[Ads-l] Bugs Bunny coins "Nimrod"?
Jonathan Lighter
wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Thu Oct 11 17:43:25 UTC 2018
Wikipedia notes that this 1941 cartoon was suppressed as racist "in 1968."
(Elmer Fudd had first appeared with that name in 1940).
FWIW, I began watching Bugs Bunny cartoons on Channel 5 in NYC in 1957 or
'58, and this particular one was never shown - then or later. This is the
first time I've seen it.
JL
On Thu, Oct 11, 2018 at 1:20 PM Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Elmer Fudd
>
> He used to be a colored fellow, before he came to his senses.
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0z7oZ0jzQs
> On Thu, Oct 11, 2018 at 12:11 PM Andy Bach <afbach at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > According to "Now You Know" and WikiP, Chuck Jones et alia are the actual
> > coiners of the idiot version:
> > " The word “nimrod” is commonly used to describe someone who is acting
> like
> > a doofus, but the word originally meant the opposite. “Nimrod” originally
> > comes from the name of a biblical Egyptian king who was widely regarded
> as
> > a skilled hunter. But, according to Wikipedia
> > <
> https://nowiknow.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2889002ad89d45ca21f50ba46&id=aefcd20163&e=33dbfa3b8f
> >,
> > Bugs Bunny (yes, the iconic cartoon character) used the term
> sarcastically
> > in reference to hapless hunter Elmer Fudd. Viewers didn’t pick up the
> > sarcasm and the meaning of the term reversed. "
> >
> > WikiP cites "Garner's Modern American Usage":
> >
> https://books.google.com/books?id=mVcJqKs1isUC&pg=PR53#v=onepage&q&f=false
> >
> > Though they also cite the "Dictionary of Jewish Usage"
> >
> https://books.google.com/books?id=Nk_RFL9LYg0C&pg=PA126#v=onepage&q&f=false
> >
> > which says it was in use as meaning "maroon" (said to be Bugs'
> > pronunciation of "moron", not referring to Maroons, runaway slaves (which
> > the Straight Dope differs:
> > https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-25808.html
> > )) is noted as far back as the 1930s
> >
> >
> > --
> >
> > a
> >
> > Andy Bach,
> > afbach at gmail.com
> > 608 658-1890 cell
> > 608 261-5738 wk
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
>
> --
> -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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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."
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