Probably not, although the plush flying monkeys probably are. Those cups do look like they’d more attractive to kids than most of the other merch available.
I keep looking but I still can’t find any controversy over this than the one Daily Dot article you cited quoting a bunch of guys on Reddit. For some reason they didn’t cite cumslutorlando90. All over the internet.
I’ve known of “gooning” as a masturbation term for at least a year now[1], probably from hanging out on Reddit and Discord. Since then, I’ve seen it used in various YouTube videos and other such media. Though it used to have a more specific meaning in that context, it’s shifted to just general “jackin’ it a lot” most of the time. Will it still be in common parlance in another five years? No clue but it’s a common term among the younger set now and the looser definition means it gets used more commonly.
Google Trends suggests it started really taking off in early 2024 ↩︎
That is what I was going to post. “Goon” + drink = box wine. I assume the OP was not aware of this, in which case, fair enough, I guess (but why go to masturbation?)
this concrete-comp. never gets old (Chile)
Also known as ‘keming’
Thread winner for sure.
Regarding the “L” and “I” running together to make an unintentional “u”, I recall an old issue of Fantastic Four where The Thing flicks his finger and wreaks havoc (‘cause, you know, he’s so strong). Even though the letters were carefully drawn as part of the panel, and couldn’t have run together, they still spelled the word “FLIK” rather than “FLICK” to avoid even the slightest possibility of an accidental obscenity.
Also between the C and I in city.
There is an OAV titled レザーマン (Leatherman) A box set imported into the US has a hand drawn title so badly kerned it has been offered for sale as Lea Therman.
ARGH!
Goon, you’re free!
And here I was, thinking you were just celebrating the end of No Nut November.
For those, like me, who wondered: Original video animation - Wikipedia.
The OED does not list GOON with that alternative meaning, so despite some popular media, it has not yet caught on commonly.
Exactly, that sort of slang comes and goes- and in any case, the words used were “go on” and even if read as Goon, that is not the same as ‘gooning”.
So, according to the OED it does have SEVEN definitions, but none of them that slang term.
I used to say- “Not my circus, not my monkeys- my monkeys wear little jackets with matching fezzes” and few caught my meaning.
Slang terms can be very transient- some decades ago, I was talking to two kids of my close friend- they used the term “a real George”, and they said it meant someone stupid and goofy. It was common among the kids there.- Where did it come from? Why that bastion of classical education- a Bugs Bunny cartoon, with a takeoff on “Of Mice and Men” where the cartoon character says “I’ll hug hm and squeeze him, and call him George”. I was amazed. (for those not having read that wonderful but sad book*, Lenny is the big mentally challenged guy and George his smarter buddy).
(*also a decent film)
Get a list of common slang terms of say the 1950s- and some will leave you puzzled.
Here are a few of 2025 new slang terms I have never heard-
“Periodt, Mid, Touch Grass” and those came up as COMMMON!
Periodt: more than 16 years old
Mid: more than 6 years old
Touch grass: more than 10 years old
People, you are going to have to stop believing the tagline that the SDMB has some of the hippest people in the planet. In general, we are exactly as out of touch as you would expect a group where 50-year-olds are some of the youngest members to be. Stop acting suprised that you are completely unfamiliar with what’s popular with the under-40s.
I’ve definitely ran into “mid” and “touch grass” many times, and am pretty sure that I vaguely remember seeing “periodt” used in meme images before.
A-fucking-men.
I was never hip, like, at any point in my life, and I use modern slang that I recently realized was modern maybe ten years ago. (Can we still say “baller”?)
But “mid” and “touch grass” are pretty ubiquitous. My husband works with teenagers so I always get the dankest memes. He made one of his kids nearly fall out of their chair when she mentioned Chappel Roan, saying, “You’ve probably never heard of her,” and he started singing “Hot to Go” with the hand motions. She was greatly disturbed (not the least because he can’t sing.)
You can’t really predict which slang terms are a flash in the pan and which will stick. I was watching a show about sitcoms talking about “jumping the shark” and I realized I didn’t remember where it came from. There are a ton of people who use that phrase who never watched Happy Days. Yet I’m fairly certain “jump the shark” is here to stay. I’m guessing “stan” isn’t going anywhere either because I’m old enough to know where it came from but many from younger generations use it.
(I’ve never heard goon used that way. I’ve always found that word unsettling and this doesn’t help.)
Let’s just all hope for parents’ sanity that “6-7” dies a quick death.
I love it when you guys teach me new ways to annoy/impress the grandkids.
You…you plan on bring up gooning to the grandkids?
If necessary. 
Not hip, but generally smarter than the average bear.
And I am not “hip’ at all.
True. I admit that.
I have never heard it in that context, to me “stan” means those nations like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan,
Since the OED is your standard of determining if a word has caught on, “stan” has officially worded