Quote
1. Quote - Listen to the quote and guess what the slang means.
“If they won’t give you a visa, we’ll arrange a sham marriage.”
- Comedian Aziz Ansari to Sri Lankan-British vocalist M.I.A. on sneaking her into the US. (HARP)
Definition
1. Definition - Study the definition.
hollow; phony; for the purpose of deception or appearances
2. Use - Learn how the slang is used.
M.I.A. recently tried to tour the US, but couldn’t get in to the country because she was denied a visa. How annoying!
Luckily, as an international pop star, there are plenty of Americans who would love to marry M.I.A., and if you marry someone in the US, you’re welcome to live here. As far as Americans to marry for citizenship go, you could do a lot worse than Aziz Ansari, a stand up comedian who stars in the MTV show, Human Giant.
But of course, if Aziz and M.I.A. got married it would be a sham. Even if he truly loves her (and how could he not?), she only wants to marry him out of dedication to her American fans. Since the marriage is just to deceive the government, it’s a sham.
If Aziz and M.I.A. do get married, they ought to live in Hollywood, because there are shams all the over the place there. They make sham streets for movies out of pieces of cardboard propped up to look like buildings. The sham couple might make some sham friends out of people who are just tying to further their careers as performers, but don’t really like Aziz and M.I.A. personally. There are even a lot of sham faces and bodies on all the people who get plastic surgery in Hollywood.
Examples
1. Examples - Hear some example sentences.
“When I visited the language school, I thought it was a really great place. But it turned out to be a total sham. They didn’t teach us anything!”
“My family appears to get along, but it’s just a sham. As soon as no one’s around, we fight like crazy.”