Thursday, April 4, 2013

D is for Duck Soup



The first I ever heard this phrase was through one of my favorite TV shows: The Gilmore Girls. It’s just in a minor scene: Rory and a boy, who is interested in her, make plans to watch the Marx Brother’s Duck Soup, and it is never really mentioned again. I’ll admit, watching the movie intrigued me as did most of the references on the show. But I never actually got around to watching the movie. Sure, it sits in my Netflix queue along with a good two dozen or more classic movies that I’ve never seen but I find that those classics always get pushed down the list in favor of cartoons from the 80s and TV shows that I want to check out now that I don’t have cable.

My dad, a classic movie…collector…aficionado…geek…probably has copies of all the Marx Brother’s movies on VHS and I could have borrowed them last time he came to visit but aside from the fact that I don’t have a VCR anymore, I’ve never been overly fond of comedies so I never made a concerted effort with them. Sure there a few that I love…Spaceballs and Monty Python come to mind, but for the most part I avoid slapstick like I do a rabid Tasmanian Devil on meth and cocaine. 

The phrase “Duck Soup” has been around since the early 1900s and has undergone a few revitalizations. But when I first heard it I took it at a literal meaning: soup made with duck. I figured that it was probably the greasiest soup in existence, but hey! some people eat bull testicles so who am I to judge. Imagine my surprise then when I was researching my slang terms and came across duck soup. 

Duck Soup is a noun that in 1910 meant something easy, but in 1970, it came to mean excellent and then in 1990s it took on a new definition: crazy. 

This evolution of a word’s denotation and connotation is one of the things I love about language. That a factory worker in the early 1900s, a hippie in the 70s and flannel wearing grunge rocker could all use the same phrase and mean complete different things is also one of the reasons why English is a wickedly hard language to learn. 

As a child of the 80s and 90s I can honestly say I have no recollection if duck soup was every used this way. If it was, it certainly never had the same impact as “cowabunga” or “loco” to me. Personally, I like the 1910 meaning and that’s what I’ll use in my example. 

Example: “Dang! Danny!” David declared dropping his duffel of demolition devices down on the dingy deck, “This deal is definitely duck soup!”

This post has been brought to you by the Letter D and the fine folks at Blogging A to Z. And by the number 1169. Check out more A to Z blogs here!

18 comments:

  1. Interesting post! I've heard Duck Soup before, but never knew what it meant or where it came from. Thanks for enlightening me. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't know where I grew up then, because I am exactly your age and I've never heard of duck soup before. LOL

    ReplyDelete
  3. Interesting post - learning something new every day.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You are really helping us learn new words and this is such fun

    ReplyDelete
  5. Duck Soup isn't my favorite Marx Brothers movie, but it is a very good one. Like all their movies, it's as much about playing with language as it is about slapstick. Honestly, they're the only comedies I can watch over and over again without losing interest!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You know, when I was writing this, I knew that you'd probably have seen all of the Marx Brother's movies and would probably be disappointed in my lack of interest.

      Maybe I'll give them another shot! :)

      Delete
  6. I'm so sorry that you're going to have to take a break from posting, but I surely do understand how work interferes with play. I just became a follower because I think you're a great writer . . . so creative and such control of the language. Enjoy your work. I love mine!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just to clarify - I'm still posting, I'm just not going to be replying to comments on my blog until I get a day off. That way I can concentrate on commenting on other people's blogs. My posts will be coming just the same!

      Thanks for becoming a follower!

      Delete
  7. ah, I did love the movie, and figured it meant crazy lol. Loving your posts.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I rather miss the Gilmore Girls. I've never seen Duck Soup either. Happy D!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It made me yearn to live in Star's Hollow!!

      Delete
  9. I love your theme!! Duck soup is coming with me too!

    Hugs!

    Valerie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I bet you're going to need to make yourself a handy-dandy word list because the hits are going to keep rolling in!!

      Delete
  10. I love it!! I didn't know that duck soup meant anything other than a title to a movie!! I'll be usin' that one!

    Connie
    Checkin' in from the A to Z Challenge.
    Peanut Butter and Whine

    ReplyDelete
  11. I never heard of the movie or the phrase. Well, ignorance is never complete, is it? :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. That's a cool one! I have heard the phrase before, but have never known what it meant, in any of it's incarnations.

    I am virtually certain I would NOT like actual duck soup :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. I never heard that phrase before. Its pretty strange. Then again, duck soup itself would be strange so I guess it kind of fits.

    ReplyDelete