BtES, you beat me to it, drat you! 
I use both Brouhaha* and Flibbertygibbet fairly regularly.
Also Pyogenic Granuloma and Dookie.
Why, oh why do I Google things you say that I don’t know what they mean? I mean really. I should know better.
Rarely; I’m more likely to describe such an event as a to-do.
I have occasionally used Brouhaha, but this might be the first time I ever wrote it in a sentence.
I have also used donnybrook, but usually only in talking about the movie “the Quiet Man”.
I have heard Brouhaha used to describe a small skirmish on the baseball field. Same with Donnybrook. Billy Martin was famous for his Donnybrooks with both Earl Weaver and most Umpires.
Jim
I use brouhaha infrequently but I do use it. I use shindig all the time though.
Brouhaha is a great word, but it cannot compare to the greatest word of all time: ballyhoo.
I’m a fan of the word “brouhaha”. Just doing a quick search of my postings, it seems I’ve used it several times on the SDMB in the past few years.
Anyone can say they use it - but I have proof.
(See posting 13)
Thank you. 
Brouhaha, kerfuffle and hooligan are all very much words I use.
Donnybrook, I’ve never heard of before.
I don’t consider those two words to even remotely mean the same thing… :dubious:
I use it fairly often (as words go that you don’t use all that often).
Adrian Belew says both “brouhaha” and “ballyhoo” in the King Crimson song, “Elephant Talk.” I don’t use either, though.
Tom Lehrer used brouhaha in the intro to one of his pieces. I prefer imbroglio or contretemps.
Pretentious ? Moi ?
It still finds usage in the hockey world, where it refers exclusively to fisticuffs (another fantastic word that’s used well in hockey). I’ve heard it applied to other sports to mean something similar to “bench-clearing brawl”.
Otto and homeskillet, can you enlighten me on the history of those words?
Today I saw the word “hooligan” used three times in one paragraph in the newspaper, to describe the events that unfolded before a Germany/Poland game in the World Cup. I loved it.
Actually, I’m writing an e-mail to a friend while I’ve got this thread up and I found myself using the word “brouhaha” to describe the current controversy the Episcopal Church is facing about ordaining gays. It’s a perfectly good word, and I see no reason not to use it. After all, why should my vocabulary be circumscribed by others’ limitations?
Occasionally, I hear the term ‘brouhaha’ on ESPN’s Sportscenter usually when opposing teams two teams engage in a scuffle.
I use it on occasion. I also use the word “falderal” (for the foolishness/nonsense definition).
At my job, there’s plenty of cause to use it. And they can often be use interchangeably
In writing, I picked up the habit of using “vis-a-vis” from my old boss.
In my Collins French dictionary, brouhaha translates wonderfully as hubbub.
This search shows that, besides this one, the word brouhaha was used in 399 other threads.
Obviously, somebody is using it.
I prefer “What’s the rumpus?” a la Miller’s Crossing myself, but brouhaha is a great word too!