Yee-ha(w) / "Rebel yell"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 12/4/06, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU> wrote:
> > I thought I remembered Slim Pickens as Major T.J. "King" Kong shouting
> > "Yeehaw!" in the climactic bombing scene of _Dr. Strangelove_ (1964),
> > but according to this site it was actually "Yahoo!"
> >
> > http://www.filmsite.org/drst4.html
>
>
> Such transcriptions are unreliable, as we know.
>
>   I'll rent _Red River_ if Ben will do the same for _Dr. Strangelove_.

No need to rent _Dr. Strangelove_ when we have the miracle of Youtube:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=uK4s9gwgUvs

Sounds like a series of "yahoo"/"wahoo"-type utterances to me.

Youtube lacks the "yeehaw" scene from _Red River_, unfortunately.


--Ben Zimmer

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