Blowing a raspberry , razzing or making a Bronx cheer , is to make a noise similar to flatulence that may signify derision, real or feigned. It is made by placing the tongue between the lips and blowing.
6-415: A raspberry (when used with the tongue) is not used in any human language as a building block of words, apart from jocular exceptions such as the name of the comic-book character Joe Btfsplk . However, the vaguely similar bilabial trill (essentially blowing a raspberry with one's lips) is a regular consonant sound in a few dozen languages scattered around the world. Spike Jones and His City Slickers used
12-563: A "birdaphone" to create this sound on their recording of " Der Fuehrer's Face ", repeatedly lambasting Adolf Hitler with: "We'll Heil! (Bronx cheer) Heil! (Bronx cheer) Right in Der Fuehrer's Face!" In the terminology of phonetics , the raspberry has been described as a voiceless linguolabial trill , transcribed [r̼̊] in the International Phonetic Alphabet , and as a buccal interdental trill, transcribed [ↀ͡r̪͆] in
18-547: Is for the moment satisfied to be who he really is. In addition to the obvious comic effect, Capp often used Joe Btfsplk as a deus ex machina to produce miraculous rescues or to effect plot twists. Joe was later licensed for use in a series of animated TV commercials for Head & Shoulders , a dandruff shampoo. According to Al Capp , the creator of the character, " btfsplk" is a rude sound. During public lectures, Capp demonstrated this sound by closing his lips, leaving his tongue sticking out, and then blowing out air, which
24-594: The Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet . The nomenclature varies by country. In most anglophone countries, it is known as a raspberry , which is attested from at least 1890, and which in the United States had been shortened to razz by 1919. In the United States it has also been called a Bronx cheer since at least the early 1920s. Joe Btfsplk Joe Btfsplk is a character in
30-444: The satirical comic strip Li'l Abner by cartoonist Al Capp . The hapless Btfsplk means well, but he is "the world's worst jinx " and brings disastrous misfortune to everyone around him. A small, dark rain cloud perpetually hovers over his head to symbolize his bad luck . Btfsplk and his ever-present cloud became one of the most iconic images in Li'l Abner . Joe's first appearance
36-478: Was on July 7, 1940. One storyline in the early 1970s features him trapping his cloud in a special anti-pollutant jar. Joe becomes romantically involved with a gal for the first time—until her crazed ex-boyfriend shows up to kill him. Joe reluctantly opens the jar and releases his cloud in order to take care of the boyfriend and wistfully realizes that he wasn't meant for any other kind of life. As he returns to his normal, loner existence, his cloud once again in tow, he
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