Gobbledigook

Also
referred to as Gobbledygook or Gobbledegook or Gobbledegoo was coined for American-English by Maury Maverick, a U.S. Representative of Texas and chairman of U.S. Smaller War Plants Corporation during WWII when, in a memo dating from March 30th 1944, banned what he referred as “gobbledygook language,” any text containing jargon or English that’s excessively hard to understand. Maverick went so far as to threaten anyone who is caught using either  activation or implementation to be shot on sight. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, Maverick said he made up Gobbledygook as an onomatopoeic representation of a turkey.

Gobbledigook has had cultural and political influence as an expressive word, an idiom indicating difficulty in understanding complicated language. Such examples include former U.S. President Ronald Regan, who on May the 28th 1985 addressed the nation regarding tax law revision:

“Most didn’t improve the system, they made more like Washington itself: complicated, unfair, cluttered with gobbledygook and loopholes designed for those with the power and influence to hire high-priced legal and tax advisers.”

Also (shown above) Gobbledigook is the title for the first single from Sigur Rós’s fifth album Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (With a Buzz in Our Ears We Play Endlessly), a post-rock Icelandic band whose known for ethereal and minimalist approaches to their music, including folk-oriented compositions.

Because this is a blog dedicated to words + photography, if you enjoy the video, it would be worthy to mention that American born photographer, Ryan McGinley's work inspired its creation. One of his photographs was even featured on the album's cover. He is recorded as the youngest (25) artist to have a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Credits: All photographs shown in this post are works of Ryan McGinley and can be viewed in length at his website.In addition to reading about his latest (might I say, racy) projects and installations.