Talk:Cowabunga

Origins

The article says: "'Kawagoopa' meant 'good', and 'kawabonga' meant 'bad.'"

As I remember it, "kawagoopa" was the expression used by Princess Summer-Fall-Winter-Spring (of the Tinka-Tonka tribe) and "kawabonga" the one used by Chief Thunderthud (of the Ooragnaks). They both seemed like fairly all-purpose expletives, often meaning something like "golly!"

Kostaki mou 02:57, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Bart

I noticed someone removed the reference to Bart, and while I'm not sure if he ever said it on the show (except for the "Behind the Music" type episode where he read it as part of a script and remarked that he doesn't talk like that), it was heavily used in merchandising and perhaps still worth a mention. If someone can provide evidence that he used it on the show, it should be put back for sure. Peyna 14:44, 3 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

It turns out he did say it in a halloween episode "The Telltale Head", Season 1, Episode 8. [1]. I think I'll go watch just to verify this and make an update upon verification. Peyna 14:47, 3 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Okay, so I confirmed it. It's not a halloween episode (I confused it with another), but he does it say while skateboarding halfway through the episode. Peyna 15:24, 3 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
He also said it in "Bart Gets an F" and attempted to say it in "Treehouse of Horror XVI". Hans Moleman has also said it when the Simpsons "adopted" him in "Burns' Heir".--Steven X 11:34, 31 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

crane?

What the heck is this section:

In 1982 Haussler Oil & Petroleum Services (H.O.P.S.) purchased a Ford LTL 9000 hydro-crane. It had Kowabunga Kranes painted on the door, it was sold in 1988 shortly before the company went under. According to Mr. Haussler "It was sort of the Hit it! (What you say when you are ready as a water skier). In other words a Balls to the Wall attitude that we can do whatever it takes to get the job done. I imagine it has to do with a very high testosterone level."

I just... I can't even figure out what this section means. Something about a crane, a single crane (although perhaps a large one) with Kowabunga painted on it... after that you lose me entirely... is there any reason for this passage to exist? Herostratus 23:32, 30 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Origins

I agree with Kostaki mou. This is my recollection, too. And so, I have edited the page accordingly.

There actually were a number of other Indian characters on Howdy Doody, and a number of other "Kawa" expressions. When excited, Princess Summerfall Winterspring occasionally would exclaim, "Kawa Mazoola, Buffalo Bob!" And Chief Thunderthud would sometimes grunble, 'Kawa Rashi!" I assume he was referring to the baseball player Vic Rashi, whose daughter appeared in the Peanut Gallery occasionally, and not to the 11th Century rabbi of that name.

And then there was Chief Thunderchicken, who was of the Zulawagawaga Tribe. He did a kind of Jewish Indian shtick, and he was sometimes known to exclaim "Kawa Chicken!"

GrouchoRoss 05:33, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Expand, merge or redirect

This page is a mere dictionary definition (something which Wikipedia is not). It explains the meaning and origins of a slang term and provides many examples of usage of the term. I can't find any encyclopedic content on this page. Nothing here rises past what I would expect to read in a truly great unabridged dictionary. The definitions and usage discussions belong over in Wiktionary where folks with the right skills, interests and lexical tools can more easily sort out the meanings and origins.

Options to fix the page here include:

Expand the page with encyclopedic content - that is, content that goes well beyond the merely lexical.
Redirect the page to a more general page on the appropriate sub-genre of slang.
Replace the current contents with a soft-redirect to Wiktionary (usually done using the {{wi}} template).

Pending a better answer, I'm implementing option 3 for now. Rossami (talk) 00:29, 21 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Why there should be a wikipedia article about this term

Introduction

In my younger years, I regularly watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. A term often used in the show was, of course, Cowabunga. The term also appeared in the movies. I was always interested in the knowing what, if anything, the term meant, but I had no means of researching it at that young age.

Yesterday, my girlfriend and I opted to watch Muppet Treasure Island, in which one of the characters uses the term cowabunga. This reminded me of my age-old desire to learn more about the term. Much to my chagrin, I came to this page only to discover that there was no article thereabout, only a recommendation to check out the wiktionary entry instead. The wretched wiktionary entry has but one definition, viz., “an expression of surprise or amazement, often followed by ‘dude’.” Surprise? Amazement? Really? I have yet to ever hear the term used to denote surprise or amazement—anywhere. I’d be far more inclined to regard it as a term of excitement. (To make matters worse, the only example of the term being used in a sentence was “Cowabunga, dude! Look at that crazy Godzilla!” It sounds like something off of urban dictionary, for goodness sake.)

