Blowing a raspberry: Encyclopedia - Blowing a raspberry

Blowing a raspberry

Blowing a raspberry or making a Bronx cheer is to make a noise made to signify derision, made by sticking out the tongue between the lips and blowing to make a sound reminiscent of flatulence. In the terminology of phonetics, this sound does not appear to have an official name, but might be characterized as a labiolingual trill.

Nomenclature: In the US, Bronx cheer is sometimes used, otherwise, in the US and in other English speaking countries, it is known as a raspberry, rasp or razz - the origin of which is an instance of Cockney rhyming slang, where the non-rhyming part of a rhyming phrase is used as a synonym. In this case, "raspberry tart" rhymes with "fart", and is first recorded in 1890 [1].

One of the most famous uses of the Bronx Cheer is in the song "Der Fuehrer's Face" (from the Disney animated film of the same name), as recorded by musical comedian Spike Jones in 1942, which shows disdain for Adolf Hitler with the repeated refrain "We'll Heil! <Bronx cheer sound> Heil! <Bronx cheer> Right in Der Fuehrer's Face!"

In the enormously popular 1970s television comedy All in the Family, whenever the main character, bigot Archie Bunker, lost an argument or had no snappy riposte he would frequently issue the Bronx Cheer at his liberal son-in-law, the Meathead, or whoever happened to be nearby. Occasionally, his usually sweet and polite daughter Gloria would give him one back, a feat that inevitably appalled the sexist Archie, who couldn't believe that his "little girl" could do such a thing.

In the USA, some whoopee cushions have "a Bronx Cheer" written on them.

The Razzie Awards appear to be named after this noise.

Also known as Zerberting.

Categories: Flatulence | Onomatopoeia

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Blowing a raspberry", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki