When did Goon stop meaning Goon?

r/

I’m an old guy and apparently I’ve been walking around calling people “goons” thinking I’m channeling The Sopranos, when in reality I’ve been accusing them of… furiously polishing the ol’ bishop.

When did “goon” stop meaning low-level street thug and start meaning someone who’s on a solo mission to the shame cave?

I told a younger dude at work, “Quit acting like a goon,” and he looked at me like I just exposed his browser history.

When did this slang change ???

Comments

  1. heyyyitsshan Avatar

    I can’t with the lingo these days… it’s totes skibidi toilet.

  2. sirdabs Avatar

    It has multiple meanings. To younger folk it may be referring to a particular form of masturbation.

  3. DamnitColin Avatar

    Oh lawd! I call kids “goons” all the time when I’m teasing them. Yikes!

  4. pineapplepenguin42 Avatar

    That word always makes me think of the little bunny foo foo song. Now that has a whole different and disturbing connotation!

  5. Laiko_Kairen Avatar

    I think the rise of discord had a lot to do with it

    People join gooning discords to share pirn and jerk off with each other. Idgi, honestly

  6. EdwinQFoolhardy Avatar

    So, apparently the earliest record online is an Urban Dictionary entry from 2005, which is way earlier than I was expecting. Apparently it derives from the more traditional definition in that one keeps jerkin’ on their gherkin until they’re so fixated on masturbating that they’ve been reduced to a stupid person, aka a goon. Urban Dictionary Source

    According to KnowYourMeme, it remained an obscure sex term until 2019, when someone made a subreddit for the practice. Since then it’s gotten more widespread recognition and more or less become the default use of the term. Know Your Meme Source

    I’m guessing this was helped by the fact that using “goon” as a term for idiots, thugs, or henchmen was already becoming a bit antiquated, so as soon as a new definition that described something that is very relevant to the interests of many internet denizens started spreading, it’s new usage way outpaced anyone using it in the more traditional way. For an additional reference, the YouTuber Wendigoon (whose name is based on the earlier usage and whose channel does not revolve around masturbation in an capacity) started his channel in 2019 and started becoming popular (i.e. past the point where he could easily change his name as he had done before) in 2020, so that gives a bit of a timeframe for when the new definition was still spreading, but had not yet reached the point where it could be called a commonly known term.

  7. One-Organization3472 Avatar

    I started singing “Goons Lurking” by Plies.

  8. chillychili Avatar

    Surprisingly (to me at least), Urban Dictionary has an entry that dates to 2006.

  9. Sowf_Paw Avatar

    I remember goon being what you say it means. Specifically, I remember it referring to an enforcer in ice hockey that doesn’t really have hockey skills and is just there to start fights.

  10. Mister_shagster Avatar

    Well there’s double meaning to the word I call my dog a goon and sometimes gooner it’s a funny word if anyone said anything to me about it I would err on the side of safety and say it means thugs or henchmen and not that they edge themselves to oblivion.

  11. TCB13 Avatar

    My question is this: when did Gooning become mainstream? I remember hearing about Gooning and gooners in the deep parts of the Internet. 4Chan, degenerate subreddits, etc. These terms were for people with porn addiction or chronic masturbation problems. When did Goon become the common vernacular for jerking off?

    I missed the transition I guess.

  12. alarming_blood_loss Avatar

    Here in Australia goon means cheap wine often consumed by underage teenagers

  13. Tom_Gibson Avatar

    goon’s new meaning is a verb btw. Gooners goon the same way shooters shoot

  14. ConsistentEggplant27 Avatar

    Goon (noun) still means what you think it does.

    Goon (verb) is the act of masturbating for a very extended period of time.

    Gooner (noun) is someone who goons.

    But it is not surprising that younger people would hear the word “Goon” and only think of the newer slang.

  15. NorbuckNZ Avatar

    Try being an Arsenal football club fan, whose nickname is Gunners, and also sometimes called Gooners. There is a global community of message board usernames that now make us look like a masturbation cult.

  16. CUngoed Avatar

    Lowkey in like the last year, started online, you can trust me cause I used lowkey

  17. XDracam Avatar

    I don’t know when it happened but there’s a fun meme comic where a bunch of unshaved people with anime shirts show up to a Mafia boss, and a bunch of thugs show up to an unshaved lonely guy, and both say “I thought I ordered goons”

  18. Random-Mutant Avatar

    I wonder whether the new gooning meaning came from gurning, pulling ugly faces, as I guess a face pulled when edging is probably the same.

