Talk:Bluto

RFD discussion: June–July 2015

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Bluto

"The fictional man who is the antagonist of Popeye." Encyclopaedic. Equinox ◑ 00:46, 28 June 2015 (UTC)

• Keep (for the same reasons Popeye was kept) but improve the definition. The term has passed into metaphorical use referring to traits associated with the character. bd2412 T 01:40, 28 June 2015 (UTC)
• Move to RfV to verify some Wiktionary worthy usage. DCDuring TALK 01:54, 28 June 2015 (UTC)
  • I have redefined the term and added CFI-worthy citations already. bd2412 T 02:13, 28 June 2015 (UTC)

    They look good to me. Keep as attested. DCDuring TALK 03:22, 28 June 2015 (UTC)

• Keep per bd2412 and DCDuring. --Dan Polansky (talk) 08:16, 28 June 2015 (UTC)
• Equinox? Are you satisfied with the revision/citations? bd2412 T 19:15, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

  Two look good to me; the rest, meh. Looks like everyone wants to keep, so fine. Equinox ◑ 19:16, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

  Out of curiosity, which two? There are more to be found. bd2412 T 19:54, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

• 1986, 2008, 2015: referring to the character as a character, not as any kind of generic entity; similar e.g. to "your cat looks like Pikachu". (Perhaps that's okay by our rules, but I find it lame, and unlike professional dictionaries.) 2007: arguable, but refers to a lot of Popeye characters in quick succession so not "independent of the universe", if that matters. 2010, both 2011s: better, closer to a generic term. Equinox ◑ 19:58, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

  So, more like:

1. • 2008, Bret Lott, Ancient Highway: A Novel, page 152:

     For whatever reason, it'd taken her a little while to get out of the cab when they first got here, and when Chuck introduced me — she stood a full foot shorter than him, a tiny woman next to this Bluto of a man, a knitted green afghan over her shoulders, a white blouse and blue jeans.

   • 2014, Les Moore, Leave Your Mark: A Memoir, page 245:

     I was a basket case mentally and then this Bluto look alike, starts ragging on me about punching tubes.

bd2412 T 20:08, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

How are you sure that those are referencing the Popeye character and not, for instance, the Animal House character. The first one does reference size, but in neither case is it clear that the are not talking about an unkempt frat boy rather than a musclebound giant. - TheDaveRoss 11:11, 30 June 2015 (UTC)

The Animal House character is a reference to the Popeye character anyway; see Peter Lev, American Films of the 70s: Conflicting Visions (2000), p. 212: "The name "Bluto" comes from a villain in "Popeye" cartoons"; Matty Simmons, Fat, Drunk, and Stupid: The Inside Story Behind the Making of Animal House (2012), p. 43: "John Belushi was always going to be Bluto; the heavyset body, the grizzly beard, made him a perfect Bluto, as in the Popeye cartoons". bd2412 T 13:37, 30 June 2015 (UTC)

Kept. bd2412 T 17:30, 23 July 2015 (UTC)