Cheeta the Chimp Update

Subject: RE: Cheeta the Chimp Update
From: Little Hawk
Date: 27 Nov 03 - 01:33 AM

Ha! Well, this is a thorny issue, isn't it? Tarzan's ape-english dictionary was based on some African language, I believe...Swahili?

We need to enlist the aid of someone who speaks fluent Swahili to settle this once and for all.

I know for sure that...

Kreegah! means Look out! Beware!

Bundolo! means Kill! (great word, eh?)

Gom! means Run!

Tantor means elephant.

Sabor means lioness.

Numa means lion.

Gomangani means black man/men.

Tarmangani means white man/men.

And so on...

So, is it Swahili or what is it?

- LH

p.s. Kreegah!!! Tarzan bundolo Cheetah! Gom, Cheetah, Gom!!!!

Subject: RE: Cheeta the Chimp Update
From: Rapparee
Date: 26 Nov 03 - 11:07 PM

I've found that the Dead People's Server is rarely wrong.

And it's UM-ga-WA. Johnny W. pronounced it wrong. If you draw out the first syllable for a couple more m's it's a pickup line (clean). As it stands, though, it means "Where's the bloody toilet, I've got a helluva case of dire rear?" Draw out the last syllable a bit more and lions will eat you for insulting their pride.

Subject: RE: Cheeta the Chimp Update
From: MBSLynne
Date: 26 Nov 03 - 06:00 AM

I know a lot of people who swing from bar to bar, but not usually in the zoo!

Is he really still alive? I loved him when I was very little. What age do chimps live to?

Subject: RE: Cheeta the Chimp Update
From: Little Hawk
Date: 26 Nov 03 - 01:11 AM

You've got a point, Cluin. "Ungawa" means just about anything you want it to mean. The trick is in the subtle inflection and tone used by the cunning apeman, which can change the meaning radically. When you give it that certain guttural tone on the first syllable, it's a terrible insult in elephantese, but when you do it low and huskily, it means what you indicated in the Jane example, and so on...

As for Gary Larson, yeah, I know he writes it "Oomgawa", but he's wrong... :-)

- LH

Subject: RE: Cheeta the Chimp Update
From: Cluin
Date: 26 Nov 03 - 12:58 AM

Ah, LH, I saw Johnny Weissmuller use that word every Saturday afternoon of my childhood to mean everything from "Cheetah hurry and throw end of conveniently located long strong vine down to me at bottom of canyon" to "Jane move leg over this way now but not roll over".

And Gary Larson writes it as Oomgawa.

But yes, the Tarzan of the movies bears little relation to ERB's creation.

Subject: RE: Cheeta the Chimp Update
From: Little Hawk
Date: 26 Nov 03 - 12:46 AM

Cheetah was Hollywood's gimmick for adding humour to Tarzan movies (which were already pretty funny anyway...usually). The Tarzan comics had a little monkey companion for Tarzan (a small monkey, not a chimp) named "N'kima", but Americans couldn't pronounce N'kima, so Hollywood decided to get a chimp instead and call him "Cheetah", which is the name of a large cat. Typical. Chimps make great movie actors, being able to act better than Ronald Reagan, and almost as well as William Shatner, so I can understand why Hollywood did what they did, but a monkey named N'kima could have been just as good.

And the famous Tarzan word is not "Oomgawa", it's "Ungawa".

It works like this: Tarzan has been captured by dastardly natives/criminals/headhunters/slave-traders/Nazis/etc...and is facing a grisly and certain death at the hands of his celebrating captors, who are dancing around in a frenzy of bloodlust and getting ready to eliminate the apeman once and for all...when suddenly he utters an uncanny yell... "Ahh-EEE-Ahhh-EEE-Ahhhhh!!!"

His persecutors are momentarily shocked into an awed silence, but soon resume their fiendish rites of sacrifice. The Lord of the Jungle utters his strange cry again, even louder, but his captors just laugh...

Meanwhile, in the jungle a herd of elephants reacts to the apeman's cry, standing frozen for a moment. They spread their ears, aghast, as the cry sounds again. Then as one, they thunder to Tarzan's aid.

Just as the axe is about to fall on our hero, the elephants burst into the clearing trumpeting furiously. Tarzan points at the evildoers and yells that deathless word: "UNGAWA!!!"

The elephants go berserk and massacre the evil men, rescuing Tarzan. Many ugly faces are trampled into the dust. The Lord of the Jungle mounts the biggest elephant and rides off in triumph.

The secret: "Ahhh-EEEE-Ahhh-EEEE-Ahhh!!!" means "All elephants are lily-livered, cowardly, moronic motherf*ckers!!!". "Ungawa!" means "They said it!"

I hope Frank Cho gets to see this thread.

- LH

Subject: RE: Cheeta the Chimp Update
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 25 Nov 03 - 06:45 AM

Was that movie clip really William Shatner ? - if so it was the best bit of acting that I've seen from him - I never realised that he was in "Planet of the Apes".

Subject: RE: Cheeta the Chimp Update
From: Cluin
Date: 24 Nov 03 - 10:58 PM

Bad Cheetah!

Subject: RE: Cheeta the Chimp Update
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 Nov 03 - 08:33 PM

"Cheetah (chimp) -- Alive. Born 1939. Swings from bar to bar in a Florida zoo"

From The Dead People Server. Which is one of the best places on the Internet and you should get to know it, as there is lots of stuff there. It even lists people who are purportedly alive:

"William Shatner (actor (alleged director, alleged author)) -- Alive. Born March 22, 1931. Made several comebacks; should stick to comedies (like Miss Congeniality)"

Subject: RE: Cheeta the Chimp Update
From: Peace
Date: 24 Nov 03 - 08:11 PM

Lots of people do that, too, George.

Subject: RE: Cheeta the Chimp Update
From: Thomas the Rhymer
Date: 22 Nov 03 - 12:38 PM

Maybe it's someone's cryptic attempt at 'irony'...

Subject: RE: Cheeta the Chimp Update
From: Amos
Date: 22 Nov 03 - 12:06 PM

The dark density of obscurity is a strange substitute for humor, IMNSHO.

A

Subject: RE: Cheeta the Chimp Update
From: Cluin
Date: 22 Nov 03 - 08:28 AM

"No, Cheetah not DO that! Cheetah bad! Oomgawa! OOMGAWA!"

Subject: RE: Cheeta the Chimp Update
From: Gurney
Date: 22 Nov 03 - 12:40 AM

Wasn't he (she?) a pal of Tarzan or M. Jackson or someone?

Subject: RE: Cheeta the Chimp Update
From: Ebbie
Date: 21 Nov 03 - 07:20 PM

Truly? (But who am I dispute the word of GeorgeOfTheJungle?)

Subject: Cheetah the Chimp update
From: GUEST,GeorgeOfTheJungle
Date: 21 Nov 03 - 05:54 PM

Cheetah (chimp) -- Alive. Born 1939.

Swings from bar to bar in a Florida zoo