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Chris -- 2018-04-11
Alright, I was reading daily kos today, and a front page poster called a group of people “loonie tunes”
I said to myself, is it really “tunes” or is it “toons” as in cartoons? Turns out, it’s the “loonie” that is incorrect, as it should be “looney”
A “loonie” is a Canadian dollar. I checked and sure enough, people commonly use the phrase “loonie tunes” especially in the Canadian press. I then wondered about my own mistake “Looney toons” Sure enough, plenty of people use “toons” (see youtube!) instead of “tunes” since it makes sense to call those old “toons” looney.
So it’s twofold:
loonie tunes for looney tunes
looney toons for looney tunes
Egg corns are cool :)
The quote from DKos:
In other words, the loonie tunes, whack-a-doodle, teabaggers disguised as sane people prowling the halls of Congress. Talk about the need for an investigation … or at least mental health screening.
The post is BarbinMD Four House Republicans Have In Their Hands a List … (sorry, I don’t know how to do links) </shame>
Last edited by fetcher (2009-10-16 07:25:07)
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Warner Bros. produced two short cartoon series between the 1930s and 1960s, called “Merrie Melodies” and “Looney Tunes”. Those spellings are taken from the title cards on the cartoons themselves. They were contemporary with a Disney series called “Silly Symphonies”.
I have no idea if “looney tunes” as a synonym for “crazy” was in use before the cartoon, or if the usage was inspired by the cartoon.
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