Dopey Dildock
Immortal stupidity.
Dear Word Detective: I referred to someone as “dopey dilldock” the other day, and my wife said her mother used the same expression. Any ideas on the origin of this one? — Charles.
Oh what a tangled web we weave, when the odd sayings of our parents we perceive, or something like that. Tracking down “dopey dilldock” turned into an all-day endeavor for me.
I started with the assumption that “dopey dilldock” means “a stupid person,” which seems reasonable given the usual meaning of “dopey” (originally “appearing to be under the influence of dope” i.e., drugs). In searching online for the word “dilldock” (or “dildock”), I came across several references to a 1918 movie called “A Perfect 36,” starring Mabel Norman. Interestingly, in the film the actor Rod La Rocque played a character named “O.P. Dildock.” Hey, it rhymes with “dopey dilldock”! Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a plot synopsis, so whether La Rocque played a doofus remains a mystery.
Fortunately, this dead end was quickly superseded by a live hit in the form of a citation for an obscure newspaper comic strip of the 1930s called, bingo, “Dopey Dildock.” And when I say “obscure,” I mean “virtually unknown.” The only reason it hasn’t entirely disappeared down the memory hole is that it was an early effort by the cartoonist Gus Edson, who went on to create “Dondi,” an enormously (and inexplicably, in my opinion) popular strip about an Italian war orphan adopted by an American GI (who apparently never noticed that the kid’s eyes were just big black dots).
But while Edson’s later efforts were highly successful, it seems unlikely that “Dopey Dildock” could have become a popular catchphrase based on an obscure 1930s comic strip. Indeed, Edson obviously chose that name for the strip because the phrase “Dopey Dildock” was already popular, and had been for decades.
“Dopey Dildock” dates back to at least the first years of the 20th century and possibly earlier. There are various theories about the phrase, but the most plausible, to me, appeared in an article in the journal American Speech in 1981. Etymologist Henry Stern suggested that “dildock” might be rooted in the German dialect word “dildap” or “diltap,” meaning “a silly, foolish, inept person” (the “dil” coming from the same root that gave us the English “dull”). Stern also ventured that the term arrived in the US with German immigrants, which would explain why it is unknown in England but apparently was common at one time in areas of the US with a strong German heritage.
In any case, the alliterative (and slightly redundant) form “dopey dildock” was evidently still popular in the US in the 1950s, and “dildock” is still seen used as an insult on the internet.
Tim Johnson:
October 14th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Comment on Dopey Dildock.
If Dondi married Little Orphan Annie and they had children, would the children be blind?
susa:
October 23rd, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Wow! I’m impressed to no end!
I thought everyone still alive forgotet dopey dildock and dondi!
I lived each Sunday in the 50s to read dondi.
Not a bad boy to have at hand!
Thanks, and keep the past alive.
Susa
PS–Dondi and Orphan Annie could never marry. His ship hadn’t come in before she was taken in by Daddy Warbucks.
This should be filed under “near misses in comic history.”
Heatwave Dam:
November 6th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
thought everyone still alive forgotet dopey dildock and dondi!
I lived each Sunday in the 50s to read dondi.
Not a bad boy to have at hand!
Thanks, and keep the past alive
Steve Dunham:
November 7th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Jean Shepherd on his radio show used to speak of Ocky Dilldock as a stereotype for an uneducated, ignorant person.
Jim Marker:
February 3rd, 2009 at 2:16 am
Oppodeldoc was an ointment compounded by Paracelsus, and was used as a medicine into the 18th century. From the Wikipedia, “The name Old Opodeldoc was formerly used as a standard name for a stock character who was a physician, especially when played as a comic figure. Edgar Allan Poe used “Oppodeldoc” as a pseudonym for a character in the short story “The Literary Life of Thingum Bob, Esq.” Perhaps the use of a comic (perhaps dopey) character with the name Old Oppodeldoc was corrupted to “Dopey Dilldock”
Nancy McComas:
February 13th, 2009 at 11:25 am
My Aunt Rosemary used to use that phrase when I was growing up in the 50′s. For some reason it comes to mind now and then. This morning I was speaking of the phrase to my husband, telling him I would ‘Google it’ to see where it originated…I was certain it came over from Ireland, since my Aunt’s parents were from there. I didn’t know it was in a comic strip. I had forgotten all about Dondi!!!
