FN + LN

Benjamin Zimmer bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU
Wed Jun 6 16:18:31 UTC 2007


On 6/6/07, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Back in the '50s there was a Bugs Bunny cartoon involving Arab anti-rabbit
> terrorists from the _1001 Nights_. Hassan carried a scimitar that he would swing
> at Bugs while crying, "Hassan CHOP!"
>
> Wackipedia notes that animation-industry insiders voted it the 35th greatest
> animated cartoon of all time:
>
>   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Baba_Bunny

A more influential appearance of the dissociative third-person in '50s
pop culture was the song "Bo Diddley" by Bo Diddley (June 1955,
Checker).

Bo Diddley bought his babe a diamond ring,
If that diamond ring don't shine,
He gonna take it to a private eye,
If that private eye can't see
He'd better not take the ring from me.

This was followed up by other third-person songs such as "Diddley
Daddy," "Hey, Bo Diddley," and "Bo Diddley's A Gunslinger." And to
bring things full circle, Bo Diddley appeared with Bo Jackson in
Nike's "Bo Knows" commercials of 1989-90 ("Bo, you don't know
diddley!").

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_knows


--Ben Zimmer

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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