Booing is the act of showing displeasure for someone or something, generally an entertainer, by loudly yelling "Boo" (and holding the "oo" sound) or making other noises of disparagement, such as animal noises. The sounds of donkeys, snakes, and cats are quite popular. The sound is often accompanied by one or two hands giving the thumbs down sign. If spectators particularly dislike the performance they may also accompany booing by throwing objects onstage, though the objects may not be meant to physically hurt the performer.
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Examples
- On Maury, the audience will boo on some "bad" people that come to the stage.
- In A Star Is Burns, an episode of The Simpsons, Montgomery Burns asks a displeased audiences, "Are you saying boo or boo-urns?"
- On the game show The Price Is Right, the audience will boo contestants who do not spin the "big wheel" completely around in a single spin as required by the rules.
- In sports, booing is quite common, both at players after poor play or referees/umpires after an unpopular ruling.
- On the American variety show Showtime at the Apollo, the audiences are infamous for quickly showing their displeasure for bad performances, and are encouraged to do so by the hosts.
- A villainous character may also be booed to show a dislike of said character, rather than the acting skills of the thespian portraying him or her. Melodrama performances may encourage it, along with cheering at the hero/heroine, and throwing popcorn at the stage in order to display empathy at said character.
- Mexican fans sometimes boo by chanting, "Culero! Culero!" ("Asshole!" in Mexican Spanish).
- In professional wrestling, the audience will usually boo the "bad guy".
- In British pantomime, the audience will be expected to boo the villain of the piece as they make their entrance and exit, and to boo and hiss as he or she divulges their dastardly plans.
- A "spin off" of sorts is the "blooing" of the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps whenever they take the field (this is commonly mistaken as booing).
- After the Marquise de Meurteil is exposed for her deceit in the movie Dangerous Liaisons, the crowd at the opera unanimously booes her.
History
Booing performers has a very long history, possibly to the days of ancient Greece, where audiences would boo and applaud bad and good performances, respectively. This practice has in recent times come under criticism: the opinion is often expressed that to boo a bad performance is unkind and demonstrates a lack of sophistication. However, the counterargument goes that the combination of booing and applause help keep the quality of public performance high, by emotionally rewarding the good and punishing the bad. This debate is especially relevant to the opera world where passionate applause and rowdy booing have long been a part of the tradition. Recently in the United States, however, this practice has come under attack. As opera attendance has become viewed as an indulgence of the rich, the act of booing has fallen out of favor. Proponents of booing blame this trend for what they view as a general decline in the quality of modern American opera .
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