Thar She Bloviates!
Cidu Bill on Oct 30th 2009
Bookworm: Pibgorn and The Fusco Brothers both used the word bloviate — a word I had never heard of until today. What are the odds? Or has some public figure used it lately and I wasn’t paying attention?
Filed in Bill Bickel, Brooke McEldowney, Fusco Brothers, Pibgorn, comic strips, comics, humor, synchronicity | 27 responses so far
Kelex Oct 30th 2009 at 12:05 am 1
I’ve heard Bill O’Reilly use the word a few times. Which would probably be the reason for the Fox News reference in the first comic.
Charlene Oct 30th 2009 at 12:49 am 2
It’s a new slang term that describes people who think that talking really loudly and interrupting a lot is the best way to win an argument.
Duncman Oct 30th 2009 at 01:15 am 3
It’s not a new slang term. I have seen it and heard it for years now. It is an actual recognized word in the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
Frank the curmudgeon Oct 30th 2009 at 01:33 am 4
He wants to replace Geraldo. Not a bad idea.
Charlene - new slang didn’t ring right. I checked and it can be traced back to at least the mid 1800s. Not quite the days of my youth but … .
Kit Oct 30th 2009 at 02:07 am 5
“Bloviate” certainly fits McEldowney’s style . . .
cheekychico Oct 30th 2009 at 04:37 am 6
Charlene, according to www.dictionary.com, the word was invented and popularised in the mid 1850s, so no, it’s not VERY new!!
mkilby Oct 30th 2009 at 04:41 am 7
Continuing the dictionary scan, the Concise OED denotes it as “US(A)”, and traces it back to the 19th century, “perhaps from ‘blow(1)’.” However, my copy of American Heritage does not list it at all. Perhaps they figured out that nobody would miss this word if it were to disappear.
Daniel J. Drazen Oct 30th 2009 at 06:25 am 8
The Pibgorn here is the perfect explanation of why I gave up on that comic after two tries.
furrykef Oct 30th 2009 at 06:39 am 9
Didn’t Clinton and Lewinsky get in trouble when she bloviated him?
Tom T. Oct 30th 2009 at 07:23 am 10
Is that Pibgorn a rerun?
Heather D Oct 30th 2009 at 08:36 am 11
Tom T: No, it’s yesterday’s. Dru was killed (and has been dead for many strips now), unleashing a horror of demon spawn upon the earth while Torquemada narrates the whole thing, then the video chick stabbed Dru’s dead body and got all glowy and exploded, and the sparkly explosion carried over the entire globe, killing all the newborn demons. Then the young guy pressed his remote control buttons and the video chick was back to ‘normal’ (no more succubus ears). Then Dru was reformed in the water, but so was Torquemada, so he’s still bent on vengeance.
It’s actually been not too bad to follow lately, this strip was really wordy because Torquemada was giving the complete recap for those just tuning in after the commercial break…
Bearman Oct 30th 2009 at 08:42 am 12
Not new. Kelex is correct with the reference which probably remade it popular although not new word.
Oreilly will end his show with letters from readers. I think once someone used the word to describe him so now he asks others not to bloviate when they write.
GP Oct 30th 2009 at 09:10 am 13
I’ve caught the last minutes of O’Reilly’s show a few times, and I believe it’s common after the admonition not to bloviate that he says, “Only I get to do that.”
Judge Mental Oct 30th 2009 at 09:49 am 14
I know these aren’t CIDUs, but can someone clue me in to the Pigborn comic? Is it even supposed to be funny? In what order am I supposed to read the last few panels and does it make a difference?
(Please forgive me, Brooke McEldowney comics are to me what cat comics are to Cidu Bill)
Mark Jackson Oct 30th 2009 at 10:07 am 15
C’mon Bill - the NCS Calendar Committee does more than just schedule the beginning and end of golf joke season.
bookworm Oct 30th 2009 at 10:52 am 16
Judge, Pibgorn isn’t funny, it’s a serial — a graphic novel in installments. Heather D gave a great synopsis of the storyline which has been running since March. It seems to be winding down, though with McE you never can tell. I started reading it because of the artwork, but stayed because of the characters and stories.
