No. Seriously.

Can't believe I haven't done this shirt already... I guess it's a Big Bang Week here at the Blog.

Thank you, ThinkGeek

I mentioned "Bazinga" WAY back in October as a part of the discussion on creating vocabulary.  It's a fairly recent lexicon development - although Big Bang Theory is in its sixth season now! - and it is one that is so often used incorrectly that I believe I've developed a twitch when people (even close friends of loved ones) treat it as a general exclamation point.

I won't rant about this because it makes me sounds crazy (and my mom did NOT have me tested). I will simply state it... thoroughly:

"Bazinga" does NOT equal "Boo-Ya!" or "Eureka!" or "Awesome!". 

"Bazinga" DOES denote a practical joke that has been successfully played. 

"Bazinga" is the invention of writer Stephen Engel who used it as his personal word for disclosing a prank before Dr. Sheldon Cooper was ever a uvularly-atypical, train-loving, ballroom-dancing, Fiddler on the Roof-regaling genius, atomic apple in the collective consciousness eye of CBS. I heard this origin explanation first during the TBBT panel at Comic-Con 2010 but Bill Prady has confirmed this on Twitter since then.

"Bazinga" means "Gotcha!" or "You've been fooled!".

Ignorance is no longer an excuse, if it ever was. Seriously. Use "Bazinga" as you will but know that you had better have punk'd someone but good beforehand in order to deserve that utterance. Misused terminology is no laughing matter - (see Monday's post).