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DefiantStomp t1_j6fhbox wrote

Never once heard this phrase. 35/m/US

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TheFirstSophian t1_j6fnpz6 wrote

Someone here has never watched The Lego Movie

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DilbertHigh t1_j6frgsy wrote

In the US people say cuckoo land but leave out cloud.

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RadBadTad t1_j6frtaj wrote

I've never heard anybody say "cuckoo land" either.

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Ducksaucenem t1_j6g5n9t wrote

Ya I’ve heard “cuckoo crazy” or for the most part just cuckoo. Never heard anything else.

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Something22884 t1_j6hl13b wrote

Yeah I live in the Northeast and I've heard it a few times. People say "he is off in Cuckoo Land over there"

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MsChrisha t1_j6ftjrr wrote

The book Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr is an amazing read!

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Orinoco123 t1_j6hlfyf wrote

I struggled to get into it because I don't commit enough time in one sitting and it was jumping around all over. Looking forward to giving it another chance on a holiday!

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Nonjing t1_j6fnq1n wrote

The infidels in this comment thread have clearly never played Banjo Twooie

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Visionbuilder t1_j6fim5d wrote

62 years, never once heard those words in that order…

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1984happens t1_j6fje5t wrote

"ΝΕΦΕΛΟΚΟΚΚΥΓΙΑ" "ΝΕΦΕΛΟ("cloud")ΚΟΚΚΥΓ("cuckoo")ΙΑ(usual suffix for countries)"

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LAX_to_MDW t1_j6fonic wrote

The amount of people in this thread who don’t believe this is a real phrase is ridiculous. It gets used all the time in politics. It’s in a Radiohead song. It’s in the Lego Movie. It’s in a Banjo Kazooie game. It’s the name of a recent Pulitzer Prize winning book. Fucking Elon Musk has tweeted the phrase.

Just because you didn’t know something exists does not mean it doesn’t exist.

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Mudders_Milk_Man t1_j6fqlj7 wrote

It's used in a Catherine Wheel song.

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Altreus t1_j6hqrdo wrote

Ah! Elegance and class and astounding good taste, fellow redditor! It's What We Want To Believe and today is the day I finally discovered what they're saying.

In my defence, I'm pretty sure he's actually saying crown cuckoo love, which is just as nonsense if you don't know the phrase.

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Mudders_Milk_Man t1_j6hrg2q wrote

Nice to see another fan of a sadly underappreciated band.

Rob Dickinson (the lead singer) said it's 'Cloud Cuckoo Land', and the lyrics sheet also has that.

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Altreus t1_j6hu6lg wrote

Highly underrated. Shame they disbanded almost at the same time I discovered them

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Mudders_Milk_Man t1_j6hunyj wrote

Have you heard Rob Dickinson's solo album? There's some nice tracks on it. "The End of the World' is beautiful.

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Altreus t1_j6jo7ni wrote

Negative. Glad we live in an era of streaming services!

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lazyMarthaStewart t1_j6fn1ds wrote

I had not heard the phrase before either, until I read the book, which was extraordinary.

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Euripidaristophanist t1_j6fk6lo wrote

I'm a 40-year old man whose never set foot in an English-speaking country, and even I've heard of this expression.
I don't know if these complainers who say they've never heard of it, either live under a rock, or don't read a lot.

One of them even calls this post stupid, which is a weirdly aggressive way of turning ignorance into hostility.

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1984happens t1_j6flgbv wrote

With that username... you can't be impartial...

sign: a (proud) Greek!

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Euripidaristophanist t1_j6gwyur wrote

Yes, I'm partial to reading!
I've forgotten most of my Greek, though I suspect it'd be outdated by a few thousand years..

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1984happens t1_j6gypgs wrote

Your username suggest to me that you did not forgot all of your Greek, so -since you are "partial to reading"- try this (slightly outdated - but longest ever) Greek word, from Aristophanes: "λοπαδοτεμαχοσελαχογαλεοκρανιολειψανοδριμυποτριμματοσιλφιολιπαρομελιτοκατακεχυμενοκιχλεπικοσσυφοφαττοπεριστεραλεκτρυονοπτοπιφαλλιδοκιγκλοπελειολαγῳοσιραιοβαφητραγανοπτερυγών"

(o.k., yes... i copy-paste it... no way to write it myself!)

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BrokenEye3 t1_j6fm9o5 wrote

To a given value of "utopian". The birds in the play are a bit, well, batty. Props to them for usurping the gods, though.

