mezhdometno-glagolnye formy

[Susan LaVelle]

I am just a graduate student, so I am very hesitant to join in to the mix
with so many slavicists watching, but I think that the phrase, "wham bam"
aside from the sexual meanings that some people have posited (and don't fit
at all with the context of the original, from what I can see) comes from
comic books, where the action is written in balloons above the sound of the
fist of the comic book hero (or badguy): kerpow! wham! bam! zowie! This
referent seems to me to be stating that the person in your sentence had a
flashing thought, just as if they were struck in the head--wham--from the
punch of an idea. Perhaps looking at a similar Russian comic book with its
balloons would be the best way to come up with an exact sort of phrase.

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