Ο Μπόμπος

[Theseus]

Who is ο Μπόμπος & why does he figure as a strange character in so many anecdotes?

 

[SBE]

Bobos is a young man/ teenager/ boy who features in several greek jokes. No real persons are depicted etc. etc.
Similarly in jokes about Pontians the protagonists are ο Κωστίκας κι ο Γιωρίκας (Κωνσταντίνος and Γιώργος in Pontic Greek).

 

[Theseus]

Thanks again, SBE. I have seen his name referred to several times today. :)

 

[SBE]

The other one is Τοτός.
Το άλλο με τον Τοτό το ξέρεις; = do you know the other joke with Totos? is an expression said after someone says something that we think is a joke, for example:
Α: ο πρωθυπουργός υποσχέθηκε φοροαπαλλαγές.
Β: ο άλλο με τον Τοτό το ξέρεις;

I think Totos is the clever one and Bobos is the naive one. And whenever there is a little girl in the jokes, she is Αννούλα.

 

[Theseus]

Thanks, SBE. This sort of information is the way to acquiring full fluency in Greek--jokes, political references, news items &c. I came across yesterday an anarchist group, calling themselves Συνωμοσία Πυρήνων της Φωτιάς who are sending letter bombs to other European leaders.

 

[drsiebenmal]

And whenever there is a little girl in the jokes, she is Αννούλα.

I wonder whether there is a folk innuendo here (Αννούλα = α, νούλα = a zero).

 

[AoratiMelani]

For what it's worth, "bobo" in Spanish means "silly". I don't know if this has anything to do with the fact that Bobos is the stupid guy in Greek jokes.

 

[nickel]

On the origin of Toto I find these pages interesting:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Johnny
https://europeisnotdead.com/disco/words-of-europe/european-little-johnny/

 

[Theseus]

Ευχ, Νίκελ.

 

[AoratiMelani]

Our Totos, quite predictably, appears to be of French origin.

 

[nickel]

Αν δείτε bobos σε αγγλικό κείμενο, μην πάει το μυαλό στον δικό μας τον Μπόμπο. Είναι όρος της δεκαετίας του 1990, δημιούργημα του δημοσιογράφου David Brooks, σύμμιγμα από τις λέξεις bourgeois και bohemian (με τη σημασία του μποέμ και όχι του Βοημού, έτσι; ).

bobo
A person having both the values of the counterculture of the 1960s and the materialism of the 1980s; a bourgeois Bohemian.
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/bobo

Πολλά παραδείγματα χρήσης παραπάνω, στο ODE, και άλλες εξηγήσεις εδώ:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobos_in_Paradise
https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2000/may/28/focus.news1

Να τον πούμε μποέμ μπουρζουά ή μπουρζουά μποέμ. Και για ελληνικό σύμμιγμα, μπορούμε κατά τους παππούδες να φτιάξουμε και μπομπούδες.