Means: An exclamation of joy, usually before a jump.

Cowabunga — came from?

Came from: The Howdy Doody Show in the '50s; surfers borrowed it; the Ninja Turtles made it theirs in 1987.

Slang Files · 🤙 Approval & awesome

G33Z3R Slang Files · 1987–1993

Where did "cowabunga" come from?

Cowabunga

Means: An exclamation of joy, usually before a jump
Came from: The Howdy Doody Show in the '50s; surfers borrowed it; the Ninja Turtles made it theirs in 1987
Peak: 1988–1992
Still around?: Bart Simpson kept it

🗳️ Did you say it?

Be one of the first to weigh in. No account needed.

The file

A nonsense word from a '50s kids' show that surfers adopted as a war cry, that the Turtles took national, that Bart Simpson said on a T-shirt. Three generations of kids, one word, nobody sure what it means.

Michelangelo said it every episode. That's the whole reason anyone born after 1980 knows it.

Sources: Wiktionary — Cowabunga · Wikipedia — Cowabunga

Who did you say "Cowabunga" to? Tell us where and when.

The drive, the dance, the heartbreak, the summer. Add a memory of Cowabunga.

Where did "cowabunga" come from?

The file

Who did you say "Cowabunga" to? Tell us where and when.

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