[Ads-l] "on-court gags =?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80=94_?=or reams, as the players called them "

[Jonathan Lighter]

"On-court gag" sounds like a polite rationalization of something stronger
and off-court, e.g., a nasty prank.

Cf. "fuck with someone," "fuck someone over."  And, of course, to "punk"
(as in UrbanDictionary, "A punk is a male who has practical jokes played on
them or is picked on, usually on a regular basis, by others (punk'd)."

And (also UD): "Punk  to anally rape.  variation on 'punk', to play a
practical joke."

To "punk" someone in the jokey sense is to make them look like an idiot
through the employment of pranking science.

I first encountered it about a dozen years ago.


JL

On Wed, Dec 30, 2015 at 1:26 PM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "on-court gags =?Windows-1252?Q?=97_?=or reams, as the
>               players called them "
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> New Journal and Guide (Norfok VA) Mar. 20, 1976
>
> [no laughs in Hong Kong even though:]
> "There were 55,000 people in the stands and the Globetrotters were doing
> th=
> eir thing as only they can. All the shots were falling, every ream was
> work=
> ing and the whole game plan was running like clockwork."
>
> Stephen Goranson
> http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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