[Ads-l] Bizarro, Bizarro World

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Below is a generalized use of "bizarro world" in 1973, i.e. this use
was not directly connected to Superman.

Date: March 14, 1973
Newspaper: The Evening Times (Trenton Evening Times)
Newspaper Location: Trenton, New Jersey.
Article: Would you buy a used record from this man?
Quote Page 32, Column 1
Database: GenealogyBank

[Begin excerpt]
Perhaps not, but Alan Edwards, rock columnist for This Week Magazine,
is doing his best to make sure readers know what new records to buy,
which discs to avoid, and What Is Going On in the bizarro world of
rock and roll. His style is contemporary, wild and entertaining, his
perspective covers the last decade of musical madness, and he
thoroughly enjoys writing about music.
[End excerpt]

My previous post contained an error. My word processor silently
changed an instance of "bizzaro" to "bizarre" in the phrase "The
bizarro lushed-up Irish scrubwoman "

There is a Science Fiction Fanzine archive that might contain relevant
material. You can use a search string such as "bizarro
site:efanzines.com". Unfortunately, it seems difficult to determine
the dates of the fanzines. I do not know if there are accessible
digital archives from comics fandom.

http://www.efanzines.com/

The Oxford English Dictionary has an entry for "mondo bizarre" which
is traced to the title of a 1966 film.

[Begin excerpt]
mondo bizarro, n. and adj.
A. n.
  The world of the bizarre or surreal.
1966   (title of film)    Mondo bizarro.
1973   Texas Monthly Dec. 67/1   Senor Castillo recommends for
December, 'Pepe and his College Girls', direct from Mexico City. Mondo
bizarro.
. . .
B. adj.
  Very bizarre; tastelessly bizarre.
1976   Texas Monthly Nov. 104/1   The paper excels in its handling of
Mondo Bizarro material: the man killed by a bullet up his nostril,
[etc.].
[End excerpt]

[Begin excerpt]
Etymology:  < mondo n.3 + Italian bizzarro eccentric, weird (see
bizarre adj. and n.), with spelling altered after bizarre adj. and n.
or Spanish bizarro.

In early use after the title of the 1966 U.S. film Mondo Bizarro (see
quot. 1966 at sense A.).

Some of the adjectival uses below may perhaps arise from
interpretation of mondo as an intensifying adverb qualifying an
adjective, but they may also be influenced by Spanish mondo pure,
unadulterated: see mondo adv. and adj.2
[End excerpt]

On Tue, Jun 16, 2015 at 12:13 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Bizarro, Bizarro World
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Here are two pertinent entries constructed by the world's top expert
> on American slang.
>
> Title: Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang,
> Author: Jonathan E. Lighter
> Volume 1: A-G
> Quote Page 174
> (Check for typos)
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> bizarro n. [partially sugg. by the character Bizzaro, introduced in
> Superman comics in 1957-58] a bizarre person.
>
> 1980 W. Sherman Times Sq. 13: Joe thought about arresting the bizarro.
>
> 1985 Univ. Tenn. prof., age ca32: These people are real bizarros.
> [End excerpt]
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> bizarro adj. bizarre; (also) crazy.
>
> 1971 Current Slang 5: Go bizarro...To lose one's composure; to be driven insane.
>
> 1973 in L. Bangs Psychotic Reactions 122: The bizarre lushed-up Irish
> scrubwoman Kitty McShane.
>
> 1979 New West (Sept. 24) 88: His more recent drug-laden, bizarro epistolaries.
>
> 1982 Sculatti Catalog of Cool 49: Bizarro TV yarn starts with acid flashback.
>
> 1986 E. Weiner Howard the Duck 47: Whatever bizarro drug someone had
> slipped her.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
>
> On Tue, Jun 16, 2015 at 11:55 AM, Mark Peters
> <markpeterswriter at gmail.com> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Mark Peters <markpeterswriter at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Bizarro, Bizarro World
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Is anyone aware of *bizarro *(as in the supervillain and the Bizarro Jerry
>> from *Seinfeld*) being listed in any dictionaries? I'm working on an
>> article on this fun word.
>>
>> Appreciate any suggestions!
>>
>> Mark
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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