"opening the kimono" (1979?, 1984)

[Wilson Gray]

On Jun 21, 2005, at 12:47 PM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "opening the kimono" (1979?, 1984)
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> On Tue, 21 Jun 2005 09:35:22 -0400, Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM>
> wrote:
>> On Jun 21, 2005, at 8:06 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>>
>>> "Poppa-stoppa" doesn't come close, but there was a series of beloved
>>> New Orleans DJs in the '60s who went by that name. The word was in
>>> print by '46.
>>
>> DJ's used it?! This may be crying Wol(o)f, but I've long been under
>> the
>> impression that "poppa-stoppa" was a kind of punning pseudo-euphemism
>> for "mutha-fukka," inspired by a traditional joke - told and re-told
>> by
>> generations of little boys, each passing it along under the impression
>> that they are the first to have heard it - whose punch line is, "That
>> woddn no 'whoppa!' That was my asshole-stoppa!"
>
> I assume {mammy/mamma/mama}-{jammer/jammy/jamma} is in the same family
> of
> jocular euphemisms?
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>

You are correct, sir! However, in the interests of full disclosure, let
me state that this is my own, intuitive analysis, since all of these
terms, and the joke referred to, antedate my birth. Had I been present
at their creation, I might think - or even know - different. ["Think
different" and "know different" are good BE. At the moment, I can't
come up with standard equivalents. Merely adding -ly doesn't work.]

-Wilson Gray