Dis sh0t is banannas

[nycste]

ok this **** is bananas


when did this term seriouslly come up.


DO NOT SAY GWEN. cuz she didnt start it.


i personally first herd it i think around the year 2002 from a black artist friend who is really popular. soo when my friends and i heard him say " ya man that **** is bananas" we freaking laughed so hard cuz of the way he said it.

now where did this term come up ive been doing some google research and cant find anything real not relating to GWEN.



some interesting things i found

 

[nycste]

quoted from english-test. net

someone asked.

Hi again, I often wonder what kind of lyrics people in Europe listen to every day on the radio. Take this example by Gwen Stefani, in one her songs (which is quite popular in Switzerland) she sings: "... this **** is bananas" and I'm sure 99% of the people here don't know what this means and I'm one of them. So can you please tell what Gwen Stefani is talking about? She also claims "I'm no holla back girl". I looked up holla back girl in the Urban Dictionary and the definition says that a holla back girl "... is willing to be treated like a booty call." Then there is a definition of "booty call". What I would like to know is the origin of "holla back". Does it originate from "holler back", that means, a holla back girl is a girl that gets hollered back at all the time? And what about the origin of booty call?

Thanks for enlightening me!
Nicole


"This **** is bananas," means, "This nonsense is insane."

The lyrics you're talking about are in ghetto slang, and by the time white people learn it, it's already out of date.

"Holla back" is "holler back" in US black vernacular. (Not all blacks talk that way, by the way, and many are ashamed of the dialect.) "You holla back," would mean, "Call me back." It could be the kind of girl you can ignore until you just want to use her, and she doesn't seem to mind. The man doesn't care about her, and he only calls her for sex.

In slang, "booty" means buttocks. (In standard English it means stolen goods or a baby's knitted shoe.) So a "booty call" is calling up a girl for "booty shakin'" which means sex.

Speaking of that kind of language, at advertising agencies the supplier representatives often bring goodies for the staff to eat. Once, around Christmas time, one graphic design rep visiting an agency where I worked brought us three chocolate chip cookies, each the size of a large pizza. Because Christmas was coming, there was writing on the cookies that said, "Ho, ho, ho!" when you opened the box. That's supposed to be Santa Claus's laugh. The most central place to put the cookies was on a secretary's desk, one on each, so that everyone would see it, cut it up and eat a piece. This meant, however, that each secretary would come back to her desk and see a big cookie that said "Ho" on it. One black secretary put her hand on her hip, gave the supplier rep an indignant look, and shrieked, "Who you callin' a ho?!" (She was only joking, though.)

 

[nycste]

taken from
ask.metafilter .com

I understand the biological processes okay, but I can't figure out where the expressions "go ape****" and "bat**** insane" come from. The first seems like it might have something to do with flinging poo, but the second makes no sense at all.

Does exposure to guano cause insanity? Is it just a really crazy situation when a bat ****s on you?

That seems pretty likely, Big Fat Tycoon. Interestingly, batty is just an abbreviation of "bats in the belfry," the belfry being one's head, I guess.
posted by landtuna at 9:35 AM on March 21


I don't know if he originated it, but I know Hunter Thompson used "bat**** insane;" he was fond of bats, ****, insanity, and neologisms, so I wouldn't be terribly shocked if he was the one who coined the phrase.
posted by COBRA! at 9:35 AM on March 21

I recall reading a cartoon as a kid where a character started to act strangely after entering a cave with bats.
A quick google:
Aerosol transmission of rabies is known to occur in bat caves in the United States but has not been reported in Ontario.

 

[nycste]

taken from
ask.metafilter .com

I think that in both cases "****" is being used as an intensifier, and as such doesn't carry its literal meaning (see, for example, "****-ton", as in "I saw a ****-ton of accidents on the way to work today").
posted by Prospero at 9:38 AM on March 21


On the Bat**** insane, bat guano collecting in caves invites parasites. Some of the parasites can cause health problems in humans. Or least strange behavior (like a flea infestation) in some humans. I think there used to be rumor about breathing in parasites from bat and/or bird droppings and the parasites then eating in to your brain causing erratic behaviour. My memory is dim on this one.
posted by JigSawMan at 9:43 AM on March 21


Does exposure to guano cause insanity?

No - histoplasmosis, maybe. (Incidentally, birdshot is also guano.)

Bats themselves are often carriers of rabies, which might contribute to the "insane" part.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 9:43 AM on March 21


Ah, some more googling (bat guano diseases) also brought to light that rabies may be contracted, surely that would make you look insane.
posted by JigSawMan at 9:45 AM on March 21


I think it's linguistically simpler than that: people used to go bananas. Slang evolves- bananas are ape ****, ha ha, he's ape****!

Once you have one animal's **** being synonymous with insanity, you can substitute pretty much anything. I could say "John went frog**** wild at the bar last Saturday," and be understood.

Bat**** works especially well because we already had "bats in the belfrey" so it's a callback to the newly-coined phrase, with a solid foundation in a previous one to enhance comprehension.

(See also: Flappers starting out being the cat's meow, and by 1929, you could also be the bee's knees, the cat's pajamas, the flea's eyebrows, the canary's tusks, the snake's hips, the clam's garters, etc., etc., etc..)


headspace, with regard to your second example I understood that it started off as the "bees knees", which was making fun of the way Italian-Americans pronounced "The business". But I'm just repeating what I've read. Anyway the more important point (which you made!) is that however it started, all the other variations just followed the same pattern. I like your bananas=ape**** theory.

 

[nycste]

taken from
ask.metafilter .com


Are there uses of bat**** (as in bat**** crazy) that predate Col. Bat Guano in Dr. Strangelove?

Personally, I think the best intensifier for crazy is not bat**** but bug****. Someone who is bug**** crazy is more crazier nor what someone who is bat**** crazy is.

From the OED (the New Edition)

c. Used quasi-advb. in to go ape (slang, orig. U.S.), to go ‘crazy’; to become excited, violent, sexually aggressive, etc.; to display strong enthusiasm or appreciation; also, to malfunction.

1955 Amer. Speech XXX. 117 [Air Force slang] Go ape; go ape ****, v. phr., react in an irrational manner; go into a frenzy.

Military slang (rather unsurprisingly, considering all the other euphemisms that have come from military jargon/slang) wherefrom the OED attributes first-usage

Etymonline has nothing on bat****, but the following on ape****: "To go ape (in emphatic form, go ape****) "go crazy" is 1955, U.S. slang."


Don't forget "apewire," a "haywire"/"ape****" hybrid invented for television. X-Files IIRC.


"Aren't there pathogens in Bat **** that make you sick and perhaps act crazy/feverish?"

There was a show on HGTV recently about a lady that bought a house without having it adequately inspected. When she was driving home one day she T-boned an oncoming car because she didn't see it.

Turned out that there were a ton of bats in her attic (literally, in this case) and, apparently, prolonged exposure to bat guano can cause abrasions in one's eye.

Though it's surely not the origin of bat**** insane, I know I'd be pretty upset if I went blind because of bat poop.

 

[nycste]

ok im sorry i just had to share that...

ENJOY THE READ I know i DID

 

[Chad]

dork

 

[nycste]

dork

im honored u keep following me around. but seriously get over it. i dumped u. GET LOST.

 

[Chad]

im honored u keep following me around. but seriously get over it. i dumped u. GET LOST.

thats not what you were saying last night when you were drunk texting me. :rasp: