Somthing that’s been rattling in my head for the past fifteen years or so, what’s a “gonk” as referenced here from the last episode of “The Young Ones”:
All I can find on the web are those little ‘power droids’ from Star Wars and that it’s a Brit term for a nap?
Anybody have a clue?
Also, I seem to remember Polo’s as little candies like lifesavers, right?
This is a gonk. They were very very popular in the 80s.
Polos are indeed “the mint with the hole”, very similar to like Life Savers.
TThankks jjimm!
So how do you fit the packet of Polo’s in them?
Haven’t a clue. There is another kind of gonk - a sort of plastic troll with mad hair, which was more popular in the 70s; might mean that.
A good reference for British slang.
I suspect that’s the right one. Consider the age of Edmonson et al. and the troll-gonk would fit right into their childhood years. I think they were made to stick on the end of a pencil, so you could maybe insert the packet of polos in the same hole.
Weeeee!!!
Thanks Lego!
I was about to do the same. 
What are those things (not the trolls but the fuzzy things with googlie-eyes that were popular in the 80s) called in U.S. English?
I don’t know, but I have a googlie-eyed fuzzball for every holiday in a calendar year on top of my monitor. My bank gives them away.
Syl
If memory serves, there were three kinds of gonk in the '70s/'80s. There was the little furry guy jjimm linked to; there was also the plastic troll he mentioned. I can’t find a picture of one online, but was like a little naked Smurf in a gumby pose, with hair like Don King the boxing promoter (typically Day-Glo pink). They came in various sizes and only the smallest fitted onto pencils but larger ones wouldn’t have had holes at all, let alone ones big enough to take a packet of Polos.
But there was a third gonk, which was all fake fur with a couple of felt ovals for feet and paper eyes stuck on. Maybe they had hollow insides and you could fit sweets and illicit exam notes in there?
There are several slang uses of the word (I’d never heard of the “nap” thing before). But the one meaning somebody like this person was inspired, I’ve always assumed, by the little plastic guy.
Apparently that link’s broken, but it wasn’t worth it anyhow.
no site, as of yet, but we always called the fuzzballs, wuppets. We got them at the A&W, they had ones with hats also. My best friend had them all stuck along the edge of the dash on her car.
In the States they were called either “Weepuls” or “Weepals”. I remember them as rather popular at my school 1983. So much so that my nasty homeroom teacher managed to confiscate a drawerful.
No, that’s a description of the troll I referred to, so there are only two kinds. Here’s the only pic I could find: it’s an atypical frog gonk.
Note to mods: I am not accusing anyone of being a troll. 
