Yahoo (Gulliver's Travels)

Last updated

Yahoo
Gulliver's Travels race
The Servants Drive a Herd of Yahoos into the Field, from Gulliver's Travels.jpg
The Servants Drive a Herd of Yahoos into the Field by Louis John Rhead, Metropolitan Museum of Art
First appearance Gulliver's Travels

Yahoos are legendary human beings in the 1726 satirical novel Gulliver's Travels written by Jonathan Swift. [1] Their behaviour and character representation is meant to comment on the state of Europe from Swift's point of view. [1] The word "yahoo" was coined by Jonathan Swift in the fourth section of Gulliver's Travels [2] and has since entered the English language more broadly.

Swift describes Yahoos as filthy with unpleasant habits, "a brute in human form," [2] resembling human beings far too closely for the liking of protagonist Lemuel Gulliver. He finds the calm and rational society of intelligent horses, the Houyhnhnms, greatly preferable.

The Yahoos are primitive creatures obsessed with "pretty stones" that they find by digging in mud, thus representing the distasteful materialism and ignorant elitism Swift encountered in Britain. Hence the term "yahoo" has come to mean "a crude, brutish or obscenely coarse person". [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Swift</span> Anglo-Irish satirist and cleric (1667–1745)

Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer, poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, hence his common sobriquet, "Dean Swift".

<i>Gullivers Travels</i> 1726 novel by Jonathan Swift

Gulliver's Travels, or Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships is a 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift, satirising both human nature and the "travellers' tales" literary subgenre. It is Swift's best-known full-length work and a classic of English literature. Swift claimed that he wrote Gulliver's Travels "to vex the world rather than divert it".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Houyhnhnm</span> Fictional race of horses

Houyhnhnms are a fictional race of intelligent horses described in the last part of Jonathan Swift's satirical 1726 novel Gulliver's Travels. The name is pronounced either or. Swift apparently intended all words of the Houyhnhnm language to echo the neighing of horses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lilliput and Blefuscu</span> Fictional island states in Gullivers Travels

Lilliput and Blefuscu are two fictional island nations that appear in the first part of the 1726 novel Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. The two islands are neighbours in the South Indian Ocean, separated by a channel 800 yards (730 m) wide. Both are inhabited by tiny people who are about one-twelfth the height of ordinary human beings. Both are empires, i.e. realms ruled by an emperor. The capital of Lilliput is Mildendo. In some pictures, the islands are arranged like an egg, as a reference to their egg-dominated histories and cultures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brobdingnag</span> Fictional land in Gullivers Travels

Brobdingnag is a fictional land, which is occupied by giants, in Jonathan Swift's 1726 satirical novel Gulliver's Travels. The story's main character, Lemuel Gulliver, visits the land after the ship on which he is travelling is blown off course. As a result, he becomes separated from a party exploring the unknown land. In the second preface to the book, in 1727, Gulliver laments that the publisher misspelled the land's name, which Gulliver asserts is actually called Brobdingrag.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lemuel Gulliver</span> Protagonist of Gullivers Travels

Lemuel Gulliver is the fictional protagonist and narrator of Gulliver's Travels, a novel written by Jonathan Swift, first published in 1726.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glubbdubdrib</span> Fictional island in Swifts Gullivers Travels

Glubbdubdrib was an island of sorcerers and magicians, one of the imaginary countries visited by Lemuel Gulliver in the 1726 satirical novel Gulliver's Travels by Anglo-Irish author Jonathan Swift. The episode on Glubbdubdrib "explores the theme of humanity's progressive degeneration."

<i>Summer of Sam</i> 1999 US crime-drama film directed by Spike Lee

Summer of Sam is a 1999 American crime thriller film about the 1977 David Berkowitz serial murders and their effect on a group of fictional residents of an Italian-American neighborhood in The Bronx in the late 1970s. The killer, David Berkowitz, his murders and the investigation are shown in the film, but the focus is on two young men from the neighborhood: Vinny, whose marriage is faltering due to his cheating, and Ritchie, Vinny's childhood friend who has embraced punk fashion and music.

A Son of Sam law is a law designed to keep criminals from profiting from the publicity of their crimes, for instance by selling their stories to publishers. Such laws often authorize the state to seize money earned from deals such as book/film biographies and paid interviews and use it to compensate the criminal's victims.

Yahoo is a web services provider jointly by Apollo Global Management and Verizon Communications, and known for its web portal, search engine, and related services.