One other observation: You can’t get 2 more opposite comics than these 2 as far as artwork, plot, or character development. They are alike in that neither is funny.
Kamino Neko Oct 30th 2009 at 10:56 am 17
Pibgorn is a plot comic, not a gag comic. There is humour, but it’s not necessarily a punchline to a given comic.
No, this strip’s not supposed to be funny, except in a fairly general amusement at Tom’s OTT gameshow persona. It’s a setup for a (hopefully) final confrontation between Tom and Dru.
Mark M Oct 30th 2009 at 11:21 am 18
‘Bloviate’ has been commonly used for years where I work to describe someone who goes on and on trying to sound impressive but never really says anything of substance.
Scott Oct 30th 2009 at 11:56 am 19
http://books.google.com/books?id=2Ju-Vu0v6GQC&pg=PA195&lpg=PA195&dq=bloviate+Mencken+Harding&source=bl&ots=SHfo8Zvdzk&sig=zPsJh8Z6-7Y3N7ZBSRiZlzo5_GM&hl=en&ei=OAzrSouAJZLWtgP6iZTkCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CA4Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=bloviate%20Mencken%20Harding&f=false is a link to a Google book giving some of the history. It got popularized by H. L. Mencken describing Warren G. Harding.
So, definitely not new.
bookworm Oct 30th 2009 at 12:16 pm 20
Thanks, Scott. Interesting passage — looks like a good book.
Fried Oct 30th 2009 at 12:55 pm 21
bloviate (v.)
1857, Amer.Eng., a Midwestern word for “to talk aimlessly and boastingly; to indulge in ‘high falutin’,” according to Henley (1890), who seems to have been the only British lexicographer to notice it. He says it was based on blow (v.) on the model of deviate, etc. It seems to have been felt as outdated slang already by late 19c. (”It was a leasure for him to hear the Doctor talk, or, as it was inelegantly expressed in the phrase of the period, ‘bloviate….’ ” [”Overland Monthly,” San Francisco, 1872, describing a scene from 1860]), but it enjoyed a revival early 1920s in the presidency of Warren G. Harding, who wrote a notoriously ornate and incomprehensible prose (e.e. cummings eulogized him as “The only man, woman or child who wrote a simple declarative sentence with seven grammatical errors”) at which time the word took on its connection with political speech; it faded again thereafter, but, with its derivative, bloviation, it enjoyed a revival in the 2000 U.S. election season that continued through the era of blogging.
Lihtox Oct 30th 2009 at 03:03 pm 22
Note to to CIDU Bill: you “filed” this comic under Pigborn, not PiBGorn as it’s supposed to be. (Been ages since I read the comic regularly, but I still remember making that mistake.
Unless it’s a joke, in which case never mind.
CIDU Bill Oct 30th 2009 at 03:07 pm 23
It was indeed an error, Lihtox: I don’t read the strip, and I quite sloppily tagged what I thought it was called.
Lord Jubjub Oct 30th 2009 at 06:23 pm 24
There is actually a punchline there. It is the “say goodnight, Gracie” line. Dru is, at present, far more powerful than Tom. That line is meant as a foreshadow of Tom’s fate.
Cidu Bill Oct 30th 2009 at 06:50 pm 25
Today’s Fun Fact: The “Say goodnight Gracie” gag most people believe they remember never actually happened: When George said “Say goodnight, Gracie,” she responded with “Goodnight.”
The confusion set in because of Rowen and Martin’s Laugh-In, where they parodied the Burns and Allen signoff: “Say goodnight, Dick.” “Goodnight, Dick.”
Rebecca Oct 31st 2009 at 01:59 am 26
I know what the strip’s called, but I always find myself calling it “Pigborn.”
The Bad Seed Oct 31st 2009 at 10:08 am 27
Aw, the Fusco Bros one did make me smile. The Fuscos rarely supply knee-slappers, that’s not their style - more like wry smirks.