Léon: The Professional - "bombacut"? - Huh?

Eric_E · 03-26-2003, 06:57 PM

Okay, this is a weird one. I was watching the Léon: The Professional (Integral Version) DVD the other day, and couldn't for the life of me figure out what Willy Blood says to one of Stansfield's other men

Spoiler:

inside Mathilda's family's apartment. I checked the subtitles, and here's the exchange (according to the subtitles):

Willy (looking at record): Cool.
Other guy: What the fuck are you doing, huh?
Willy: Man, keep your bombacut mouth shut.

So, as you may have guessed, my question is, what does "bombacut" mean? I did a search on Google, but the only result I got was (hehe) a transcript and timing for the subtitles on the Léon DVD. I dug a little bit deeper, and tried searching with "bombacut" separated into two words.

What I found out was interesting, but who knows if it's relevant, or what. Apparently, in the documentary Shoah, there is an interview with a Holocaust survivor named Abraham Bomba, who cut prisoners' hair before they were sent to the gas chamber. Here are some links for more information:

http://www.class.uidaho.edu/thomas/H...a-comments.htm

http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v07/v07p244_Smith.html

But if Willy's line really is something to do with this, what does it mean? Is it supposed to somehow be anti-Semitic? I've never heard this expression before in my life, and I'm just venturing a guess about what it could possibly mean. If anybody has any explanations, please share, because I'm in the dark on this one.

ChrisMatson · 03-26-2003, 07:38 PM

From what I understand, it is Jamaican Patois slang, meaning something like "fool," but I don't know what the correct spelling is. I thought it was pronounced like "bumble-clot" or even "bumble-clock."

EDIT:

I just found this site:
http://www.afst.com/patois_dictionary.htm

Quote:

BUMBA CLOT, curse words

Vlad D · 03-26-2003, 08:02 PM

I have a lot of friends from Jamaica and it is Bumba Clot. Other popular curses my friends use are Ras Clot and Blood Clot. Don't ask me what they mean.

Duane Robinson · 03-27-2003, 02:16 AM

I'm Jamaican, born and raised there and I've been known to have a pretty foul mouth so I think I'm kind of an expert on this subject. It's actually Bombo Clot. We pronounce certain words different from American and English people so certain words have different emphasis placed on them or are pronounced different ways. Bombo Clot has a few meanings since most cuss words in Jamaica can be used in place of each other.

Like Vlad said some people use Ras Clot, or P*ssy Clot, or one of my favorites as a kid Bombo P*ssy Ras Clot (Which is reserved for those times you're feeling extra vulgar) interchangeably. Depending on how you use it the words can mean certain things. Clot can also be replaced with Cleet so instead of saying Blood Clot or Bombo Clot you could say Blood cleet or bombo cleet and it would be perfectly acceptable.

For example if you just witnessed an accident, in America you would exclaim Oh shit, but in Jamaica you would hear someone say Bombo Clot in the same tone. But it can also be used the same way you would if you wanted to tell someone to shut their f*ckin mouth, which is what Willy did in Leon. He told the guy to shut his bombo clot mouth which is basically him telling the guy to shut his f*ckin mouth in Patois.

PS: Hope I don't get banned for all the expletives in this post. :b

Henry Gale · 03-27-2003, 05:40 AM

Léon is is a real favorite of mine, I once paid $130 for the LD. But, I saw it first! And I love finding out where words come from, so this is a great thread.

**HTF Ads**

Chuck C · 03-27-2003, 05:20 PM

interetsting info...i always wondered this myself, thanks!

Grant B · 03-27-2003, 07:27 PM

Thank #$%^ $%^&*() #$%^&**&% that we have experts on profanity here!

Aurel Savin · 03-27-2003, 08:23 PM

The great thing about living in NYC is that you hear slang from all types of cultures everyday ... so figuring out these things in movies is no big deal.

I have this theory that you are not really an American until you can listen to a rap song and totally understand the references and nuances made in the lyrics

Holadem · 03-28-2003, 09:39 AM

It is actually strange to me that people would not know what word is... I have been in the US only for 6 1/2 years, yet I knew that word within the first year. Aurel is right, NYC has a lot do with it.

Something I have never figured out and no one seems to know is what it means. Without knowing that, it's hard to realise it's a bad word until you get used to hearing it in that fashion. Having been around west indians a lot, I know that saying it in proper company is like saying "fuck". Yet, no one has ever been able to tell me if it's related to sex, religion, excrement, body part or any of the delicious things curse words are normally associated with. When I asked, I used to get "stop saying that!" - It really bothered them. I find it extrememly strange that a word considered extremely rude has no such connotation itself.

Paging Rex Bachman !!!!

--
Holadem

Henry Gale · 03-28-2003, 03:53 PM

I think it's worth mentioning that Léon was filmed a year after True Romance and I think there was some amount of Drexl Spivey in Stansfield.