# Need some help with this 'Britishism'. What's a "Gonk"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 20, 2002, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-help-with-this-britishism-whats-a-gonk/144057 "2002-12-20T17:33:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Inky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7feea3/32.png) [@Inky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inky_1)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-help-with-this-britishism-whats-a-gonk/144057/1 "2002-12-20T17:33:24Z")
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”: > [@](#): > > NEIL: It was horrible. I sat in the big hall and put my pocket of Polos on the desk. And my spare pencil and my support **gonk**. And my chewing gum and my extra pen. And my extra Polos and my **lucky gonk**. And my pencil sharpener shaped like a cream cracker. And **more gonks with a packet of Polos in each**. And lead for my retractable pencil. And my retractable pencil. And spare lead for my retractable pencil. And chewing gum and pencils and pens and **more gonks** , and the guy says “Stop writing, please.” 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? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-help-with-this-britishism-whats-a-gonk/144057/2 "2002-12-20T17:38:04Z")
[This is a gonk](http://www.modernbinding.co.uk/gonk.gif). They were very very popular in the 80s. Polos are indeed “the mint with the hole”, very similar to like Life Savers. ---
**Author:** ![Inky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7feea3/32.png) [@Inky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inky_1)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-help-with-this-britishism-whats-a-gonk/144057/3 "2002-12-20T17:41:21Z")
TThankks jjimm! So how do you fit the packet of Polo’s in them? ---
**Author:** ![Legomancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/779978/32.png) [@Legomancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Legomancer)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-help-with-this-britishism-whats-a-gonk/144057/4 "2002-12-20T17:44:44Z")
[Gonk](http://www.cool-movie-trivia.com/images/gonk.gif) ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-help-with-this-britishism-whats-a-gonk/144057/5 "2002-12-20T17:46:24Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-help-with-this-britishism-whats-a-gonk/144057/6 "2002-12-20T17:50:39Z")
A good reference for [British slang](http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/index.htm). > [@](#): > > **gonk** Noun. An idiot. Derog. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-help-with-this-britishism-whats-a-gonk/144057/7 "2002-12-20T17:51:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jjimm \* > \*\*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. \*\* 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. ---
**Author:** ![Kwyjibo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/59ef9b/32.png) [@Kwyjibo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kwyjibo)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-help-with-this-britishism-whats-a-gonk/144057/8 "2002-12-20T19:42:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Legomancer \* > \*\*[Gonk](http://www.cool-movie-trivia.com/images/gonk.gif) \*\* Weeeee!!! Thanks Lego! I was about to do the same. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-help-with-this-britishism-whats-a-gonk/144057/9 "2002-12-20T20:18:33Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![SylverOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@SylverOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SylverOne)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-help-with-this-britishism-whats-a-gonk/144057/10 "2002-12-20T20:24:26Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-help-with-this-britishism-whats-a-gonk/144057/11 "2002-12-20T20:36:27Z")
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](http://www.geocities.com/haggisbagger/meet/gonk.jpg) was inspired, I’ve always assumed, by the little plastic guy. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-help-with-this-britishism-whats-a-gonk/144057/12 "2002-12-20T20:38:59Z")
Apparently that link’s broken, but it wasn’t worth it anyhow. ---
**Author:** ![DeepPurple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@DeepPurple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeepPurple)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-help-with-this-britishism-whats-a-gonk/144057/13 "2002-12-20T20:43:47Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Inky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7feea3/32.png) [@Inky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inky_1)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-help-with-this-britishism-whats-a-gonk/144057/14 "2002-12-20T21:37:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by capybara \* > \*\*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? \*\* 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. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-help-with-this-britishism-whats-a-gonk/144057/15 "2002-12-21T12:26:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by everton \* > **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?** 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](http://www.freakyfrogs.net/collect/froggonk.jpg). Note to mods: I am not accusing anyone of being a troll. 😉