<i>Gullivers Travels</i> (miniseries) 1996 American TV miniseries

Gulliver's Travels is an American-British TV miniseries based on Jonathan Swift's 1726 satirical novel of the same name, produced by Jim Henson Productions and Hallmark Entertainment. This miniseries is notable for being one of the very few adaptations of Swift's novel to feature all four voyages. The miniseries aired in the United Kingdom on Channel 4, and in the United States on NBC in February 1996. The miniseries stars Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, Tom Sturridge, James Fox, Omar Sharif, Peter O'Toole, Alfre Woodard, Kristin Scott Thomas, and John Gielgud.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Berkowitz</span> American serial killer (born 1953)

David Richard Berkowitz, also known as the Son of Sam and the .44 Caliber Killer, is an American serial killer who pled guilty to eight shootings that began in New York City on July 29, 1976. Berkowitz grew up in New York City and served in the United States Army. Using a .44 Special caliber Bulldog revolver, he killed six people and wounded seven others by July 1977, terrorizing New Yorkers. Berkowitz eluded the biggest police manhunt in the city's history while leaving letters that mocked the police and promised further crimes, which were highly publicized by the press.

<i>Gullivers Travels Beyond the Moon</i> 1965 Japanese film

Gulliver's Travels Beyond the Moon, also known as Space Gulliver, is a 1965 Japanese animated feature that was released in Japan on March 20, 1965 and in the United States on July 23, 1966.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rich Girl (Hall & Oates song)</span> 1977 single by Hall & Oates

"Rich Girl" is a song by Daryl Hall & John Oates. It debuted on the Billboard Top 40 on February 5, 1977, at number 38 and on March 26, 1977, it became their first of six number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. The single originally appeared on the 1976 album Bigger Than Both of Us. At the end of 1977, Billboard ranked it as the 23rd biggest hit of the year.

Motte v Faulkner was a copyright lawsuit between Benjamin Motte and George Faulkner over who had the legal rights to publish the works of Jonathan Swift in London. This trial was one of the first to test the Statute of Anne copyright law in regards to Irish publishing independence. Although neither held the copyright to all of Swift's works, the suit became a legal struggle over Irish rights, which were eventually denied by the English courts. Faulkner, in 1735, published the Works of Jonathan Swift in Dublin. However, a few of the works were under Motte's copyright within the Kingdom of Great Britain, and when Faulkner sought to sell his book in London, Motte issued a formal complaint to Jonathan Swift and then proceeded to sue Faulkner. An injunction was issued in Motte's favor, and the book was prohibited from being sold on British soil. The basis of the law protected the rights of the author, and not the publisher, of the works, and Swift was unwilling to support a lawsuit against Faulkner. With Swift's reaction used as a basis, the lawsuit was later seen as a struggle between the rights of Irishmen to print material that were denied under English law.

Benjamin Motte was a London publisher and son of Benjamin Motte, Sr. Motte published many works and is well known for his publishing of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luggnagg</span> Fictional island in Swifts Gullivers Travels

Luggnagg is an island kingdom, one of the imaginary countries visited by Lemuel Gulliver in the 1726 satirical novel Gulliver's Travels by Anglo-Irish author Jonathan Swift.

Japan in <i>Gullivers Travels</i>

Japan is referred to in Gulliver's Travels, the 1726 satirical novel by Jonathan Swift.

Cultural influence of <i>Gullivers Travels</i>

The cultural influence of Gulliver's Travels has spanned centuries.

The Sons of Sam: A Descent Into Darkness is a 2021 docuseries that premiered on Netflix on May 5, 2021. The show profiles Maury Terry, a journalist who spent 40 years trying to prove that the notorious serial killer David Berkowitz did not act alone. The series is directed by Joshua Zeman and features Paul Giamatti as the voice of Maury Terry.

References

  1. 1 2 Chowdhury, Romana (April 2014). "Swift's Use of Satire in Gulliver's Travels" (PDF). BRAC University: 31–36.
  2. 1 2 Harper, Douglas. "yahoo". Online Etymology Dictionary . Retrieved 31 August 2018.
  3. "yahoo". Collins English Dictionary . Retrieved 28 May 2014.
  4. "Did fiction give birth to Bigfoot? by Hugh H. Trotti". Archived from the original on 18 February 2008. Retrieved 20 March 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  5. "Yahoo Chahe Koi Mujhe Junglee Kahe"
  6. Bardsley, Marilyn. "David Berkowitz: The Son of Sam". Crime Library . Archived from the original on 29 May 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
  7. Killer Book of Serial Killers: Incredible Stories, Facts, and Trivia from ... - Tom Philbin, Michael Philbin - Google Boeken