Last year I shared a scene from Rick and Morty that contained a series of nonsense words like plumbus, schleem, and blamf. It was probably my least popular post in years. Undeterred, I’m featuring the show again. (I hadn’t seen it in November; now I have.)
In an episode called ‘The Wedding Squanchers’ we’re introduced to the cat-like character Squanchy on Planet Squanch and, more to the point, to the improbably versatile word squanch.
The word’s hyperpolysemy quickly becomes a running gag. Squanchy tells Rick his house party is squanchy and that he likes Rick’s squanch (style, I think). Then a specific verb use of squanch takes us into adult territory. Well, it is Adult Swim.
The (sfw) clip below shows the main characters arriving for the wedding and meeting Squanchy, whose ensquanché! is equivalent to French enchanté.
One of the group, Beth, is new to squanch, and Rick’s explanation (‘Squanchy culture is more contextual than literal – you just say what’s in your squanch, and people understand’) leads her horribly astray. The perils of unfamiliar foreign words:
The reference to ‘the smurf thing’ is explained here.
Great squanch.
Squanch!
Thank you for not being deterred by the lack of squanch to your previous squanch on nonsense words. Playing with language is one of the key indicators of creativity — and clearly you have that in spades. :)
Nonsense squanches are among my favourite squanches of all. And squanching with language, well… :-)
Props on calling out Rick and Morty. When watched that episode and saw that scene, I was ready to roll my eyes, because it reminded me of The Smurfs (and I’m old enough to remember that show when it was first run) — and I hated the smurfy smurf language in that show. And then R&M referenced The Smurfs and I laughed and it let the pressure off.
And then I had to explain the joke to my 16-year-old son.
The Smurfs didn’t occur to me until I heard the reference. I watched it as a kid but have mostly repressed it – except for the theme tune, which cannot be erased from my brain.
Squanchily delicious.
And so squanchsome.
Then there is the famous “Chicken Chicken Chicken” talk (paper, YouTube).
What the chick?
The Powerpoint should help.
Wait…squaunch is a real word. It is.
There’ll be no squenching it now.
I remember the plumbus post! I had never seen that particular Adult Swim item before, and I shared it shamelessly. :D
Loving the squanchness. :)
I love Rick and Morty, though it’s definitely not for all tastes! A friend of mine has a plumbus someone knitted for him; it’s amazing.