[Ads-l] "Deez Nuts"

[Joel Berson]

A TV item this evening (network news or Inside Edition) had his mother saying his younger brother chose the name.  I don't think I was told whether the kid brother was prepubescent.  Although, if Wilson is correct that he's "A fifty-year-old Iowa boy", I suspect his younger brother is post-menopausal.

The videos suggest he's white.


I suppose we need to wait for tonight's late comedians to see if anyone picks up the association.


Joel

      From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
 To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
 Sent: Friday, August 21, 2015 5:05 PM
 Subject: [ADS-L] "Deez Nuts"
   
A fifty-year-old Iowa boy, presumably white, is running for the Presidency
under the name, "Deez Nuts."

http://goo.gl/ILYUAp

What catches my attention is that the phrase, "these nuts," in my
experience, has always meant, "my testes/my testicles/my scrotum." Relevant
examples are hard to find, needless to say.

Dead End Kids: Gang Girls and the Boys They Know - Page 51
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0299158837
Mark S. Fleisher - 1998 - ‎Preview
"Lucky and Cook, they had some words. Lucky grabbed his balls," Bernard
laughed, "and said, 'You wanna box?' He wanted to fight 'im. Cook grabbed
his shit [crotch], and he say, 'Box _dese nuts_, motherfucker,' and pulled
out an AK and, blam, we all ran, going' over shit, getting' da fuck outta
here."

As the excerpt points out, the use of the phrase is usually accompanied by
the now well-known, grabbing-one's-crotch gesture.

Serendipitously, I found an instance of the phrase with the extended
meaning, "my back," a first, for me.

Suspicions - Page 60
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0758292155
Sasha Campbell - 2014 - ‎Preview
“What Miasha wants is a father who pays his child support on time. Who
knows what responsibility is,” I retorted, then made a left at the corner.
“Damn, get off _these nuts_! I'm trying to be a daddy . . . even make you
wifey, if you'd let me."


The "standard" form of this idiom is "VERB these nuts, motherfucker!" The
verb is determined by the verb of the sentence to which this is a retort,
e.g.:

OUP:
Professor Lighter, we regret to inform you that we no longer intend to
publish the remaining portion of your work.

JEL [grasping crotch]:
No longer intend these nuts, motherfucker!
-- 
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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


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