It was Sven who told me that for a few hundred dollars, these guys he knows in Cambodia will let you shoot a bazooka at a cow. He mentioned this in the casual way that someone might recommend the Louvre if you happen to pass through Paris. I once made the mistake of relaying this anecdote to my friend DR, a lifelong fan of the flex-grunt-kaboom genre of American film embodied in such films as Commando, Die Hard and Rambo III. He's been talking about vacationing in Phenom Penh ever since.
While I in no way endorse this particular method of barbeque, I love the word “bazooka.” But, where did it come from? It is time once again to strap on a belt of ammunition and explore the history of a word that originally described an instrument of music, not destruction. A word introduced to English through comedy, but popularized through war.
In reality, “bazooka” is an unofficial and generic term. It is, however, a lot more fun to say than “2.36-inch A.T. Rocket Launcher M1A1.” In essence, a bazooka is any portable rocket launcher designed to deliver a high explosive round through a long metal tube. It was originally conceived by the American physicist Robert H. Goddard, the father of modern rocketry. Although most famous for his work related to space exploration, he and his co-worker Clarence Hickman designed the first rocket launcher designed for light infantry use at the end of WWI. Too close to the end, as it turned out, as the armistice was signed only five days after they demonstrated the “Goddard Rocket” for the Army.
The development of tank warfare during WWII drove the need to develop effective counter-weapons. In the 1940's, new anti-tank hand grenade using high explosive charges were designed in such a way to pierce the thick skin of German Panzers. Unfortunately, they were too heavy to throw or fire from a rifle, leaving the unhappy option of walking up to the tank and and putting it there. Something that no amount of “Darf ich Sie bitten zu...?” was likely to accomplish.
In 1942, Lieutenant Edward Uhl had an idea: why not stick the little rocket into a metal pipe. With the help of Hickman, co-inventor of the Goddard Rocket, he combined the idea of a personal rocket launch with the shaped explosive charge and created the first bazooka. Thus, not only paving the way for the defeat of Nazi Germany's Panzers, but also the final showdown between ED-209 and Robocop.
But, what of the word “bazooka”?
Before it was a weapon, the bazooka was a musical instrument invented and popularized by radio comedian Bob Burns in the 1920's and 30's. A simple metal pipe with a conical tip, it didn't so much shape notes as amplify the noise created by the lips in the manner of a megaphone or perhaps the dreaded vuvuzela. This unusual instrument found a niche in early jazz bands at the lips of such musicians as Noon Johnson and Sanford Kendrick.
The name “bazooka” may have been onomatopoetic, that is mimicking the sound of the instrument in the same way as words like “kaboom,” “ding-dong” or “hee-haw” are linguistic approximations of the sounds of bombs, doorbells and donkeys. There is another theory that Bob Burns derived the word from a slang term meaning blow-hard, or boastful talk possibly from the Dutch word for trumpet (“bazuin”).
In any case, Bob Burns was tremendously popular during the years before World War II. Popular enough to have hosted the 10th annual Academy Awards in 1938. Incidentally, “The Life of Emile Zola” won Best Picture that year, beating out a film with the eye-brow raising title “100 Men and a Girl,” which is probably not the same movie I saw on the internet once.
Anyway... the popularity of Bob Burns at the time makes it possible that soldiers in WWII were familiar with the musical bazooka and may have transferred the name to their own metal pipes with loud noises (not to mention explosive projectiles).
The story of “bazooka”, however, features one more odd convergence of war and comedy. Due to the Ottoman Empire's involvement in WWI, the American Leaf Tobacco Company was no longer able to import Turkish tobacco. This setback, combined with the Great Depression that followed, convinced the company to take a chance on a novelty product: chewing gum. After WWII, the company, now known as Topps, decided to make their product more attractive by wrapping their gum with short comics featuring a character known as “Bazooka Joe.”
The above is copyright 2010 by Schendo. No animals were harmed in the writing of this website. For short biographies of Edward Uhl and Bazooka Joe, check out Time Magazine and the Topps Company Website. Do you have an idea for a Word of the Moment? Stop by the Bad Grammar Facebook page and let me know.
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