Eggcorn Forum

This morning at breakfast my wife talked about how sometimes the easiest way to deal with a difficult situation is by just rolling with … just rolling with the flow . When I suggested the punches she got the giggles ― part of her knew perfectly well that going with the flow was the more standard expression, and although she would rarely or never use rolling with the punches she knows the expression.
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Checking, I find that I had first noted rolling with the flow in Jan 2000, and I have also listed flow with the punches, flow with the go, smooth flowly, go with the punches, keep the punches rolling, roll the punches, pull out all the punches, pull with the punches, roll out the punches, royal [roil?] the punches , and keep the punches flowing . Good grief!
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What is it about these meanings and/or sounds that lend themselves to such prolific expression of manners of handling mayhem? The rhyming go with the flow is certainly iconic (i.e. provides a sort of picture of ease), and there’s something about the mellifluity of oʷƚ(ɪŋ) /ƚoʷ(ɪŋ) (with English’s “dark”, o-tinted [ƚ] sound) that is just right to suggest passive-tending, non-escalating handling of a situation.
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For Joy this morning rolling with the flow was not an eggcorn, but (perhaps among other things) a blend, but as we have often seen, blends are a good source of eggcorns. It certainly gives a coherent, and easily relevant, picture (I get a body, not necessarily dead or even drowning but somewhat waterlogged, slowly rolling over in a slowing current). I do not know what it is for others, though, and there are plenty of hits on the internet. There is a song (sung? written? Same as the Rich song below?) by Michael Nesmith that goes (through the floes?): You just roll with the flow ¶ Wherever it goes ¶ Even if it rolls outta here ¶ Just roll with the flow ¶ Wherever it goes ¶ Even if it rolls outta here .
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The Malaphor site says: This is a congruent conflation of “rolling with the punches” and “going with the flow”, both expressions meaning to be able to deal with a series of difficult situations. This malaphor is also the title of a nice Charlie Rich song, “Rollin’ with the Flow”.
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There are plenty of other hits:

Just one of those things, you gotta kind of roll with the flow.” That’s Steelers linebacker Avery Williamson’s advice for the Browns

[Mountain Pilates] Dust off your foam roller and come along to roll with the flow in this extended class. We will use the foam roller to release muscle tightness …

In the past couple of years, I’ve learned to just roll with the flow and just keep working.” Nick Cordova finished the day 3-for-3 at the plate.

After 2020 we have all become pretty good at rolling with the flow of headlines and finding ways to keep on going when a pandemic took many …

“Each day is definitely different. Things change, and you have to kind of keep rolling with the flow and making things fit situations—I enjoy that.”

The reason my teacher chose me as Student of the Month is because I was rolling with the flow on tests and all my grades,

Surely for some of these people this is essentially standard and thus a candidate for eggcornhood. Of course, as with a number of other such eggcorn candidates and other odd expressions, they may have heard it from people who said it on purpose, as a small joke (e.g. the songwriter above, or the Pilates people), and so learned it without so much mis-repeating what they had heard as repeating correctly.

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2021-04-19 10:29:16)