ta-ta & ho-ho
You guys have seen Oliver Stone’s JFK? What do “ta-ta” and “ho-ho” mean in this phrase? “You got the right ta-ta, but the wrong ho-ho”. It’s from the court sequence. I do understand what it means it the sense it is used in the film, just wonder what these two words are coming from.
*absolutely stumped*
speedwell2 May-19-2004
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OK! The charactor who says this "ta-ta, ho-ho" (if you have seen the film) says a hell a lot of other wierd stuff. The thing is that thoes things which he adds to the end of his lines in the film are not subtittled unfortunately. So I don't know what he says at all. If you could check it out and let me know what kind of dialect he is indicating.
goossun May-19-2004
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I'll see if I can rent a copy this weekend. Now I've just GOT to figure this out! :)
speedwell2 May-20-2004
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the character uses a lot of fairly familiar "hipster" expressions. in the movie he is a lawyer representing a lot of gay people and also probably plugged into the New Orleans jazz scene with its improvisational slang, so it could come from either or both of these subcultures. It just sems to me like something somebody just came up with one day to express the idea that there is something both right and wrong in an approach being taken by another.
In the movie, my sense of what he means is that Jim Garrison is asking pertinent questions, but he shouldn't be asking them given the dangerous nature of the people he is going after.
sven May-26-2004
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Sven,you got it wrong man. Though you, mentioning the New Oelean Jazz may ring a bell. However, it's Dean Andrews who says "You got the right ta-ta, but the wrong ho-ho" when he denies that Clay shaw is Clay Bertrand. By tha sentence he means that "yes I named the Clay Bertrand (ta-ta), but you got the wrong guy (ho-ho)nstead of him".
This guy talks wierd throughout the film when he appears. Check out these:
"We been thicker'n molasses pie since law school". "I gave'em anything that popped into my cabeza". "Is this off the record, Daddy-o?" ""Big Enchilada"" AND "The government's gonna jump all over your head, Jimbo, and go "cock-a-doodledoo!""
You can check out the script at: http://www.awesomefilm.com/script/JFK1.txt
goossun Jun-03-2004
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I'm assuming it's a very stylized Oliver Stone-ian version of N'Awlins (New Orleans) dialect (I've never been there, but my mom's from Savannah, Georgia, where the local dialect has some similarities in the expressions and rhythms of the speech).
Anyways, from reading the script (as linked above), from the context, what is meant is, basically, "you've got the right idea, but the wrong guy" (ie: don't involve me in this business).
R_Helms Jun-07-2004
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I think that Stone actually used the text from the actual courtroom depositions.
dieubussy Apr-22-2009
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The real Dean Andrews -- jive-talker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCkw8zWmQD8
Interestingly, in his Warren Commission testimony of 1964, Andrews refers
to homosexuals as "gay," a word not commonly used to describe homosexual until several years later.
Mary Edwards Apr-16-2011
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Mary: Not commonly, but "gay" has been used for homosexual since the 1930s and it was increasingly used in the early 60s, just about the time Jack Kennedy was killed. It's conceivable that Andrews might say it as he'd been interviewing homosexuals and spending time in that world.
Andy Temple Jun-25-2011
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The 'real' Dean Andrews (not Candy) says "you got the right ta ta but the wrong ho ho" on actual news film. I have it since it's on the bonus dvd for jfk directors cut. So not stylized.
bubbha Nov-30-2011
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Hahahahaha. The movie is about the president getting his f'en head blown off and you guys are debating wether the word "GAY" was used before 1930.
HAHAHAHA! LMAO!
DirtyMink Mar-26-2012
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"the right Ta-Ta, but the wrong Ho-Ho" is beatnik/Jazz speak from the 1950s. Common phrase used in discussions between men regarding their sexual exploits or, for prostitutes speaking to a client. ... It means literally that one has been pleasing a woman's breast and because of booze, or drugs, or lack of experience,.. clumsiness perhaps.... the man tried to "enter" the female, but, it was the wrong orifice (ho) or hole... as in anal hole. Ta-ta(s) means two breasts and Ho-ho means two orifices.. I hope this explanation isn't disturbing to the readers...
Josephwaiting Apr-11-2012
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Dean Andrews was referring to an event in which he gave the name of an individual not referring to anyone specificly, but just to give the interviewer bait. Well that man took that name and ran with it, coming up with an individual who had been charged with carrying a concealed weapon in Houston I believe. Well the original guy Dean Andrews gave to get this ball rolling was fictional, so this individual who was charged for carrying a concealed weapon might have done so, but that doesn't make the original fictional individual who just happens to have the same name any more real because of this coincidence. That was my interpretation anyway. Either way "the right ta ta but the wrong ho ho" can't really get any better. Haha
Actually Mar-17-2015
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filmmaniagift Jan-04-2023
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