Bazinga!
or Buzzinga! or bazinga [buh-zing-uh]
What does Bazinga! mean?
Bazinga! It’s an interjection used to rub a good joke in someone’s face or cheer yourself on after a personal win, popularized as the catchphrase of the character Sheldon Cooper on the sitcom The Big Bang Theory.
Where does Bazinga! come from?
Sheldon Cooper, played by Jim Parsons, made Bazinga! a pop-culture sensation after he first uttered it on the 2009 Season 2 finale of the hit TV show The Big Bang Theory in 2009. It immediately caught on as his catchphrase.
Inspiration for Sheldon’s Bazinga! is credited to show writer Stephen Engel, known to use Bazinga! as a personal catchphrase after playing silly pranks on friends. Parsons has said the Big Bang crew added it to the script at the last minute. Bazinga!
Bazinga! isn’t original to the show, though. Special Agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) issued a eureka-esque Bazinga! in a 2000 episode of The X-Files, for instance. It’s hard to determine exactly when and where Bazinga! originated, but the fun-sounding word no doubt calls up witty remarks and quick comebacks like zing and a zinger.
While not unique to Sheldon, Bazinga! has a sneering, old-fashioned feel that is perfect for the nerdy, eccentric, fastidious physicist. It’s no surprise, then, that Bazinga! is branded all over Big Bang Theory merchandise.
[crb_example float=”left” number=”4″ /] Real scientists, and fans of the show, have even honored the term. In 2012, a Brazilian scientist named a new species of bee Euglossa bazinga because the bug had “tricked” scientists into thinking it was a different species for so long. In 2017, chemists synthesized a compound referencing the catchphrase, made up of barium, zinc, and gallium, or BaZnGa if we use their chemical symbols. [crb_example float=”right” number=”5″ /]Everyone loves ’em some Big Bang Theory.
Examples of Bazinga!
i guess in principle having my phone just be part of my brain would be bad .... but in practice??? bazinga
Elon sorry all these twitter communists are being so mean to you I think you’re “epic” please PayPal me $100,000 bazinga thanks
On CBS' TV series, Cooper, played by actor Jim Parsons, uses the word after he pulls a trick on someone. Brazilian biologist Andre Nemesio from the Universidade Federal de Uberlandia recently discovered a new bee species that he thinks fits the "bazinga" bill.
Who uses Bazinga!?
On The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon uses Bazinga! when getting a one-up on someone, whether with a prank, a joke, or a situation that ended up benefiting Sheldon in some way. Over the run of the series, it has evolved into a general exclamation of joy, too.
Fans of the show have picked up Bazinga! for their own wins. Some haters of the show cringe, though, when they hear Bazinga!, as they just can’t stand Big Bang Theory.
https://twitter.com/bloomicide/status/1021121930072600576
[crb_example float=”right” number=”6″ /] Some Big Bang Theory trolls took to making crude MS Paint memes making fun of Bazinga! starting in 2011. Apparently originating on 4chan, these memes have distorted images and misspelled words and replaced Bazinga! with absurd but similar-sounding words. Way to get a real Bazinga! on the show, guys.NOTE
This is not meant to be a formal definition of Bazinga! like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of Bazinga! that will help our users expand their word mastery.
