--- title: Benedict Cumberbatch Cant Say Penguins description: Benedict Cumberbatch seems to mispronounce the word penguins in BBC nature doc he narrated on the South Pacific going viral on Reddit canonical: https://time.com/3432550/benedict-cumberbatch-penguins/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-26T14:39:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:13:26.631Z og:title: Benedict Cumberbatch Cant Say Penguins og:description: Benedict Cumberbatch seems to mispronounce the word penguins in BBC nature doc he narrated on the South Pacific going viral on Reddit og:url: https://time.com/3432550/benedict-cumberbatch-penguins/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Benedict Cumberbatch Cant Say Penguins twitter:description: Benedict Cumberbatch seems to mispronounce the word penguins in BBC nature doc he narrated on the South Pacific going viral on Reddit twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # It's Elementary, Sherlock, But Benedict Cumberbatch Can't Pronounce 'Penguins'  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Sep 26, 2014 2:39 PM UTC  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Sep 26, 2014 2:39 PM UTC [Reddit](http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/2hgckd/benedict%5Fcumberbatch%5Fcant%5Fsay%5Fpenguins/) has been getting a good laugh out of a video of _Sherlock_ star Benedict Cumberbatch mispronouncing the word “penguins” as “pengwings” or “penglings” over and over again. The 18-second[ YouTube clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GnLDJAgrws) has been taken from the 2009 BBC Two documentary he narrated about wildlife, like royal penguins, on the South Pacific islands. As Reddit users have joked, here’s hoping that he pronounces it correctly in his upcoming film [_Penguins of Madagascar_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1911658/)_,_ out in theaters on November 26. (h/t [_Digg_](http://digg.com/video/benedict-cumberbatch-cant-say-penguins)) **PHOTO:** [Benedict Cumberbatch Chills With a Penguin at Comic-Con](http://time.com/3031194/benedict-cumberbatch-chills-with-a-penguin-at-comic-con/) **PHOTO:** [This Picture of Benedict Cumberbatch As Mr. Darcy Will Make The World a Better Place](http://time.com/3386696/benedict-cumberbatch-mr-darcy/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3432550/benedict-cumberbatch-penguins/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3432550/benedict-cumberbatch-penguins/"},"headline":"It's Elementary, Sherlock, But Benedict Cumberbatch Can't Pronounce 'Penguins'","datePublished":"2014-09-26T14:39:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:13:26.631Z","description":"Sounds more like \"Pengwings\" or \"Penglings\"","url":"https://time.com/3432550/benedict-cumberbatch-penguins/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. Waxman","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3432550/benedict-cumberbatch-penguins/","name":"It's Elementary, Sherlock, But Benedict Cumberbatch Can't Pronounce 'Penguins'"}}]}] ```