# Frau Blucher! (Whinney!) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 2, 2000, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frau-blucher-whinney/24316 "2000-07-02T00:37:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BoBettie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@BoBettie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BoBettie)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2000, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frau-blucher-whinney/24316/1 "2000-07-02T00:37:51Z")
OK, Young Frankenstein fans…why do the horses always whinney when they hear Frau Blucher’s name? Zette (sitting at home, eating Chinese takeout- watching one the the funniest movies of all time and wondering…) ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2000, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frau-blucher-whinney/24316/2 "2000-07-02T00:41:06Z")
I think it’s supposed to be because she’s so terrifyingly ugly. At least compared to Teri Garr and Madeleine Kahn in their prime. ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2000, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frau-blucher-whinney/24316/3 "2000-07-02T01:03:12Z")
You are psychic or something, Zette. Re the OP, it’s some cinematic curlique I’ve forgotten the name of. It’s a symbolic, immediate _tug_ that clues in the audience that Bad Stuff is associated. Orson Welles did something or other with it…(I should never post, heat addled and giddy from exercise.) I say you’re psychic because not so long ago, in a place uncomfortably close to here, an icy, vicious, whispery little blond piece of evil infested a workplace. She was Frau Blucher without the parody or the sex drive. We hapless underlings took to whinneying, just out of her hearing, in a sly, unanswerable, subversive commentary on her reign of terror and intimidation. This past week, she didn’t get taken down…but damned if she didn’t get fried well. The Usual Suspects have called (carefully; she spies on their work phones) and all we do is whinney. Veb ---
**Author:** ![Ruffian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@Ruffian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruffian)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2000, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frau-blucher-whinney/24316/4 "2000-07-02T01:46:16Z")
This is likely just a WAG, but a friend in high school once toold me that “Blucher” means castrate or geld. Something along those lines. Frankly, I don’t think that’s likely–and just think it’s supposed to be “Ah! She’s scary!” ---
**Author:** ![lurkernomore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@lurkernomore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lurkernomore)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2000, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frau-blucher-whinney/24316/5 "2000-07-02T01:50:34Z")
…it is from the man who gave us Lily von Schtupp… ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2000, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frau-blucher-whinney/24316/6 "2000-07-02T02:19:04Z")
You are psychic or something, Zette. Re the OP, it’s some cinematic curlique I’ve forgotten the name of. It’s a symbolic, immediate _tug_ that clues in the audience that Bad Stuff is associated. Orson Welles did something or other with it…(I should never post, heat addled and giddy from exercise.) I say you’re psychic because not so long ago, in a place uncomfortably close to here, an icy, vicious, whispery little blond piece of evil infested a workplace. She was Frau Blucher without the parody or the sex drive. We hapless underlings took to whinneying, just out of her hearing, in a sly, unanswerable, subversive commentary on her reign of terror and intimidation. This past week, she didn’t get taken down…but damned if she didn’t get fried well. The Usual Suspects have called (carefully; she spies on their work phones) and all we do is whinney. Veb ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2000, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frau-blucher-whinney/24316/7 "2000-07-02T02:22:30Z")
AARUGH! Didn’t mean to do that. An exhausted page got refreshed and reposted, but unfortunately widdled on the furniture while it did it. ::whistling, looking innocent:: Veb ---
**Author:** ![evilbeth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/evilbeth/32/2268_2.png) [@evilbeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilbeth)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2000, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frau-blucher-whinney/24316/8 "2000-07-02T09:44:37Z")
I know but I’m not telling. I really and truly believe that the one person (me, in just so happens!) to figure out the true meaning will inherit the wonderful, witty world of Mel Brooks’ genius–sort of a _Charlie and the Chocolate Factory_ thing. No offense–I just want to be able to capture my prize. I _will_ tell you that no one has gotten in right in this thread! ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2000, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frau-blucher-whinney/24316/9 "2000-07-02T09:53:35Z")
**TVeblen** Innocent? Never!!! ---
**Author:** ![funneefarmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@funneefarmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/funneefarmer)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2000, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frau-blucher-whinney/24316/10 "2000-07-02T16:58:35Z")
Okay Zette, in the interest of the Straight Dope check out [The Giveaway](http://theddz.com/contest/previous.htm) ---
**Author:** ![evilbeth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/evilbeth/32/2268_2.png) [@evilbeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilbeth)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2000, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frau-blucher-whinney/24316/11 "2000-07-03T05:15:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > Okay Zette, in the interest of the Straight Dope check out [The Giveaway](http://theddz.com/contest/previous.htm) > \*\* So, which German word for “glue” are they referring to?