  19. Ill_Pressure3893 Avatar

    I’m old enough to remember the cartoon character Alice the Goon …

  20. too_many_shoes14 Avatar

    Back in the day a goon was somebody who frequented the somethingawful forums

  21. boomstick1985 Avatar

    Hockey, porn or thug??

  22. Nezeltha-Bryn Avatar

    I’m guessing it happened when Despicable Me came out. That type of job started getting referred to more as minions, and goon got repurposed into whatever sexual thing it means now.

  23. Dr_Weirdo Avatar

    Wait, I thought the modern meaning was pluralized as “gooners”?

  24. neoslith Avatar

    I blame The Game Grumps (specifically Arin) for popularizing his term “gooning” for spanking the monkey.

  25. Jakkerak Avatar

    Late 90s/Early 2000s.

  26. AccomplishedRow6685 Avatar

    “I PREFER THE HANDS-ON TOUCH
    YOU ONLY GET WITH HIRED GOONS.”

  27. TheGreatBenjie Avatar

    It still means that, don’t let the kids ruin it

  28. not_a_crackhead Avatar

    As a Canadian this new slang is really hard to accept

    Gooning your way into a stanley cup has a completely different meaning now

  29. smol_aquinan Avatar

    As an Australian, goon means box wine to us. Aka goon of fortune

  30. dbree801 Avatar

    I’ve been calling people goons for like 20 years lol. I’m not gonna stop.

  31. ChatahoocheeRiverRat Avatar

    Am I the only one who thinks of Popaye in Goonland? https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030198/

  32. ionised Avatar

    > start meaning someone who’s on a solo mission to the shame cave?

    You what, now?

  33. FullofLovingSpite Avatar

    I was really thrown off when I first heard this one. I feel like it was within the couple of years. I’m not sure, though. I’m an old, too… well, middle.

  34. sjbluebirds Avatar

    “Goon” was originally one of a group of weirdos who were antagonists on the old black and white Fleischer Studio’s “Popeye” cartoons.

  35. Nvenom8 Avatar

    Goon still means what you think it means. If you used it in that context, almost anyone would understand. Your guy at work is just somewhere near the bottom of the bell curve. It’s not even a noun in the newer usage. It’s a verb. One who goons would be a gooner, not a goon.

  36. Xanadu87 Avatar

    I was excited to discover an archive of The Goon Show, but it turned out to be old British men doing silly voices.

    JK, I listened to that years ago.

  37. dbossman70 Avatar

    boy my surprise when i was talking about gooning with someone and they sent me a link. i thought we were gonna cam up and look tough he was cocked and loaded full frontal i almost passed out.

  38. ErwinFurwinPurrwin Avatar

    About the same time “cornhole” became the name of a game

  39. bexi_star Avatar

    Oh thank you! You’ve saved me from a Google search. Saw a video thumbnail on YT, that said someone had goosed to death. I didn’t know wtf that meant, but also thought not to Google 😅

  40. Conquiescamus Avatar

    Ikr, I remembered goon as those baddies you beat up in Lego Batman from PS2

  41. Nwsamurai Avatar

    (Knocking on door)

    Homer: “Who’s there?”

    Goons: “Goons.”

    Homer: “Goons?”

    Goons: “Hired Goons.”

    Homer: “Hired Goons?”

  42. gigashadowwolf Avatar

    There is actually some overlap of the meanings that explains the change.

    If you were to distinguish goon from similar words like “mobster” or “henchman” or “lacky” what would you say is the key characteristic of a goon?

    Goons are stupid, they barely have two brain cells to rub together. They are simpletons.

    Gooning is not actually masturbation in the sense you are thinking of it.

    It’s a mental state you enter when practicing edging and watching porn. Edging is the act of bringing yourself to the edge of orgasm and stopping it at the last moment, making you want to orgasm even more building on to your desire for sexual release. Eventually you become so consumed with this desire, so horny that your brain basically stops working, all it can think about is sex sex sex. This is when you have “goon” brain. That’s “gooning”.

  43. jibberwockie Avatar

    Old guy from New Zealand, and a ‘goon’ was a hilariously silly person from the old english radio show ‘the Goon Show’, Spike Milligan, Peter Sellars, and Harry Secombe etc.

  44. yellow-snowslide Avatar

    About 2 years ago I think. Funny how language changes 😀

  45. TonyJPRoss Avatar

    I thought gooning over someone just meant being a really big fan. Like a Stan. I’ve been missing a lot of context…

  46. Drevstarn Avatar

    I still don’t understand what “goon”s new meaning is. Came across a few usages which were different from each other. What does “goon” and “gooner” mean?

