wibble

whizzy = W = WIBNI

wibble

[UK, perh. originally from the first "Roger Irrelevant" strip in "VIZ" comics, spread via "Your Sinclair magazine in the 1980s and early 1990s"] 1. n.,v. Commonly used to describe chatter, content-free remarks or other essentially meaningless contributions to threads in newsgroups. "Oh, rspence is wibbling again". 2. [UK IRC] An explicit on-line no-op equivalent to humma. 3. One of the preferred metasyntactic variables in the UK, forming a series with wobble, wubble, and flob (attributed to the hilarious historical comedy "Blackadder"). 4. A pronounciation of the letters "www", as seen in URLs; i.e., www.foo.com may be pronounced "wibble dot foo dot com" (compare dub dub dub).

--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.

There's considerable debate among Blackadder fans whether Captain Edmund Blackadder said "wibble" "wobble" "wubble" or even "bibble". The majority view seems to be that it's "wibble" although in Blackadder II, Edmund is given to comment to the queen "And in Genoa, it is the custom to stand with one foot in a bucket, pin a live frog to one's shoulder braid, and go 'Bibble' at passers-by."

Whatever the case, Captain Edmund Blackadder tells Baldrick that he learned how to effectively mimic an insane person while serving with His Majesty's forces in the Sudan. Before he plays insane before General Melchett, Blackadder has a little rehearsal with Baldrick:

Edmund: Now, ask me some simple questions.

Baldrick: Right. What is your name?

Edmund: Wibble...

Baldrick: What is two plus two?

Edmund: Oh, wibble wibble.

Baldrick: Where do you live?

Edmund: London.

Baldrick: Eh?

Edmund: A small village on Mars, just outside the capital city, wibble.

Assured of his success he lets it be known to HQ via Lieutenant The Honourable George Colthurst St. Barleigh (played by Hugh Laurie) that one of their men has gone raving mad and needs an immediate transfer back to "Blighty". Since they're about to go over the top and put into action for the final "big push" -- to route the hun and show Gerry it takes more than a pointy hat and bad breath to defeat the armies of King George! -- General Melchett decides he better find out what it's all about then. He shows up at the trenches and asks Lieutenant George if the man is really mad.

George: Well, it's touch and go, I'm afraid, sir. I really can't vouch for his behaviour. He's gone mad, you see -- stir-frying crazy.

Melchett: I see. Is this genuinely mad?

George: Oh, yes, sir.

Melchett: ...or has he simply put his underpants on his head and stuffed a couple of pencils up his nose? That's what they all used to do in the Sudan. I remember I once had to shoot a whole platoon for trying that. Well, let's have a look at him.

Blackadder overhears this and realizes his cunning plan isn't much better than any Baldrick had come up with over the last four seasons. His last hope is gone ("I mean, who would have noticed another madman round here?") and Blackadder goes over the top, dying with his friends before the machinegun fire of the Germans, a people Blackadder once described thusly "The Germans are such a cruel and inhuman race, they have no word for fluffy."

Update: The DVD subtitles use "wubble". The "wibble/wubble" debate has finally been brought to a close, unless you're part of enterprisemission.com.

wibble

Bad drink.

The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.