‘Et viola’ misspelling or inside joke?

Question

Is et viola [sic](spelled like this intentionally) just a misspelling of et voila or is it an actual word, or perhaps an inside joke (not just a one-off thing)?

Background

Based on this answer by Bread, there has been some discussion about the idiom et viola [sic]. The discussion stems from this phrase on vocabulary.com’s entry for pate:

Your pate is the top of your head, but say it with a French accent et viola!

One side argues that this is a misspelling of et voila, which is listed by Merriam Webster’s Dictionary.

The other side insists it’s an inside joke, referring to the following article by BBC Radio 4:

It is my observation that this article is about the viola, an instrument in the violin family, which might explain the word play (a viola is a type of violin).

Research

I have searched for more examples of its use on the internet, but most of the results are eating establishments with this name. I have not been able to find another occurrence of et viola as a joke, or used in another way.

I have also looked at Google Ngrams and found that et viola was used in English in the 1800s. The peak isn’t very high (in comparison to more prevalent terms), but it does seem to be something.

In my view, the research is inconclusive in stating definitively if et viola has been used repeatedly over the years or if it’s just a misspelling, hence this question.

Answer

Based on Mari-Lou A’s helpful comment about checking the ngram references, I think it safe to conclude that the peaks (for me, the main reason to think it wasn’t a misspelling on vocabulary.com) are caused by the following (unlikely) reasons:

An author with et viola in the name: (Alberti et Viola).

Books in the English corpus which are (partially) written in Latin. Most of the other results, mostly compilations of prose.

Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : JJJ , Answer Author : JJJ