[Ads-l] Iowa notes

[Ben Zimmer]

On Sun, Jan 31, 2016 at 11:26 PM, Neal Whitman wrote:
>
> On 1/31/2016 8:43 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>> The voiceover singer in a  Huckabee ad (or a fake Huckabee ad, or a
>> self-spoofing Huckabee ad - it's no longer possible to tell) croons that
>> "This circus, it's gone coo-coo-ca-choo."  I suppose that means "cuckoo,"
>> but Urban Dictionary gives teh back story.
>
> I believe Ben has written about this, too.

Well, I've written about the "coo coo ca-choo" of "Mrs. Robinson," and
the slightly earlier appearance of "goo goo ga joob" in "I Am the
Walrus," but I haven't tracked the semantic expansion into
cuckoo-land.

https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/wordroutes/celebrating-the-beatles-goo-goo-ga-joob/

--bgz

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