Q:
July 5th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
My parents, both of whom were born in 1912, used the expression “dopey dildock.” They both came from the New York City/New Jersey area.
Ray:
January 25th, 2010 at 12:17 am
My mother, born 1915 and her sister in 1920, used the expression dopey dildock when I was growing up in northern New Jersey in the ’40s and ’50s.
It’s been over 50 years since I thought of Dondi!
julie:
July 6th, 2010 at 8:18 pm
My mother born in 1914 of german origin also used the expression in the 60′s in Chicago
amanda:
February 1st, 2011 at 8:23 pm
I read this post and was reminded of a recent game of Balderdash I played where ‘dildock’ was the word. I just thought I’d share the definition the game gives. According to them, a dildock is a person who uses a marked deck of cards in gambling.
John:
February 8th, 2011 at 12:00 pm
WOW, Dondi!I remember him too.
One, Dondi and Annie would have children without eyes and that is OK. Look at Annie, on Broadway and all.
Two, Daddy Warbucks could never stop Dondi. Those Italian boys, when Annie hooks up with him it is all over!
Thomas L. Seagrave:
March 24th, 2011 at 3:18 pm
My dad (born 1913) would use the term Dopey Dildock as a term of derision when we would act stupidly; he would also use the term Ocky Bop.
Where did Ocky Bop come from. Did anyone else’s parent (or grandparent) use that term?
Teri Shaffer:
June 25th, 2011 at 4:38 pm
My parents, born 1908 and 1919 in NYC, would often use the expression Dopey Dildock when they did something stupid. I just thought of it and looked it up, never expecting it was real. How wondrous is that?
Mike Love:
August 6th, 2011 at 9:00 am
Parents born in the 1910s. NJ-NY area. Used that term in 50-60s. Don’t recall ever using myself. The internet is indeed a wondrous tool. It renders one whose brain can retain numerous triva—well, trivial.
Wayne Daugherty:
December 6th, 2011 at 7:09 pm
When I was a kid, listening to radio in my room circa 1949-1951, I listened to a show called “Can you top this” where a panel of guys told jokes, many sent in by listeners. I remember a recurring name in the jokes, and it was Dopey Dilldock. He would always be the simpleton in the jokes with, of course, the funny lines. The name itself sounded funny, as–inexplicably now–much of the humor of that time was to me then.
Jim Damewood:
March 23rd, 2012 at 4:11 pm
Aha! I’ve been trying to think where I’d heard it and was fairly sure it was from an old radio show, but couldn’t remember which one. That was a great show. The three guys were given a topic and had to come up with an example. Thanks, Wayne.
walter bieber:
March 24th, 2012 at 7:23 am
The name suddenly came to mind. Just checking out Google and it didn’t let me down. I seem to think that maybe Steve Allen uttered the phrase. How about Senator Claghorn?
banshee:
May 4th, 2012 at 1:00 pm
My parents grew up in the 1930s in NYC and they both used the expression Dopey Dildock. I still remember Dondi, BTW! I loved the Sunday funnies when I was a kid in the late 50s/early 60s.
banshee:
May 4th, 2012 at 1:02 pm
I am still trying to track down a very short-lived comic strip about a nun. I think her name was Sister Suzie. It was a one-panel strip that I think ran in the NY Daily News.
Chris Tomasini:
December 27th, 2012 at 8:18 am
My Mom, born in 1916 in Jersey City-NJ in a neigborhood of all Irish descent, always used the term “dopey dildock” when we did something stupid. This was interchangeable with another saying “you big gom”. I wasn’t a big Dondi fan nor of Little Orphan Annie either but I loved when Chuck McCann on his Sunday morning TV show would read those comics to us while dressed as the character.
Joan Sonnenschein:
February 15th, 2013 at 5:24 pm
My parents, New Yorkers born in 1902 and 1906, also used the expression “Dopey Dildock,” usually referring to me when I did something knuckleheaded. I, too, heard in on “Can You Top This?” I believe the panelist who used this character was Senator Ford.