# Oh, So the Lone Ranger WASN'T Calling Him "Stupid!" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 18, 2008, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-so-the-lone-ranger-wasnt-calling-him-stupid/434002 "2008-01-18T11:55:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-so-the-lone-ranger-wasnt-calling-him-stupid/434002/1 "2008-01-18T11:55:22Z")
Anyone familiar with _The Lone Ranger_ and Spanish has always wondered, “Why is he calling his sidekick ‘stupid’? Is it deliberate or just a coincidence?” Well, [NPR’s _All Things Considered_ has the answer.](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18195323) It turns out that the writer for the radio show was looking in an atlas at Arizona and saw [Tonto Basin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonto_Basin,_Arizona). He liked the way “Tonto” sounded, so that’s how the character’s name came to be. Now if we only knew what “Kemo Sabe” meant. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-so-the-lone-ranger-wasnt-calling-him-stupid/434002/2 "2008-01-18T12:22:16Z")
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan] Anyone familiar with _The Lone Ranger_ and Spanish has always wondered, “Why is he calling his sidekick ‘stupid’? Is it deliberate or just a coincidence?” Well, [NPR’s _All Things Considered_ has the answer.](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18195323) It turns out that the writer for the radio show was looking in an atlas at Arizona and saw [Tonto Basin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonto_Basin,_Arizona). He liked the way “Tonto” sounded, so that’s how the character’s name came to be. Now if we only knew what “Kemo Sabe” meant. [/QUOTE] Been there, done that. [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4\_061.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_061.html) ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-so-the-lone-ranger-wasnt-calling-him-stupid/434002/3 "2008-01-18T12:33:36Z")
[QUOTE=astorian] Been there, done that. [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4\_061.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_061.html) [/QUOTE] Done what? That article doesn’t talk about the cited inspiration of “Tonto” at all. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-so-the-lone-ranger-wasnt-calling-him-stupid/434002/4 "2008-01-18T13:09:29Z")
[QUOTE=Trunk] Done what? That article doesn’t talk about the cited inspiration of “Tonto” at all. [/QUOTE] Since the title of the article is “In the old Lone Ranger series, what did “kemosabe” mean?” **astorian’s** obviously talking about the last sentence he quoted > [@](#): > > Now if we only knew what “Kemo Sabe” meant ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-so-the-lone-ranger-wasnt-calling-him-stupid/434002/5 "2008-01-18T13:49:29Z")
Wait! Wait! I thought Gary Larson positively proved that “Kemo sabe” means “Horse’s ass”? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-so-the-lone-ranger-wasnt-calling-him-stupid/434002/6 "2008-01-18T13:58:59Z")
Kemosabe? I thought he was saying ‘Chemo Sorbet’. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-so-the-lone-ranger-wasnt-calling-him-stupid/434002/7 "2008-01-18T14:02:24Z")
In my family, we have a long tradition that “Kemo Sabe” means “Stinky Feet.” My dad, he’s a hoot. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-so-the-lone-ranger-wasnt-calling-him-stupid/434002/8 "2008-01-18T16:35:08Z")
Kemosabe is an ancient medical treatment for cancer from Japan. ---
**Author:** ![Plynck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Plynck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plynck)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-so-the-lone-ranger-wasnt-calling-him-stupid/434002/9 "2008-01-18T16:39:52Z")
[QUOTE=Zebra] Kemosabe is an ancient medical treatment for cancer from Japan. [/QUOTE] I was _wondering_ why they always put some in with my sushi. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-so-the-lone-ranger-wasnt-calling-him-stupid/434002/10 "2008-01-18T21:19:24Z")
The way that “Tonto” was pronounced on the show was “tahn-toe”, which in Spanish would be the word “tanto” meaning “so much” or “so many”. The word “tonto” in Spanish is pronounced more like “tone-toe”. Just sayin’.