It's amaze

[Ben Zimmer]

On Wed, Dec 11, 2013 at 8:35 AM, Christopher Philippo wrote:
>
> On Dec 11, 2013, at 7:46 AM, Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM> wrote:
>
> > A fellow English adjunct, who’s younger than me, just ranted on FB about
> > hearing Malcolm MacDowell say “amaze balls" (as she wrote it) on a TV
> > commercial (Sprint?). My colleague was apoplectic. Does this count as
> > catching on?
> >
> > I don't understand the -balls suffix.
>
> There’s several ads like that; “Totes McGotes” is also used in them and
> evidently means “totally.”  The intention in using McDowell and James Earl
> Jones is humor, though I’m not sure why the company would think it would
> encourage anyone to spend money on their product.  Perhaps they’re aiming
> for the demographic that uses those words, which must be tweeners or younger.

Here's the commerical in question, one in a series in which McDowell
and Jones dramatically reenact online interactions among young people
for comic effect:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRibRj770J8

Reminds me of Steve Allen's straight-faced dramatic reading of
"Be-Bop-A-Lula" back in the day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpxhEoV5IsE

As for how you get from "amaze" to "amazeballs," this Slate piece has
some insights:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/12/27/who_coined_amazeballs_and_why_do_they_hate_humanity.html

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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