Booing

Booing is the act of showing for someone or something, generally an entertainer, by loudly yelling "Boo" (and holding the "oo" sound) or making other noises of disparagement, such as hissing. Also, people may make hand signs at the entertainer. The sound is often accompanied by one or two hands giving the thumbs down sign, imitating. If spectators particularly dislike the performance they may also accompany booing by throwing objects onstage, though the objects may not be meant to physically hurt the performer. Booing can also be expressed to startle someone.

Examples

*In sports, booing by fans is quite common, at players after poor play or if the opposing team is being unsportsman like, such as intentionally hitting home team batters in baseball or diving in Association football, or is a particularly hated rival. Similarly it is common to boo referees/umpires after an unpopular ruling.

*A villainous character may also be booed to show a dislike of said character, rather than the acting skills of the thespian portraying him or her. Melodrama performances such as the traditional British Pantomime may encourage it, along with cheering at the hero/heroine.

*On the American game show "The Price Is Right", booing is quite common from the audience when a player or a substitute (most often the host) does not get the Showcase Showdown wheel around at least one time. Booing can sometimes be heard during pricing games, the One Bid, or the Showcase when the audience disagrees with a decision made by a player that could cause him/her to lose his/her pricing game, or the player has bid one dollar higher than an opponent or a senior citizen, or if a player makes a high wager that can cause him/her to overbid, as an overbid cannot win in the Showcase. Also, associate producer Kathy Greco (the current producer in Season 37) was booed by the audience when host Bob Barker asked for their opinion in a Season 24 (1995-1996) episode because she criticized Bob for him saying something she believed was a "sexist remark", prompting Greco while being shown on camera to grin and bear it while they booed for 3 seconds.

*On the syndicated version of the game show "Tic Tac Dough", host Wink Martindale gets booed often for making a bad joke about a contestant. When faced with this situation, Martindale will sometimes give a funny remark, or pretend to sink behind his podium giving another funny remark, causing the audience to laugh instead.

*On reality shows in both America and the United Kingdom where Simon Cowell appears as a judge, he is normally booed by the audiences for giving negative remarks to contestants whom the audience and other judges praise.

*In the UK version of Big Brother, housemates are often booed on their exit or entrance into the house, host Davina McCall often sugar coats it by saying "it's all panto".

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History

Booing performers has a very long history, possibly to the days of ancient Greece, where audiences would boo bad performances and applaud good performances. This practice has in recent times come under criticism: the opinion is often expressed that to boo a bad performance is unkind and demonstrates a lack of sophistication. However, the counterargument goes that the combination of booing and applause help keep the quality of public performance high, by emotionally rewarding the good and punishing the bad.

This debate is especially relevant to the opera world where passionate applause and rowdy booing have long been a part of the tradition. Recently in the United States, however, this practice has come under attack. As opera attendance has become viewed as an indulgence of the rich, the act of booing has fallen out of favor. Proponents of booing blame this trend for what they view as a general decline in the quality of modern American opera Fact|date=September 2007.

See also

*Applause
*Audience participation
*Heckling