h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Dmitry

Not that I'm looking to sign up for NaJoPoMo or anything but your little poem above piqued my curiosity, especially the Zis Boom Bah bit which is horribly familiar to me and I was wondering if you could throw any light on its origins?

Way back when, prior to Internet and Google and all that, in a younger and fitter day, I used to be a participating member of a well established south London, cross country, running club and we had a club cry that would be bellowed in the faces of our opponents at annual fixtures called 'mob matches'. It was rather like the Haka, but a bit less intimidating.(we liked to keep it polite). These running races were long established, some going back to the late 1800s.

The cry was

Hobble, Gobble,
Razzle, Dazzle,
Zis Boom Bah
Ranelagh, Ranelagh,
Rah, Rah, Rah.

The strange thing was that no one in the club knew where it originated from. Some research was done and the best that anyone could come up with was that it may have originated from two visiting American students at a time unknown, or it may have been co opted from an American school/university possibly 'Matela' or 'Matelagh', hence the substitution of Ranelagh. Apart from that enquiries came to nothing and as far as I'm aware that's still the way it is. But it would be nice to know its provenance or if you could shed any light on an old puzzle.

Thanks (and apologies for the topic drift)

Deke

All those silly 'cheers' started in US colleges back in the 1890s, when American football became the sport of male-only universities. The players' friends showed up in force, and yelled boisterously.

Here's a list of cheers from 1896-7:

http://books.google.com/books?id=cFo7AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA453&lpg=PA453&dq=Razzle,+Dazzle,+Zis+Boom+Bah&source=bl&ots=ZT2M5NXbCf&sig=NCDYIsUmqHXBlU7kL3GH1SdIu0Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjlgZ7j04fQAhUM2oMKHefUDP4Q6AEIMzAF#v=onepage&q&f=false

For some reason, 'sis boom bah' has hung around as the quintessential cheer noise.

Here's an article explaining about 'when men were cheerleaders':

http://www.southernminn.com/the_kenyon_leader/community/article_c891c2e9-6301-5f89-9dc1-edb6f9dab366.html

Of course, Yale is an Ivy League school, and has a very pretentious cheer:

Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax, Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax, O-op, O-op, parabalou, Yale, Yale, Yale, Rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, Yale! Yale! Yale

This is stolen from 'The Frogs' by Aristophanes.

I hope this helps.

Thank you for that.

It all makes absolutely fascinating reading even down to the cheer, almost word for word. Amazing how these things get about.


Thanks again
Deke