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Poodoo was a Huttese swear word.
Description[]
Poodoo was a swear word in Huttese.[2] It translated to Basic as "fodder."[3]
It could also mean "nonsense," such as "the poodoo coming out of your mouth"[4] or "that's a bunch of poodoo";[5] something of low quality, e.g. "Buy new droid. This one poodoo.";[6] or refer to someone[7] or something that a person disliked,[4] or a contemptible person.[8]
The phrase "in deep poodoo" meant being in a lot of trouble,[9] while "beat the poodoo out of" referred to giving a severe beating to.[10] "Poodoo runs downhill" referred to having to deal with a problem that someone of higher rank created.[11] "Go to poodoo" meant to deteriorate, go awry, e.g. "The water gone poodoo."[12]
History[]
In the year 32 BBY,[13] the Dug podracer pilot Sebulba competed in the Boonta Eve Classic on Tatooine, but lost control of his podracer toward the end of the race and crashed into the ground. The Dug was left cursing in his damaged cockpit, letting out an exasperated "poodoo!"[2]
In 22 BBY,[13] the Dug[14] Seboca was entertaining Senator Bogg Tyrell while she[15] piloted a speeder through the skylanes of the planet Coruscant. The pair were interrupted when the Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi nearly collided with their vehicle while hanging from the assassin droid ASN-121, forcing Tyrell to swerve. Seboca then cursed at Kenobi in Huttese as the Jedi was carried away, calling him "Jedi poodoo!"[14]
Behind the scenes[]
- "When they got me to say, 'Poodoo,' I burst out laughing. I said, 'Poodoo? What does that mean?' and George said, 'Well you can't say the real-world word.' Which is a shame!"
- ―Lewis MacLeod, the voice of Sebulba in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
A common misconception is that "poodoo" refers to feces,[17] even though the word is actually Huttese for "fodder."[3] Despite this, the use of the term is similar to the real-world impolite word "shit," especially when used in the phrases "beat the poodoo out of,"[10] which is similar to the real-world idiom "beat the shit out of;"[18] "in deep poodoo,"[9] which is similar to "in deep shit;"[19] "poodoo runs downhill,"[11] which is similar to the proverb "shit rolls downhill;"[20] and "go to poodoo,"[12] which is similar to the real-world phrase "go to shit."[21]
In A New Hope: The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy, a canon junior retelling of the film Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, there is a passage reading "Luke's expression darkened, and Han suddenly felt like the biggest pile of rancor poodoo;[8] similar to the way that a person might refer to themselves or others as a "piece of shit."
In the subtitles for The Mandalorian episode "Chapter 19: The Convert," one of the former Imperial officers talking to their comrades at the Amnesty Housing says "Ugh. Poodoo. We don't get promoted." However, in the actual audio, they merely say "Ugh. We don't get promoted."[22]
