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One Incontrovertible, Unequivocal, Undeniable Fact Which Refutes the Diary
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I have found a reference to 'bloated buffoon' (1835)
London Courier and Evening Gazette - Tuesday 05 May 1835 (p4)
I don't believe it is too far of a stretch that using other adjectives beginning with B before the word Bufoon would be possible to be in use in everyday parlance. This is 53 years before 1888.
Last edited by erobitha; 08-29-2020, 06:53 PM.
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Originally posted by erobitha View PostI have found a reference to 'bloated buffoon' (1835)
London Courier and Evening Gazette - Tuesday 05 May 1835 (p4)
I don't believe it is too far of a stretch that using other adjectives beginning with B before the word Bufoon would be possible to in use in everyday parlance. This is 53 years before 1888.
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Originally posted by MrBarnett View Post
Ero, you’ve revealed yourself as an Orsam-hating, diary-defender, indulging in mental gymnastics by suggesting that Maybrick was such a literary genius that he might have substituted the word bumbling for bloated to invent the outrageously modern term ‘bumbling buffoon’.
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I have also found:
'Buckinghamshire Buffoon' (1874)
Leeds Times, Sat 21st Feb 1872 (p8)
'Brooklyn Buffoon' (1882)
Toronto Daily Mail, Friday 30th June 1882 (p4)
'Bradbury's Buffoon' (1885)
Sporting Gazette, Sat 10th Oct 1885 (p12)
'Burly Buffoon' (1888)
Star of Gwent, Friday 20 July 1888 (p6)
It's a real mind bender on how anyone could even contemplate putting B words before Buffoon prior to 1950, it really is.
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Originally posted by erobitha View PostI have also found:
'Buckinghamshire Buffoon' (1874)
Leeds Times, Sat 21st Feb 1872 (p8)
'Brooklyn Buffoon' (1882)
Toronto Daily Mail, Friday 30th June 1882 (p4)
'Bradbury's Buffoon' (1885)
Sporting Gazette, Sat 10th Oct 1885 (p12)
'Burly Buffoon' (1888)
Star of Gwent, Friday 20 July 1888 (p6)
It's a real mind bender on how anyone could even contemplate putting B words before Buffoon prior to 1950, it really is.
How many different examples can be turned up with "bumbling" before something alliterative? That'd be interesting, there's no doubting the use of Buffoon, I wonder about Bumbling?Thems the Vagaries.....
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Originally posted by erobitha View PostI have also found:
'Buckinghamshire Buffoon' (1874)
Leeds Times, Sat 21st Feb 1872 (p8)
'Brooklyn Buffoon' (1882)
Toronto Daily Mail, Friday 30th June 1882 (p4)
'Bradbury's Buffoon' (1885)
Sporting Gazette, Sat 10th Oct 1885 (p12)
'Burly Buffoon' (1888)
Star of Gwent, Friday 20 July 1888 (p6)
It's a real mind bender on how anyone could even contemplate putting B words before Buffoon prior to 1950, it really is.
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Originally posted by Al Bundy's Eyes View Post
Not a mind bender at all, that's the damnedest thing. Why is it that one specific phrase that can't (thus far) be found? It's curious, it really is.
How many different examples can be turned up with "bumbling" before something alliterative? That'd be interesting, there's no doubting the use of Buffoon, I wonder about Bumbling?
Was it possible that it could have been in use, even by just a select few in conversation, absolutely. People who putting B word adjectives in front of the word Buffoon 50 years prior to 1888.
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Originally posted by MrBarnett View Post
How many examples of this wonderfully alliterative phrase can you find in the 70 years between 1950 and 2020?
Thousands?
Hundreds?
Dozens?
I’ve only found a handful and I’m left wondering why.
I suspect its because you're looking on the wrong side of the pond, Gary.
If you punch the phrase into the British newspaper archive you get only 22 immediate and obvious hits, none earlier than 1971.
But if you punch the phrase into a primarily American newspaper archive (newspapers.com) you get 1,084 immediate hits, from 1949 onward, including dozens upon dozens of examples in television reviews, movie reviews, editorials, and even crosswords puzzles, which suggests that by now this alliterative insult had widely disseminated into mainstream culture.
Surely you aren't suggesting that all these writers independently came up with the phrase? (And as previously noted, it can also be found in modern film dialogue and music lyrics--also in America).
Meanwhile, it's now on the British side of the pond. As we can see in the following bit from the Daily Mail.
I am convinced the phrase was popularized by American tv/radio, possibly a specific show, but one I have yet to identify.
Good catch by The Baron.
Any post-1949 Yanks among the suspects? Anne Barrett spent time in Oz, but I found ZERO results for "bumbling buffoon" in Paper's Past, an archive for newspapers in the Land Down Under.
Last edited by rjpalmer; 08-29-2020, 10:20 PM.
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