Talk:Bazinga/@comment-43944421-20190927094253

I don't think your definition of Bazinga ("a word used by Sheldon Cooper to signal that what he said immediately before this utterance was to be taken as a joke.") is entirely accurate.

For one thing, in the ball pit episode. Sheldon isn' saying anything before each "Bazinga." He is however doing something.

Also, the expression that something is "to be taken as a joke" [afaik] means that a person has said something that when taken literally might be offensive or ludicrous or might leave the impression that the speaker is an idiot. Means the same thing as suggestive wink. For example, Jonathan Swift meant for the suggestions in his "Modest Proposal" to be taken as  a joke. He wasn't really suggesting that Irelands famine could be remedied if the Irish ate their babies. "Taken as a joke" doesn't always mean that the reader/listener should be laughing.Often when someone says their message "should be taken as a joke," it's a very serious thing. Swift didn't want his readers to laugh at his suggestions; he meant them to be horrified and to realize that other suggestions being made in the media are almost as horrific. Swift meant it as political satire.

I think it's more accurate to say that "Bazinga" is used by Sheldon Cooper when he thinks he has done something funny and that he's proud about what he just did/said - usually because he thinks it shows how clever he is.

In other words, "Bazinga" is similar to: "Gotcha!" "Pwned!" "See what I did there?" "What noob!" "Aren't I clever?"