I’m pretty sure that was a deliberate play on words there. Our linguistic skills have fallen so for the last 50 years it’s scary. Another one that I *did* catch is that Costello always used to call Abbott “Babbit”, esp if he was yelling for him to come. Most modern folks don’t catch it. That wasn’t just him mispronouncing Abbott’s name or combining Bud Abbott into one name. A Babbit is “*derogatory US* a narrow-minded and complacent member of the middle class”. I also heard it used as describing a con artist, because of the metallurgy process of the same name involves a facade of one metal over another. Either one fits Abbott’s stage persona. π
I’m pretty sure that was a deliberate play on words there. Our linguistic skills have fallen so for the last 50 years it’s scary. Another one that I *did* catch is that Costello always used to call Abbott “Babbit”, esp if he was yelling for him to come. Most modern folks don’t catch it. That wasn’t just him mispronouncing Abbott’s name or combining Bud Abbott into one name. A Babbit is “*derogatory US* a narrow-minded and complacent member of the middle class”. I also heard it used as describing a con artist, because of the metallurgy process of the same name involves a facade of one metal over another. Either one fits Abbott’s stage persona. π
Likely so. I love Abbott and Costello. It did fit his stage persona. Perfectly!
I’m sticking with Elmer Fudd and that’s a wabbit for sure.
I agree! I saw that word and thought, according to Elmer thatβs not what it means! πππ
LOL! π
πππ