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There are certain words that make me chuckle when I hear them, even if they’re not supposed to be humorous. For example: highfalutin. Nothing really funny about the definition, obviously, but for some reason it just makes me smile. Others on my short-list include: rigmarole, doula, orangutan, curmudgeon, and Oscillococcinum (which always has me adding an additional cinuminuminum at the end).
Lately, my favorite funny sounding word has been bobblehead. Though not actually referred to as such, apparently the idea of a bobblehead can be traced all the way back to a Gogol short story written in 1842 called “The Overcoat.” In the story, the protagonist’s neck is said to be “like the necks of those plaster cats which wag their heads.” Later, in Germany, it seems there were dolls called Nodders with those little springs connecting the necks and heads.
One of the first bobbleheads manufactured and produced here in the States was a New York Knickerbockers baseball player around 1920. Then they seem to have vanished until the 1960s when Major League Baseball produced a series of papier-mâché bobblehead dolls, one for each team, all with the same cherubic face. Wiki tells us that “The World Series held that year brought the first player-specific baseball bobbleheads, for Roberto Clemente, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and Willie Mays, still all with the same face.”
As you might have guessed from the photo, one of my all-time favorite bobbleheads happens to be a recent addition to the scene: the Dwight Schrute. I just can’t stop myself from fondling his big-little bobbling head every time I see him on my colleague’s desk. It’s like the real Schrute was cast from the image of a bobblehead, rather than vice-versa.
In the tradition of interactive Wrapping, it’s time to let us know EITHER the strangest bobblehead you’ve ever seen, OR your favorite all-time bobblehead, OR, why not, even your favorite funniest sounding word. It’s Friday, we’re comment trolling today.
Comments (28)
Comment
the words cumquat and monkey make me giggle. i just cannot help it.
posted by Yerg on 6-1-2007 at 5:08 am
Ragamuffin, skalleywag and kitty corner are funny. I have a State Farm Bear and Bibendum the Michelin Man bobble heads. Your bobble head looks exactly like Garrison Keeler!
posted by Don on 6-1-2007 at 6:00 am
My all-time fav bobblehead is the Ozzy Osbourne bobblehead. It even comes with sound. “Shaaaaaaa-ron!”
posted by Jessie on 6-1-2007 at 6:34 am
I love the word conquistador. I just like the way it sounds.
posted by KJ on 6-1-2007 at 6:52 am
Yeah, second you on ‘kumkwat.’ It just sounds like it should be dirty, and because it’s not, that just makes it funnier.
Has anyone here heard “Bulbous Bouffant” by the Vestibules? It’s a four-minute spoken word piece about weird words.
posted by CJ Casey on 6-1-2007 at 6:54 am
I middle school “brouhaha” was one of my vocab words and to this day I can’t say it without adding an extra “haha” at the end. how can it not make you laugh?
posted by Cathy on 6-1-2007 at 7:18 am
Holy crap that does look like Garrison Keeler! oh and the word fork has just always sounded funny to me.
posted by Cotton on 6-1-2007 at 7:41 am
One of may favorites is not so much a word as a product name. “Snausages”, I just love the sound of that. I had a friend in tech school I could crack up just by saying the word.
posted by Flip on 6-1-2007 at 7:45 am
I’ve always enjoyed the dental term, sphenopalatine. It’s just fun to say. :)
posted by Beth on 6-1-2007 at 8:02 am
Put me down for lubricious, a word that can mean either slippery or lewd.
Velocipede is also usually good for a smile. It has that wonderful Mark Twain way of using 4 syllables to say “bike”.
posted by Tom on 6-1-2007 at 8:21 am
I love these words!
One of my faves is rhombus. Say it with me: rhommmmmmmm bussssssssss.
posted by Dan on 6-1-2007 at 8:59 am
Brouhaha definately. And I think “monkey” seems to have a universal reaction. I even repeat “monkey” over and over when I need to force a smile on a rough day. In my part of the country, they use a great word -”cattywumpus” (it means misaligned.) I love to say words like that because I don’t “look” like a stereotypical Southern country gal and it shocks people to hear quaint expressions come out somebody like me!