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HadeyCakes t1_j6foxaw wrote

I've heard this phrase due to "Like Spinning Plates" by Radiohead.

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rolloutTheTrash t1_j6gbds2 wrote

TIL about the term “cloud cuckoo land”

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betsy_blair_fan t1_j6fzxyc wrote

Toby Esterhazy berating Joss Ackland:

> ...You're an embarrassment. You go on a bender, drink yourself into Cloud Cuckoo Land, and come staggering back here....

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Episode 6, 1979, Smiley Sets A Trap.

Adapted from the LeCarre novel.

Quite excellent dialogue.

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masterofn0n3 t1_j6gbfze wrote

Til the term cloud cookoo land was a thing apparently.

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rawrc t1_j6fwupa wrote

EVERYTHING IS AWESOME

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keenweasel74 t1_j6fkhm0 wrote

I'm 49, never once heard this phrase.

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kreatus t1_j6h9y3f wrote

even better in German: WOLKENKUCKUCKSHEIM! yes. it's real.

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2_short_Plancks t1_j6fudsa wrote

Huh. My dad has always used this phrase, and I just assumed he'd mangled the original phrase (he has a tendency to do that).

He's in his 70s and from NZ, for the record.

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pbandjea1ous t1_j6fr11z wrote

All these people are out in cloud cuckoo land because they’re having their moment of cognizance about something they’ve heard 50 times and never thought about.

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ZweitenMal t1_j6g8hfm wrote

Or listened to the Lightning Seeds in the late 80s.

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Altreus t1_j6htxhl wrote

Which of their songs uses it? I've collected Radiohead and Catherine Wheel so far

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Danhuangmao t1_j6ga0sa wrote

Am in my mid-30s, British, have heard this phrase a lot.

1

res30stupid t1_j6gdndx wrote

Man, Hitchcock really botched the film version.

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fatDaddy21 t1_j6gocf6 wrote

So for all of these people who've heard this phrase before... what does it mean?

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ThatTysonKid t1_j6gt9z2 wrote

I thought it was just the name of a world in Banjo-Tooie.

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LunarPayload t1_j6h8mdj wrote

Okay, but what about Crazy For Cocoa Puffs?

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ChristianBMartone t1_j6hsemo wrote

Calling someone a cloud cuckoo lander fell out of fashion years and years ago

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[deleted] t1_j6fj8dy wrote

[deleted]

−1

Mr_Westerfield OP t1_j6fjz6w wrote

TIL people get weirdly aggressive when you reference a term they haven’t heard before, as though it’s a requirement for it to be legitimate

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RedtheGamer100 t1_j6fmn98 wrote

$10000 you didn't know the phrase before you stumbled upon it lol

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Mr_Westerfield OP t1_j6fnxx4 wrote

Sure, I’ll admit it. I didn’t know the term until I heard it, unlike every other expression, which I just kinda innately know

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Cheerio13 t1_j6ghhy3 wrote

I don't think that's actually a term.

−2

Lyran99 t1_j6fhmcg wrote

“Cloud cuckoo land” is not a phrase

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kgunnar t1_j6fj54d wrote

It is, though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_cuckoo_land

In recent popular culture it was used as the name of a place in The Lego Movie and there was a best selling book with that name a couple years back.

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KWNewyear t1_j6fnq0g wrote

I remember the phrase from being one of the levels in Banjo-Tooie, and now I'm starting to think these 30-somethings who "never heard of it" just never had any fun in their lives.

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KayWDubs t1_j6fj9r0 wrote

So that's why it sounded so familiar!

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BrokenEye3 t1_j6fmbxv wrote

I'm sure anyone who frequents TV Tropes would also recognize it instantly.

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KayWDubs t1_j6fmqtr wrote

I first heard it while watching a playthrough of The Lego Movie ages ago.

I haven't seen it on TV Tropes, though. Haven't even visited the site in a while for that matter. Now I at least know it has a page there, so I have that going on for me.

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avfc41 t1_j6fqp67 wrote

The author of the novel has won a Pulitzer, it wasn’t for cloud cuckoo land though

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Hexidian t1_j6fn465 wrote

Sounds more like an obscure literary reference that comes up occasionally

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Danhuangmao t1_j6g9xyw wrote

Nah, it come up every now and again like "cloud 9" or "timbuktu" or whatnot. Just an idiomatic expression.

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