What does the "Cosmetologist" line mean?

Question

In The Jerk (1979) there's a line like this:

Navin: Really? A cosmetologist? It must be tough to handle the weightlessness.

What does it mean?

wbogacz · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-27 15:39:53Z

13

The humor is in the misconception that a cosmetologist goes into space, which is weightless.

The word Navin was confusing was COSMONAUT - an astronaut, or COSMOLOGIST - astrophysicist.

answered Dec 27, 2014 at 15:39

wbogacz

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3

Or, more generally, a confusion between the two Greek roots kosmos (appearance) and cosmos (universe).
– user2752467
Dec 28, 2014 at 0:29
1

@JustinLardinois There's no difference between kosmos and cosmos, just different transliterations. The root of cosmetologist is kosmētikos.
– Prometheus
May 30, 2019 at 0:38
What's funny about this is that Navin would even have known the word "cosmonaut" -- it naïve of him to believe that a random person could have been in the soviet space program but to his credit that he had some vague awareness of cosmonauts. (I wonder if Navin's name is related to the word "naïve?" )
– releseabe
Jan 20, 2022 at 0:14
@releseabe - he did once apply to be an astronaut... while he failed "everything but the Date of Birth", he might still have picked up, then mostly forgot, the word cosmonaut
– komodosp
May 30 at 11:33

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