A friend of mine posted the term Bohunk on her Facebook (thanks Lori) and someone had commented that they did not know what the word meant. Now although I was familiar with it from “Sixteen Candles” and “Adventures in Babysitting”, I never actually bothered to find out what the term meant. The term, is derogatory slang used to describe Eastern European Immigrants and is most probably derived from combining BOhemia and HUNgary and adding a K (that’s some lazy combining). I had always assumed this was some made up term for the movies, but according to the Canadian Oxford Dictionary this word has been around for quite some time and is very insulting to some people.
So why the Oily? Insult to injury. Who knew. Besides my boy Jake?
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Thank you. This actually baffled me and my friends when we rediscovered these films in college.
But if it’s offensive to Hungarians, why is the sister’s fiance an annoying *Italian* stereotype? (And yeah, I know this is probably small potatoes in a movie that also involves a character like Long Duk Dong.)
Not sure why they had that stereotype, their last name was “Rizczech”.
OMG….lol. I always wondered this myself. Jake looks so good in that pic.
The term came about during mass immigration from E. Europeans about 100 years ago. Many of their names ended with -ak, -ko, -ek etc (e.g., Pohanko) …hence the k in bohunk. I guess the oily comes from the fact that they were often more olive skinned compared with the Irish and German neighbors. This is interesting… http://bobpegritz.blogspot.com/2009/03/hunky-gene.html
I’ve seen this flick enough to quote it blind, yet I never knew what an “oily bo hunk” was… and now I finally do. Thanks!
P.S. Yes, Michael Schoeffling looks amazing in that photo. Sigh….
An “Oily Variety Bohunk” refers to men of eastern european decent, mainly Italians (I spent a summer or 2 in Italy). The oily is easy, referring to the massive amounts of hair gel used to get that “greaser look” (I dated an Italian from NY after college and he used more hair product than I did). Beau-Hunk is a old derivitive from the 40′s to the 70′s as in calling your guy a good looking man or your “beau” (boyfriend) was a “hunk” (hottie). The reason it was considered embarrassing for the bride to be to have her grandpa call him that is it was just a term of an older generation. The comedy in that entire sketch, if you pay attention) is the massive amounts of product in Mr. Rizchech and his son, the Italian restaurant and music…yet their last name is Rizchech, of Hungarian or Polish descent! But you see, those terms could be said without every “….ACP or any other organization” screaming discrimination and forceing everyone to be so PC that you can’t even call your 5 week old child an “infant” anymore without someone wanting to sue you!!!! Want some real comedy…watch Blazing Saddles!!!
Bohunk is to Bohemian as polock is to Polish; ie, sub bohunk for polock in any joke. Don’t they teach history or geography in school anymore?
I was also confused when they used this term, since the guy playing the sister’s fiancee was hardly cast for his Eastern European looks. But then again it was Sam’s grandpa who uttered the phrase in the first place, and that man was wildly racist anyway.
LOL! Have you all been living under rocks or something? “Bohunk” was originally a term used for Eastern/Central European immigrants to the US but it’s just a derogatory term for any white person now. I’ve heard it used by all kinds of non-whites, like cracker or honky.