  47. TomCos22 Avatar

    Goon in Australia has always meant cheap boxed wine lol.

  48. pandaSmore Avatar

    It still means that. You may be confusing the noun goon with the slang verb to goon.

  49. Gecko99 Avatar

    Back in the 2000s I used to frequent a forum and we called ourselves goons. When I went off to college we had a goon meetup. It involved playing board games.

  50. Oafah Avatar

    It hasn’t changed. Watch:

    “Trump and his goons are ruining everything”.

  51. Elly_Fant628 Avatar

    Isn’t goon cask wine?

  52. ph33rlus Avatar

    When Gen Alpha invented brain rot and now we be skibidi rizzin’ no cap.

  53. Crunchy-Leaf Avatar

    I don’t even use it as the new intended term. I use it to mean “coomer” or porn addict.

  54. ProtestantLarry Avatar

    I’d say about 4 – 5 years ago. Speaking as a young guy.

  55. ThatVoiceDude Avatar

    Around the time the Skibidi Toilet lexicon started overwriting gen A’s entire vocabulary. Although I’ll admit I’ve seen a few skits using it ironically that were genuinely hilarious.

  56. BabyMamaMagnet Avatar

    Im a goon sometimes but I don’t go around and goon or whatever that means

  57. musicalsigns Avatar

    I’m 35 and this is news to me. Tbf, I live under a rock.

  58. woodbanger04 Avatar

    Goonie Goo Goo! What the F**K does that mean Gus? Is your wife Bigfoot?

  59. Major_Twang Avatar

    Here in the UK, we have all football club who’s nickname is ‘The Gooners’.

    A couple of years ago, I referred to a friend of mine as a “Gooner”, and our Gen Z son (who doesn’t follow football at all) literally spat his tea out.

    Cue one awkward conversation, because I had never heard the modern meaning of ‘Gooner’ before.

  60. SnooDonkeys9743 Avatar

    Back in the day users of the Something Awful forums were called Goons.

  61. BadgerBadgerCat Avatar

    If we really want to play the “damn kids changing the language” card here, the word “Goon” was also applied to German guards (particularly POW guards) during WWII (still drawing on the “stupid/clueless” connotations) and which inspired the naming for the iconic 1950s British comedy series The Goon Show.

    And has several people have also noted, it also refers to cheap cask wine in Australia.

  62. MsAndrea Avatar

    Goon means different things. I either think of it as a hired henchman thug, or a fifties radio show.

  63. TehluvEncanis Avatar

    I literally call my kids goons – it’s just a silly little name to call them. I hope it doesn’t mean anything more 😕

  64. Knockedmeerkat Avatar

    Oh no! Not the Goonies!

  65. Davegrave Avatar

    One of my preferred silly threats, “don’t make me send the goons after you” really takes on an even darker tone now

  66. DerekIsAGooner Avatar

    I don’t know, and I don’t like it.

  67. eldred2 Avatar

    Wait. Are you saying it doesn’t mean low-intelligence enforcer? I.e., “He sent his goons to rough me up.”

  68. TerryCrewsNextWife Avatar

    I see you’ve played knifey spooney before.

    Now THIS is a goon bag (in a box).

    gif

  69. anotherkeebler Avatar

    Personally I lost track when simp stopped meaning “simpleton.”

  70. Justagirlhere2891 Avatar

    There’s still like a divide between the two goons. If I call someone a gooner then you know what I mean but if I said “go with your goons” then you know what I mean.

  71. abmiram Avatar

    I’m gonna chalk it up to Titan AE.

  72. Miphaling Avatar

    It’s been a slang term going around since 2021. It’s a Gen Alpha thing. Goon these days would just be Henchman. But if you have the 1930s mafia context, goon still works.

  73. Nickyjtjr Avatar

    gif

    What…what does it mean now?

  74. Send_puppies_pls Avatar

    When it started meaning goon

  75. FrozenFrac Avatar

    I couldn’t tell you specifics without going to Urban Dictionary or Know Your Meme, but here’s the gist. Once upon a time, the term for someone who would…self pleasure a lot was called a coomer. Coom, cum, you get the picture. At some point, coomer turned to gooner.

  76. Nepharious_Bread Avatar

    I think that term is relatively new.

  77. saucy_mcsauceface Avatar

    We older Aussies refer to cheap cask/box wine as goon bags.

  78. Ellavemia Avatar

    I’m aware of the term “goon” meaning what you know it as, and of the word “gooner” being the one associated with new slang. Like most things though, it probably got shortened and now they are the same word meaning two completely different things.