Etiquette Humor and Battle Cries

Etiquette humor comes in a variety of subjects and forms. As I could not find a fitting photo for this post, I borrowed an image from another Etiquipedia post.

From tHE LIGHTER SIDE

WASHINGTON (UPI)-The U.S. Army, ever striving to make warfare more decorous, has wrought a major change in bayonet etiquette. It is not longer considered good manners for recruits to shout “Kill! Kill!” as they thrust the blade into the giblets of an imaginary adversary. Now the skewering is accompanied by a more genteel cry of “Yah! Yah!” which doesn't strike me as being very good form either.

For one thing, “Yah! Yah!” sounds too much like the German “Ja! Ja” A Teutonie affirmation rising from the lips of American GIs during hand-to-hand combat is bound to create a lot of confusion on the battlefield. Further more, a slightly nasal inflection and intonation could give the “Yah! Yah!” a twitting “Nyaah! Nyaah!” sound that is entirely inappropriate for bayonet-wielding.

If the Army wanted to do the sporting thing, it could have the sporting thing, it could have the bayonet trainees cry “En Garde!” before impaling the stuckees. This would restore a measure of gentility to the bayonet charge, which has long been distressingly uncouth. All things considered, however, I feel there is only one cry that would be in good taste when a soldier is perforating the enemy with his trusty bayonet. That cry is -“Oops!” But let me emphasize that the Army's failure to achieve total civility in the audible manifestations of bayoneting does not in any way negate the importance of its adoption of a more restrained utterance.

Indeed, this could be the first step toward an international treaty providing for the moderation of battle cries. Under the agreement, such verbal belligerency as the shouting of “Geronimo!” by American paratroopers would be forbidden.

As they jumped from the plane, the chutists would call the name of a less aggressive Indian. Perhaps “Hiawatha” or “Tonto.”

Other signatory nations, in turn, would similarly amend their battlecries to lower the tone of hostility. Japanese forces, for example, would no longer scream “Banzai!” At the onset of an attack. Instead, they would scream “Sukiyaki” Or some other peaceful expurgation. It's the next best thing to disarmament. — By Dick West, 1971

 🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber of The RSVP Institute of Etiquette, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia