pronounced before. Ignorance is not stupidity, but it can be amusing.
I once had a young fellow call me, trying to sell season tickets to the symphony. I asked him what were some of the pieces or composers on the program for the season. He made a valiant attempt at pronouncing (phonetically): Choppin’, Beat Hoven, and Back. Sadly, many young folks have never heard the music or been exposed to culture outside their neighborhood.
I don't watch the show and don't have any sense of the flexibility on pronunciation, but offing a kid on a mispronunciation strikes me as cheesy.
Yes, I'm ok on Achilles and "all them dead Greeks," but I could easily butcher a French or Spanish name, let alone an African or Asian one. There are a lot of words/names I know by sight but might mispronounce. "Beyonce," for example, or "Eminem," which I always want to pronounce as "enema." Some of the names out there now are pretty outlandish.
This brings us back to Cultural Literacy 101. Kids aren't going to know what they aren't taught, and the canon ain't what it used to be.
Great post 16!