Bozo Matic.

February 23, 2001 9:48 PM

Bozo Matic. No, it's not a toy, or appliance, or a poorly thought out website, it's a real given name - and yes, he's a real person. It just so happens he's Croatian, and is now the new chairman of Bosnia's government.
posted by kokogiak (3 comments total)

Should mention this comes via Patrick Corcoran on the WWWAC mailing list.
posted by kokogiak at 9:49 PM on February 23, 2001

There used to be a custom guitar maker name Bozo as well; I think he's retired now. A friend bought an absolutely gorgeous acoustic 12-string from him. In spite of the beautiful tone and workmanship, I had to laugh every time I saw the word "Bozo" inlaid on the headstock in mother-or-pearl.

Probably should mention that it's pronounced "Boh-zho".
posted by MrBaliHai at 4:06 AM on February 24, 2001

Some of the backstory of Bozo the Clown. It's in dispute; the most famous actor claims he got the name from a vaudevillian named Bozolowski, but he (also?) licensed a pre-existing Bozo character from a spoken-record series whose creator insists that Bozo was a name given to various circus clowns before 1940. There doesn't seem to be a clear origin of the name otherwise.

By the way, in case you didn't know, Bozo was once played by Willard Scott, on a Washington, D.C. channel. (For a long time the concept was licensed to various local stations, rather than syndicating a single show.) It's still running in Chicago.
posted by dhartung at 7:03 AM on February 24, 2001