Bing Botta Boom

Posted by Smokey Stover on March 03, 2008 at 04:03:

In Reply to: Bing Botta Boom posted by Brian from Shawnee on March 03, 2008 at 01:29:

: : : : Where did the term/phrase... Bing Botta Boom originate ?

: : : Didn't it start out as a drum roll/flourish following the punchline of a joke?

: : I haven't heard that version, although I can translate it. The usual version is bada bing, bada boom, or just bada bing. In the days of burlesque there were two principal ingredients to the show. One was the girls, in earlier days renowned for the fan dance (Sally Rand) or bubble dancers, and in later days for more coarseness and less subtlety--but not necessarily less skill.

: : The other ingredient was comedy. Between girlie performances were the comic interludes with a good joke-teller and his straight man, or more often, one of the girls acting as his straight. Essential to both the girlie show and the comic sketch was the band, a small ensemble of three to six pieces, always including a drummer with a drum set. At the punchline of a joke or a sketch the drummer would strike the rim of the drum (in a "rimshot") usually twice (once with each stick), followed by a stroke of the cymbal. The drumset included a cymbal suspended above the side drum or snare drum, a little to one side, which could easily be struck by the drummer's stick, or operated by a foot-pedal, thus bada bing, two strokes on the rim and one on the cymbal. If the drummer chose to do bada boom, the boom was the bass drum, operated by a foot-pedal. He could easily execute bing botta boom by a cymbal stroke, a double rimshot, and a stroke on the bass drum.

: : The burlesque show has long since been replaced by strip clubs and home entertainment. But the rimshot has remained as a sort of symbolic enforcer of punchlines wherever there's a comedian and a band. Watch Jay Leno and the Tonight SHow, for instance. He likes his one-liners punctuated by rimshots.

: : If you watch The Sopranos you are probably aware of a restaurant they go to that is called "Bada Bing." The episodes in that restaurant, or at least the exteriors, are filmed at a real New Jersey restaurant, which has added to its outdoor sign another one, "Bada Bing." The restaurant is not actually a strip club, since such things are illegal in bluenose New Jersey.
: : SS
: :

: I'd like to make one minor point of clarification, if I may, though I've only seen one episode of The Soprano's and I don't think the Bada Bing Club was in it. My knowledge of pop culture and my knowledge of the un-bluenose side of New Jersey tell me that there really are strip clubs in the state! Legal ones are nicknamed "juice bars" because they sell no alcohol and it's really the state Alcoholic Berverage Commission that stipulates stripping cannot occur on premises where alcohol is sold. Illegal ones get busted by the ABC now and then.

Brian is absolutely right. I only skipped over the information in the interest of brevity. There are other states as well, I believe, where you have to sacrifice the liquor license if you want a strip show.
SS