Oh, and I have a Beethoven bobblehead on my piano.
posted by Allison on 6-1-2007 at 9:11 am
As always, you guys never fail to disappoint. some of these words are on my list, too. but i have to admit, a beethoven bobblehead is a real find. like taking the bust to the next level
posted by David on 6-1-2007 at 9:15 am
My home town minor league team, The Portland Beavers, just hosted a competition to locate and immortalize the real Bob L. Head. They sent out letters to every Bob L. Head in the nation, asking them to send in essays for the chance to win a trip to Portland and be immortalized as a bobblehead doll…I believe the winner was from Iowa. Sidenote: This was a top news story.
posted by natlynn on 6-1-2007 at 9:51 am
I always liked “onomatopedia” said at a high, fast rate. To me it sounds like an expression of glee. The fictional expression “naddafinga” from A Christmas Story has also been useful.
posted by Kasee on 6-1-2007 at 10:00 am
My favorite word ever is Homunculus, and I always thought it was funny that tip of the tongue syndrome is called Anomic aphasia (a word which coincidentally can always escape my tongue).
posted by Celeste on 6-1-2007 at 10:05 am
Winnipegosis…
For those people that think Winnipeg is a silly word, there is also this small town in Manitoba. Nice place, friendly people, no idea what a native is called, maybe Winnipegosian.
posted by Jennifer on 6-1-2007 at 10:29 am
PUDDING. i don’t know why, but when someone says it, i just start laughing like the wierdo i am. of course that and bacon are fun to yell across a room that suddenly got all quiet.
posted by trouble on 6-1-2007 at 10:41 am
JSYK, The bobblehead is Dwight from The Office.
My favorite word is Saskatoon, where a lot of my relatives are from. It just sounds silly.
posted by Emma on 6-1-2007 at 3:00 pm
Add to your list: Quagmire and syzygy!
Say them out loud!
I have a Chicago Cubs bobblehead where the head is a Bear wearing a little baseball hat! So cute.
posted by Lauren on 6-1-2007 at 3:20 pm
My fave Bobbleheads have to be the band Rush, who starred in their own little TV show, That Darn Dragon (on YouTube).
For some reason, there seem to be an unusual number of weird words starting with the letter B:, as in the lyrics to King Crimson’s “Elephant Talk”: babble, burble, banter, bicker-bicker-bicker, brouhaha, balderdash, ballyhoo … it’s only talk. 8)
posted by brian t on 6-2-2007 at 1:56 am
The presence of “doula” on your list reminds me of an anecdote that a fellow doula of mine shared.
She was at the hospital, helping the mother-to-be, when the doctor arrived. She overheard the nurse in the hallway updating the doc on the mom’s progress, and informing him that the doula was also there.
She went out to introduce herself, and came across the doctor doing a little wiggly dance, chanting, “Doula doula doula doula!”
posted by Mel on 6-2-2007 at 11:59 am
Jenna Jameson, best bobblehead I could find.
posted by Zoey & Me on 6-2-2007 at 12:46 pm
My favorite place name is:
Pompano (Beach) - say Pom- pa- no… it is fun and it has so very many fun variations!
POMP a NO
Pom Pa No
Yeah Pompano Beach!
posted by Jeffrey on 6-2-2007 at 12:48 pm
Hehe… pudding. Trouble said pudding.
posted by Pointy-Hatted Geek on 6-3-2007 at 1:37 pm
Smock always makes me laugh, I think it comes from a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon where Hobbes goes around saying smock, smock, smock because he likes the way it sounds.
posted by greenstrawberries on 6-3-2007 at 10:13 pm
sur·rep·ti·tious
Pronunciation [sur-uhp-tish-uhs]
–adjective
1. obtained, done, made, etc., by stealth; secret or unauthorized;
clandestine: a surreptitious glance.
2. acting in a stealthy way.
posted by SURREPTITIOUS on 6-4-2007 at 10:13 pm
I always thought “cattywumpus” was “catterwomper” I guess that is what makes it funny, no one really knows what it is.
My all time favorite word, guaranteed to set 4th graders giggling,is “lolligag” which actually means to dawdle but when you think of the words together, it kind of fits in a weird way- lolli (pop)+ gag (when you choke on the lollipop) Hmmmm…
posted by Lisa on 6-5-2007 at 10:35 pm