For some strange reason, the word “Goon” —meaning a stupid person or a bully or thug hired to terrorize or eliminate opponents—keeps popping up in Japan in the oddest places. Stranger yet, “Goon” in Japanese-English has positive and fun connotations such as this advertisement I stumbled across today for Coleman travel gear…
Of course, The “GOON” in this Coleman advertisement is just an artifact of the way Japanese is written. That is, like many other languages in Asian and the Middle East, the Japanese language has not invented spaces* between words.
So, “GO ON A TRIP” and “GOON A TRIP” is the same in Japanese eyes. (>_< ")
“GOON” is also the name of a favorite brand of disposable diapers in Japan as mentioned the previous report: GOON Big! (3Yen / 2009-10-02) →
And as added fun, “goon” is also the way to pronounce the Japanese word for ‘military’ as shown in this old, 1944, US War Department, Japanese Phrase Book. ↓
books.google.com (free ebook)
And, here are the original “GOONS” of Goon Island!
Grandpa, you need new bifocals.
The diaper logo isn’t ‘GOON’.
It’s ‘GOO’ + ‘N’ as in gooing in your pants.
*THE GREAT EATER KIM JONG UN HAS CALLED AN EMERGENCY MEETING WITH ALL OF GENERALS AND ORDERS HIS POCKET ROCKETS AIMED AT JAPAN AND OTHER US BASES ON STANDBY*
SOMEONE HAS SET US UP THE BOMB!
MAKE YOUR TIME
Reports are still coming in.
Cute Goon!