anthony jay (who co-wrote yes minister) was on a 1998 edition of "quote, unquote" (on bbc7) and when asked to recount some "verbal clangers" told a story about a how "a french member of the european parliament was talking about some problem they were in normandy about calvados or something like that, and he said "ce problème sera résolu par la sagesse normande" and everybody else nodded, except the english delegation who fell about with laughter and had to be picked up off the floor, and he couldn't think what he had said. but apparently the interpreter, quite correctly and accurately, had said : "this problem will be solved by Norman Wisdom."