You probably won’t have many opportunities (or reasons) to say Godzilla x Kong out loud, but on the rare occasion that you’re required to do so—on Jeopardy!, maybe?—you should know that there is a correct way to pronounce it.
When Vulture‘s Roxana Hadadi published a story about the correct way to pronounce Godzilla x Kong, as in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, I had to ask our staff to confirm if they, too, had received the same directive from the film’s publicity reps. Our own Rachel Leishman happily provided the receipt. The confirmation email she received for an interview does indeed include the following note: “When verbally saying the title, the ‘x’ is silent—so it’s pronounced ‘Godzilla Kong.'”
Meanwhile, in our work Slack, we’ve been calling it Godzilla Kiss Kong all week, per editor Vivian Kane’s extremely correct suggestion. What are the alternatives? Godzilla by Kong, which sounds more like a bougie perfume. Godzilla The Website Formerly Known as Twitter Kong is too wordy, and honestly the joke is played out. Godzilla Times Kong, I guess. At no point during anyone’s speculation did the idea of calling it Godzilla Kong cross a single brain cell. These are separate monsters with individual identities. One is a big lizard, perpetually cranky from being constantly woken up by rude, annoying people; the other is a gigantic ape who was happy just chilling on his island until rude, annoying people showed up. I mean, if anything the X of it all makes sense given that they share a common denominator of an enemy: stupid human beings.
Anyway, if you must embarrass yourself by physically purchasing a ticket from a theater employee instead of buying one online like a normal person, it is apparently crucial that you pronounce the title of this film correctly. Every time someone says the “x” out loud, David Zaslav deletes another movie.
(featured image: Warner Bros.)
