THE TANTALUS AT THE ASSASSINS' GUILD

 In Terry Pratchett's Discworld, the tantalus (liquor cabinet) at the Assassins' Guild HQ has its decanters labelled in sdrawkcab: Mur, Nig, Trop... The smallest one is labelled Nosiop.

(If you don't get sdrawkcab, read the labels from right to left!)

(A footnote speaks of Discworld nobility also labelling the decanters in their own tantaluses in sdrawkcab, but failing to notice that a butler or footman had drunk up the whisky and replaced it with Eniru! LMFAO!)

This footnote deals with language that excludes, in so far as it uses wordplay and the structure of the page to turn the original censorship on its head. This time the world order which is being rebelled against is social. In Hogfather, Lord Downey, head of the Assassins' Guild, deems it necessary to offer the prospective clients he is meeting a drink:

Downey stood up with some relief and walked over to his large drinks cabinet. His hand hovered over the Guild's ardent and valuable tantalus, with its labelled decanters of Mur, Nig, Trop, and Yksihw.

 'And what would you like to drink?' he said, wondering where the Auditor kept its mouth. His hand hovered for just a moment over the smallest decanter, marked Nosiop. 

We do not drink.

(Footnote: It's a sad and terrible thing that high-born folk really have thought that the servants would be totally fooled if spirits were put into decanters that were cunningly labelled backwards. And also throughout history the more politically conscious butler has taken it on trust, and with rather more justification, that his employers will not notice if the whisky is topped up with Eniru.)

The very dry British humour. Sharing in expensive spirits is traditionally a distinguishing mark of the (male) upper classes, something to do among gentlemen, and the accumulation of adjectives ("ancient and valuable"; "labelled") makes the mythological allusion inherent in the etymology of the noun "tantalus" sound elitist and conceited. The snobbery on display is all the better deflated with the footnote, since reading it implies literally (for the readers' eyes) and metaphorically travelling downwards, from the upstairs world of the masters to the downstairs world of servants (situated in the lower level of a noble's house). The solemn note of the footnote ("it's a sad and terrible thing") seems to be aping the lords' elocution, and as their own trick is directed back at them, the servants can make fun of their masters' naivety and lack of taste. The backwards labelling of the bottles, which disrupts the usual flow of storytelling by making us reconstruct the words, becomes an embodiment of the subtle ways in which power relationships can be upended. Toilet humour (another way to play upon the up/down opposition, since it relates to the lower body) is one of the more obvious manifestations of the anti-elitist tendency of Pratchett's humour: not only is the reader, through the footnote, in on the joke that the butler is playing on his master, but the core of the trick (i.e. mirror-writing) is simple enough for any child to decode.

TV Tropes Hogfather page says:

• Expensive Glass of Crap: In a footnote, it's mentioned that some aristocrats operate under the delusion that labeling the types of expensive alcohol in their bottles backwards will fool servants into not drinking it. It dryly notes that the servants are rarely fooled, and assume with rather more justification that their masters won't notice if the bottles are then topped up with "eniru".

Auf Deutsch (Übersetzung von Andreas Brandhorst)

Witwenmacher stand nicht ohne eine gewisse Erleichterung auf und ging zum alten, kostbaren Getränkeschrank. Dort verharrte seine Hand kurz über den Karaffen, deren Etiketten Aufschriften wie Mur, Nig, Trop und Yksihw trugen.*

»Was möchtet ihr trinken?« fragte er und überlegte, wo sich der Mund der Revisoren befinden mochte. Die Hand wandte sich der kleinsten Karaffe zu – auf ihrem Etikett stand Tfig.

Wir trinken nicht.

(* Es ist traurig und peinlich, daß hochwohlgeborene Leute ihre Bediensteten zu täuschen versuchten, indem sie Spirituosenkaraffen mit rückwärts geschriebenen Worten beschrifteten. Darüber hinaus gibt es in der Geschichte zahlreiche Beispiele für politisch bewußte Butler, die durchaus darauf vertrauen durften, daß ihre Arbeitgeber den Whisky selbst dann tranken, wenn er mit Niru gestreckt war.)

En français (traduction de Patrick Couton)

Sédatiphe se leva avec un certain soulagement et se dirigea vers sa grande armoire à alcools. Sa main hésita au-dessus de l'antique et inestimable vitrine à liqueurs de la Guilde qui renfermait des carafes étiquetées Muhr, Nig, Otrop et Yksihw. 

...

Sa main survola brefs instants la plus petite carafe libellée Nosiop.

Nous ne buvons pas.

(Il faut s'en désoler autant que de s'en inquiéter : l'aristocratie a toujours cru que les domestiques n'y verraient que du feu si les alcools étaient servis dans des carafes astucieusement libellées à l'envers. De la même manière, tout au long de l'histoire, les majordomes dotés d'une conscience politique affirmée ont cru en toute confiance, et souvent à juste titre, que leurs employeurs ne remarqueraient rien s'ils refaisaient le niveau de whisky avec de l'Eniru.)