Undeterred, I opted to check out the etymology page. It reads like a wikipedia section, not something that deserves to be on wiktionary.

Moreover, based on what I read on the etymology page, I can come only to the conclusion that cowabunga is a generic slang term of excitement with no actual definition, but with loads influence on pop-culture, which means that it probably deserves to have a wikipedia article, not a wiktionary article.

What this article needs

It would seem that, in order for this article to work, it would need (1) a description of the origins of the term, (2) a series of examples of it being used in popular culture, and (3) a description of how the term may have impacted popular culture or evolved into popular usage outside of film and television.

The first two paragraphs of the wiktionary etymology page does a very good job of describing the term’s origins, and appears fairly well-cited. (Perhaps an expansion of information presented in the first citation would be in order.)

The etymology page also has some very useful citations for other examples of the term being used in popular culture.

I decided to see if any previous edits to this former wikipedia article had any useful stuff, and I discovered that it did.

What I found

I found that, as recently as 29 August 2010, there was a fairly-good article getting off the ground, as one can see here. While I think this article would have needed to be reorganised, and while it seems regrettable that so little of the article has proper citation, these are fixable issues.

If we were to begin with the 29 August 2010 article, and incorporate the citations currently on the wiktionary etymology page, methinks we would be well on our way to having a valuable wikipedia article.

So, that begs the question, why was the 29 August 2010 wikipedia article deleted? It was deleted by Oknazevad on the grounds that “The presence of a list of trivial uses only makes it worse, not better.” In other words, Oknazevad deleted the article because it contained a list of references in popular culture; what Oknazevad apparently didn’t realise is that the significance of the term is its relation to popular culture. While I would agree that the list—and, indeed, the entire article—needed to be better organised, this is by no means justification for deleting the entire article.

What those who have deleted this article have often claimed is that the article did not deserve to be on wikipedia because it appeared more like a dictionary entry than an encyclopedia entry. And, this might have been true if it lacked something to indicate that the term had a broader impact, that it had usage outside of movies and film. But, it did have something to indicate this, even in the 29 August 2010 that Oknazevad deleted. In fact, this information was already available in one of the article’s earliest edits.

In an edit made by Zanimum in the first day of this article’s existence (8 September 2004), it reads:

The term has become common with usage in the general media. A press release for The National Human Genome Research Institute read "Cowabunga! Scientists To Start Bovine Genome Project", and a MSNBC article has been titled Cowabunga: Manure becomes electricity.

A few months later, Mike R put this paragraph in a Recent Use subsection, as one can see here: here. It remained a “recent use” item until it was ultimately deleted by Oknazevad.

The only real problem with that paragraph is that it lacks citation, but citations are easy to find and easy to incorporate.

Instead of deleting the article, would it not have made more sense to simply add citations?

Another thing I noticed

This page began being soft-redirected to wiktionary by Rossami on 21 February 2008. While Rossami’s actions were probably in good faith, it opened this page up to a great deal of increased vandalism, such as this, possibly this, this, this, this, this, &c.

And, since Oknazevad deleted the entire article on 29 August 2010, the only edits to this page appear to be bot-edits and vandalism edits—nothing else.

Conclusion

This slang term, having no real “meaning,” does not exactly deserve to be on wiktionary. But, since it has loads of cultural significance, it does deserve to be on wikipedia.

Having an article about cowabunga on wikipedia would greatly decrease the tendency for vandalism to appear on this page.

What such an article needs is citations to be added, not for editors to trash the entire article. What the article also needs is to be better organised. Finally, the article needs to clarify the impact the term has had on culture, which can be aided by examples of the term expanding beyond the confines of film and television.

I believe a good cowabunga article can exist, and that much of what has been deleted should be readed (with proper citation); incorporated into it should be appropriate information from the current wiktionary etymology page (especially the citations).

This can be done.

To those who are unsatisfied with what emerges, please do not simply say, “This only has X, and therefore should not be on wikipedia.” Please say, “This lacks Y, and until it has Y, it does not belong on wikipedia,” so that those editors who are motivated may locate Y and incorporate it, thereby improving the article.

Best regards,
allixpeeke (talk) 13:23, 9 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

@allixpeeke: I completely agree that the current treatment at Wiktionary is ridiculous, with the etymology moved to a subpage and expanded to Wikipedia levels instead of just listing the actual origin of the word. That entire subpage (NOT the entry) should be deleted there and brought here to start the Wikipedia page on its cultural use and development. Cf. our treatment of Tarzan's "kreegah bundolo". — LlywelynII 15:14, 4 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]