Having opened on July 21, “Barbie” has become the highest grossing film of this year and the first billion-dollar film directed by a woman (Greta Gerwig). The “Pink Fever” that the neon-coated fantasy comedy movie has created could ultimately gross two billion dollars.
Barbie is the most popular doll in the history of toydom. How does Barbie look so good at 64? Plastic surgery. Why did Barbie break up with Ken? Because he was toying with her emotions.
What do you call a line of mothers waiting in line to buy Barbie dolls at a toy store? A Barbie queue. The average cost of a Barbie doll is $30, but Divorced Barbie costs $400. Why? Because Divorced Barbie comes with Ken’s house, Ken’s furniture, Ken’s car, Ken’s boat, and Ken’s 401K.
On the very same weekend “Barbie” debuted, moviegoers also turned out in force to see Christopher Nolan’s brilliant historical drama “Oppenheimer,” which rapidly became the second most popular movie of 2023.
The film is based on the biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. In Greek mythology, Prometheus was a Titan who stole fire from the Olympian and brought it to earth for humankind. For that alliance with mortals Zeus condemned Prometheus to eternal torment by binding him to a rock, where an eagle daily fed on his liver, which (yuck!) grew back each day. With the atom bomb, as it was first called, J. Robert Oppenheimer brought a new kind of fire to humankind, and he too was tormented by the powers that be.
The titanic dual success of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” exploded into the cultural craze called “Barbenheimer.” Together the dynamic duo has fueled the most ginormous collective box office weekend of the pandemic era and the fourth most humongous weekend in cinematic history.
“Barbenheimer” is a portmanteau word. Lewis Carroll made his stories a wonderland of wordplay. The verbivorous author of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, Carroll evinced a prodigious talent for merging two words and beheading parts of one or both. He called these inventions portmanteau words because he loved to scrunch two words into one as clothes are crammed into a portmanteau, or traveling bag. The most famous example of Lewis Carroll’s facile gift for blending is his “Jabberwocky” poem, which begins:
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
When Alice asks Humpty Dumpty to explain the word slithy, he answers: “Well slithy means ‘lithe and slimy.’ You see, it’s like a portmanteau — there are two meanings packed into one word.” Dumpty later interprets mimsy: “Well, then, mimsy is ‘flimsy and miserable’ (there’s another portmanteau for you).” Two words that repose later in “Jabberwocky” have become enshrined in dictionaries of the English language — chortle (“chuckle” + “snort”) and galumph (“gallop” + “triumph”).
When we today eat spam (“spiced” + “ham”) and Frogurt with a spork (“spoon” + “fork”), quaff Cranapple juice and Fruitopia, have brunch (“breakfast” + “lunch”), take a staycation (“stay” + “vacation”) rather than stay at a motel (“motor” + “hotel”), ride our moped (“motor” + “pedal”), lament the smog (“smoke” + “fog”), learn from webinars (“web” +”seminars”), play the game of Fictionary (“fiction” + “dictionary”), read Freakonomics (“freak” + “economics”), write a blog (“web” + “log”), message a frenemy (“friend” + “enemy”), value a bromance (“brother” + “romance”), drive an electric car with a frunk (“front” + “trunk”), save money with groupons (“group” + “coupons”), and rail against covidiots (“COVID + “idiots,” i.e. people who behaved thoughtlessly during the pandemic), we are sharing Lewis Carroll’s ginormous (“giant” + “enormous”) delight in portmanteau words.
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Why does a pair of pirate’s earrings cost $2? Because they’re a buccaneer. What does a pirate pay for his hook and peg? An arm and a leg.
Arrr, me hearties. Avast, me swabbies. Shiver me timbers and blow me down. September 19 will be Talk Like a Pirate Day. Take out your triangular hat, eye patch, brass earrings, toy parrot on your shoulder, sword and scabbard, hook for a hand, and peg for a leg. And remember that your eightieth birthday is your pirate birthday: “Aye, matey” = “I’m 80!”