Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

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.

Submit Your Comment

or fill in the name and email fields below:

Comments

*absolutely stumped*

speedwell2 May-19-2004

4 votes   Permalink   Report Abuse

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

2 votes   Permalink   Report Abuse

I'll see if I can rent a copy this weekend. Now I've just GOT to figure this out! :)

speedwell2 May-20-2004

1 vote   Permalink   Report Abuse

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

2 votes   Permalink   Report Abuse

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

6 votes   Permalink   Report Abuse

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

1 vote   Permalink   Report Abuse

I think that Stone actually used the text from the actual courtroom depositions.

dieubussy Apr-22-2009

4 votes   Permalink   Report Abuse

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

1 vote   Permalink   Report Abuse

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

0 vote   Permalink   Report Abuse

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

1 vote   Permalink   Report Abuse

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

1 vote   Permalink   Report Abuse

"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

15 votes   Permalink   Report Abuse

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

0 vote   Permalink   Report Abuse

Here is Film Mania Gifts which is provided signed movie scripts online. We have the best collection of screenplay & signed scripts.
Film Mania Gifts

filmmaniagift Jan-04-2023

0 vote   Permalink   Report Abuse

Do you have a question? Submit your question here