fling poo

[Jonathan Lighter]

> The use of the phrase may have shifted from the behavior of monkeys to
the behavior of humans.
That's certainly my impression. Another impression is that monkeys don't do
it that often.


JL

On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 7:55 AM, Garson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: fling poo
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I have heard the phrase used to refer to primate behavior, e.g., here
> are some questions at the WikiAnswers website:
>
> Why do monkeys fling poo at you when they get mad?
> Why do monkeys fling poo?
> Why do monkeys poo and then fling it at each other?
>
> AddictingGames has under the category Arcade & Classic the game Super
> Monkey Poop Fight. The tags for the game are: Funny, Gross, Naughty.
> The URL for the game uses a variant of the phrase:
>
> http://www.addictinggames.com/supermonkeypoopflinging.html
>
> The use of the phrase may have shifted from the behavior of monkeys to
> the behavior of humans.
>
> On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 12:08 AM, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at nb.net>
> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
> > Subject:      Re: fling poo
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > On 10/30/2010 3:45 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >> ....
> >> Astute political commentator on NPR today: "He just wants to hit
> 'delete'
> >> and fling his poo."
> >>
> >> Maybe, but I get 654,000 raw Google hits on "fling * poo."
> >>
> >> OED has _poo_ only from 1960 (under _pooh_ for some reason), but this
> was
> >> our usual childhood term. My grandmother used it exclusively.  In fact,
> my
> >> second-grade class was part delighted, part repelled by the very concept
> of
> >> "Winnie the Pooh."  And the "House at Pooh Corner'!  Wow!
> >>
> >> (I was merely puzzled. That's why I'm here and they're probably retired
> in
> >> the Hamptons. But I never heard of anybody "flinging poo" till recently
> -
> >> not even politicians.)
> > --
> >
> > Reminiscent of the very-faux Chinese collocation Hoo Flung Poo (various
> > spellings, = "Who flung poo"), often encountered along with Won Hung Lo
> > (spelling?, = "One hung low") and others in infantile jokes from some
> > time back. Plenty of examples on the Web. Apparently there's even a
> movie.
> >
> > -- Doug Wilson
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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