"Zoom-zooms (or zoo-zoos) and wham-whams"

[William Salmon]

Seth Morgan's use of zoo-zoos and wham-whams in his prison novel,
*Homeboy* (1990), supports the candy/small snacks definition.

> I'm subscribed to _Wikihow_, and in today's instalment
> <http://www.wikihow.com/Deal-With-Being-in-Prison> found the following
> piece of advice:
>
> ----
> Don't accept zoom-zooms and wham-whams, it means you are for sale. No one
> in there [in prison, CW] will ever give something for nothing.
> ----
>
> I had never heard of _zoom-zooms_ or _wham-whams_ before, and neither had
> any of the native speakers (most AmE) I asked. It turns out, there are a
> number of different opinions what they might mean, though one is dominant.
>
> My first guess was that this was about drug freebies. Indeed, in the video
> game _Grand Theft Auto_ there appears to be such a reference to _Zoom
> Zoom_:
>
> ----
> The game is non-linear and features a large number of sub-plots, centered
> on the various gangs and the Zaibatsu Corporation's legal manufacturing of
> the "play-drug" Zoom Zoom and its derivatives. Play the gangs off against
> each other or infiltrate them and suck up to the big bosses, then cross
> and double-cross to your heart's content and own advantages.
> <http://www.answers.com/topic/grand-theft-auto-2>
> ----
>
> But the dominant meaning seems to be prison slang for small snacks such as
> candy bars that can be bought in the prison's own store. The Urban
> Dictionary also lists _zoo zoo_:
>
> ----
> zoo zoo
> Prison term for candy bar
> Give me a zoo zoo, I'll pay you back two of em.
> by Tracy Davis LCC prison May 3, 2006
> <http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=zoo+zoo>
> ----
> zoom zooms
> prison slang for items bought from a list of goods one can buy from the
> prison canteen. i.e. cookies, snacks, etc.
> Man if you keep losing at spades, you gonna lose all your wham whams and
> zoom zooms.
> by prison linguist May 18, 2004
> <http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=zoom+zooms>
> ----
> wham whams
> prison slang for items bought from a list and picked up from the prison
> canteen. i.e. cookies, snacks.
> see also zoom zooms
> Man if you keep losing at spades, you gonna lose all your wham whams and
> zoom zooms
> by prison linguist May 18, 2004
> <http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=wham+whams>
> ----
>
> The Dictionary page of the site BoyzBehindBars.com
> <http://www.boyzbehindbars.com/v10/dictionary/dictionary.html> (which may
> be of larger interest here, as an aside) lists:
>
> ----
> Zoo Zoos: Canteen goods, such as candy or cookies. Also called "wham whams."
> ----
>
> This entry seems to have been added before June 15, 2001.
>
> The Usenet archives as kept by Google Groups have the term from 1997, but
> in varying senses. The first one clearly doesn't fit the above, and the
> second seems to use the expression a bit like _bells and whistles_
> (probably the sense in the first, too), in the context of music:
>
> ----
> Since a few of the dealers have been selling between 200 and 250
> motorcycles per year for the past 3 model years (94-95-96), it seems like
> they (the dealers) will be taking care of their 'preferred" customers
> first; you know the ones...they buy all the zoom-zooms and wham-whams,
> before they take care of the replacements for the regular 'Joes'.
> Feb 3 1997
> <http://groups.google.co.uk/group/alt.motorcycles.harley/msg/9216163e22b675f3>
> ----
> Good tone has to be reproduced honestly and efficiently. You can have all
> of the EQ, knobs, bells, whistles, wham whams, and zoom zooms in all of
> creation. If that shaped and colored frequency cannot be reproduced,
> what has been the point?
> Mar 22 1998
> <http://groups.google.co.uk/group/alt.guitar.bass/msg/07a1c420e4f9f80a>
> ----
> It sounded like Dickey Betts under a bunch of zoo zoos and wham whams. A
> guys got a right to be bored and want to try some new sounds, but be
> carefull. I thought it just dilluted his strengths and added nothing
> worthwhile. To me, the jazz guys should turn the thing off too.
> Nov 24 1998
> http://groups.google.co.uk/group/alt.guitar.amps/msg/e457cccb951c6de8
> ----
>
> Then, on alt.gathering.rainbow (the purpose of which I haven't looked up),
> there was a short discussion <http://tinyurl.com/f39zs> of the term in
> 1999, after Andy R. Steinberg asks "Pardon my ignorance, but what are Zoom
> Zooms and Wham Whams? They're not in my rainbow glossary." In the first
> answer, someone writing as Sanity Clause explains:
>
> ----
> Way I heard it pronounced was "zoo zoos & wham whams" but be that as it may;
> my unofficial jailhouse lexicon calls it "sweet junk food" (candy bars,
> etc.).
> <http://groups.google.co.uk/group/alt.gathering.rainbow/msg/20c86a436c8edd9c>
> ----
>
> Which appears to trigger Steinberg's memory:
>
> ----
> Silly me! Wham Wham = WahWah = snack i.e. apple or pretzel. Zoom Zoom =
> ZooZoo = sweet snack i.e. candy or snickers bar. I heard the shortened
> terms at the Missouri nation 96 but didn't immediately connect it with
> the  longer terms.
> <http://groups.google.co.uk/group/alt.gathering.rainbow/msg/8f5176f7846bf5fd>
> ----
>
>> From then on, the unofficial prison slang vocab lists appear to have
> streamlined the term, and I can't find the first sense any longer.
>
> There's also a German band called Zaftig, who called one of their CDs
> (cover version of pop songs, recorded in 1999)
> <http://www.zaftig.de/promo_cds.htm>  "Zoo  Zoos and Wham  Whams",
> slightly misunderstanding the term:
>
> ----
> Den ungewöhnlichen Titel hat das Wormser Quintett in einem englischen
> Wörterbuch ausgegraben. Amerikanische Häftlinge bezeichnen damit das, was
> im Knast verboten und deshalb begehrt ist ...
> [The quinet from Worms unearthed the unusual title in an English
> dictionary. American inmates use it to refer to what is banned, and
> therefore desirable, behind bars ... . -- Wormser Nachrichten [press
> review], my translation]]
> ----
>
> Last quote from a piece of 2006 (?) student work:
>
> ----
> Jenks was Brown’s business manager—it all went through Jenks. You can’t
> collect money for legal work behind the wall, so Jenks collected
> commissary. Commissary was for the prison store, getting zoo zoos, wham
> whams—that’s cookies and crackers—or oranges. Or cigarettes, if you
> smoked.
> <http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/studentwork/801mag/brown2.htm>
> ----
>
> Of course there are other onomatopoetic _zoom zooms_ around.
>
> Chris Waigl
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



~Will Salmon

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