Someone was engaging in a little tomfoolery at the golf course the other day. On a number of tee boxes there were nice looking tees scattered around, apparently left for those who wanted them. They looked solid and unbroken. However, when you tried to tee a ball on them, the ball would not stay steady. On each of those tees one of the little prongs or claws on the top was slightly damaged so that a ball would not stay on the tee. Sneaky tomfoolery.
Tomfoolery means playful or foolish behaviour. Tomfoolery is usually harmless pranks and goofy antics that are not overly serious.
Records from the 14th century indicate that Thome Fole was employed at Durham Abbey as the court jester. It is not clear as to whether Thome Fole was the actual name of the performer, or if Thome Fole was a generic nickname for jesters. Eventually the name Thome Fole morphed into the title Tomfool in the 1600s to indicate any remarkably foolish performer. In the mid-18th century Tomfool evolved into an adjective tomfool to describe laughable performers. In the early 1800s tomfoolery was used as a term for any silly mischievous behaviour.
Similar to tomfoolery are buffoonery, clownery, monkeying, horseplay, and joking.
Buffoonery means the behaviour of a person who does silly things, usually to make other people laugh. Sometimes politicians use buffoonery to draw attention to a point they wish to bring to light. She always enjoyed the buffoonery of slapstick comedy.
Clownery implies the actions of a person who behaves ridiculously. It is often used as slang to call out absurd or embarrassing behaviour. His clownery wore thin with the rest of the class as they were always kept late to finish the lesson. Her father’s clownery at the birthday party kept the children laughing throughout the afternoon.
Monkeying suggests acting in a mischievous manner. It is usually combined with ‘around.’ He would rather monkey around than pay attention during the demonstration in the lab. She scolded the children for monkeying around while she was trying to clean up the rec room.
Horseplay infers rough or boisterous activities. The glass dish was broken when the father engaged in some horseplay with this daughter. The pool attendant was losing his patience with all the horseplay going on.
Joking means something done to provoke laughter or clarifying comments. He was always joking whenever they went out to someone’s home. She was only joking when she threatened to send the kids to summer camp for two months.
Some consider making funny faces and calling others silly names as tomfoolery. Those who constantly engage in tomfoolery are often people who do not take themselves or anyone else seriously. Even if they look silly or foolish those who like to participate in tomfoolery enjoy making other people laugh.
The pie-in-the-face tomfoolery has been around since the early 1900s, thanks to the silent film era. The best way to achieve this prank is to discard real pies and use whipped cream or shaving cream on a tin plate.
Another trick of tomfoolery would be to place a piece of tape over a colleague’s mouse laser sensor for when they try to use their desktop computer.
The Tomfoolery Show (based on the writings of Edward Lear) was an animated show broadcast on the American TV network NBC in the early 1970s for one season. Each episode has a cooking lesson with a silly recipe. To make Baked Alaska you were directed to cut a map of the state of Alaska out of an atlas and place it in an oven. Needless to say, the show was a remarkable failure as the tomfoolery was not that funny.
When I was in grade school I remember a lot of tomfoolery taking place whenever the teacher would step out. I would imagine that type of tomfoolery is still prevalent today.
Columnist John Kreutzwieser loves to research words and has an interest in the usage, origin, and relevance of words for society today. Greek and Latin form the basis of many words, with ancient Hebrew shedding light on word usage.
John would like to know if anyone has a sincere interest in a relevant word that he could possibly research for an upcoming column. If so, please send your requests to wordwisdom2021@gmail.com. Words will be selected according to relevance and research criteria. We cannot confirm that all words will be used.
