Pinocchio

Why it matters

I would let Pinocchio in, but I would do it the same way we handled The Wizard of Oz and Frankenstein: by crediting the unit that most strongly drives the mass English-speaking image. Britannica says Collodi’s story is perhaps best known as the basis for the 1940 Disney film, and that film locks in the package most adults carry around: the nose that grows with lies, the wish to become a real boy, and Jiminy Cricket as conscience. The lying-nose image is so sticky that The Washington Post Fact Checker still uses “Pinocchios” for falsehoods. That is Top-50 behaviour, sibei clear.

Cultural Footprint

• Popularised Pinocchio as shorthand for a liar
• Associated the nose growing longer with every lie
• Associated the puppet boy who wants to become a real child

One-liner

A wooden puppet keeps getting into trouble while trying, very badly at first, to become a real boy.