You see foul means bad but fowl means bird . Because foul and fowl sound alike , when used interchangably in an ambiguous sentence , this can have a slightly humorous effect . Fun fact foul is also a baseball term for when the ball is batted out of play other than as a home run , so this trick can also be used to make absurd baseball puns , such as , I wanted to pardon the turkey at the World Series game , but I thought that would be a fowl decision ! <| sep |> Not saying it ' s not a problem in the US , it is . And it desperately needs to be addressed . But . . now I ' m going to tell you how addressing the problem is totally just blowing it out of proportion with my astounding mental gymnastics and cognitive dissonance .