Editing Gonzo journalism (section)

== Etymology ==
The term ''gonzo'' was first used in connection with Hunter S. Thompson by ''[[The Boston Globe]]'' magazine editor [[Bill Cardoso]] in 1970. He described Thompson's article "[[The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved]]", which was written for the June 1970 edition of ''[[Scanlan's Monthly]]'', as "pure Gonzo journalism".{{Sfn|Hirst|2004|p=5}} This predates the December 1970 debut of the Muppet [[Gonzo (Muppet)|Gonzo]] in ''The Great Santa Claus Switch''.<ref>[https://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wayoflife/02/10/mf.muppet.favorites.stories/index.html Surprising stories behind 20 Muppet characters - CNN.com]</ref> Cardoso said ''gonzo'' was [[History of Irish Americans in Boston|South Boston Irish]] slang describing the last man standing after an all-night drinking marathon.{{Sfn|Thompson|1997}} He also said it was a corruption of the [[Canadian French]] word {{lang|fr|gonzeaux}}, which means {{gloss|shining path}}, although this is disputed.{{Sfn|Hirst|2004}}{{listen
| filename     = Gonzo by James Booker, 1960, gonzo.ogg
| title        = "Gonzo", 1960 song by James Booker
| pos          = left
}}

Another speculation is that the word may have been inspired by the 1960 hit song "Gonzo" by the [[rhythm and blues]] pianist [[James Booker]]. This possibility is supported by a 2007 oral biography of Thompson, which states that the term is taken from a song by Booker{{Sfn|Wenner|Seymour|2007}} but does not explain why Thompson or Cardoso would have chosen the term to describe Thompson's journalism. The 2013 documentary ''[[James Booker#Bayou Maharajah: The Tragic Genius of James Booker|Bayou Maharaja: The Tragic Genius of James Booker]]''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Keber |first=Lily |year=2013 |title=Bayou Maharajah: The Tragic Genius of James Booker |url=http://www.bayoumaharajah.com |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140331234207/http://www.bayoumaharajah.com/ |archive-date=March 31, 2014 |publisher=Mairzy Doats Productions}}</ref> quotes Thompson's literary executor as saying that the song was the origin of the term.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Unplugged: New documentary explores life, legacy of pianist James Booker |url=http://www.dosavannah.com/article/mon-12162013-2113/unplugged-new-documentary-explores-life-legacy-pianist-james-booker |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407070603/http://www.dosavannah.com/article/mon-12162013-2113/unplugged-new-documentary-explores-life-legacy-pianist-james-booker |archive-date=April 7, 2014 |website=Do Savannah}}</ref> According to a Greg Johnson biographical note on Booker,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Johnson |first=Greg |title=James Booker |url=http://www.cascadeblues.org/History/JamesBooker.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080420171707/http://www.cascadeblues.org/History/JamesBooker.htm |archive-date=April 20, 2008}}</ref> the song title "Gonzo" comes from a character in a movie called ''[[The Pusher (film)|The Pusher]]'',<ref>{{Cite web |last=goblinhairedguy |date=February 1, 1960 |title=The Pusher (1960) |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054219/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170612175045/http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054219/ |archive-date=June 12, 2017 |website=IMDb}}</ref> which in turn may have been inspired by a 1956 [[Evan Hunter]] novel of the same title.

Thompson himself first used the term referring to his own work on page 12 of the [[counterculture of the 1960s|counterculture]] classic<ref>{{Cite news |date=February 21, 2005 |title=Entertainment – Thompson's classic Las Vegas trip |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/4284147.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140227212645/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/4284147.stm |archive-date=February 27, 2014}}</ref> ''[[Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas]]''. He wrote, "But what ''was'' the story? Nobody had bothered to say. So we would have to drum it up on our own. Free Enterprise. The American Dream. [[Horatio Alger]] gone mad on drugs in Las Vegas. Do it ''now'': pure Gonzo journalism."{{Sfn|Thompson|1971}}

[[Lexico]] proposes etymology from {{langx|it|gonzo}} {{gloss|simpleton, dolt}} and/or {{langx|es|ganso}} {{gloss|dolt, goose}}.<ref name="Lexico">{{Cite web |title=Gonzo |url=https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/gonzo |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191025034917/https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/gonzo |archive-date=October 25, 2019 |website=Lexico Dictionaries |language=en}}</ref>