"What Kind of Name Is Vuguru?"

Out of the mouths of moguls:

What kind of name is Vuguru? To me it sounds like a drug, like Vioxx or Viagra. If it reminds you of something that creates new strength, I guess that's O.K. In French, vous is second-person plural. Vuguru--you are the guru of viewing. It was just a made-up word.

--From Deborah Solomon's interview with former Disney CEO Michael Eisner in the Sunday New York Times Magazine, Nov. 18, 2007.

Vuguru is Eisner's new production company that specializes in very short, made-for-the-web series such as "Prom Queen." Elsewhere in the interview with Solomon, Eisner called the ongoing Writers' Guild strike "stupid."

 

Comments

[Jessica]

Go back to French class, Mike. Big difference between vu and vous, and guru in French is "gourou"; Vuguru is essentially unpronounceable in French. Meanwhile, it reminds me not only of Viagra, but also of Vigoro (the weed-killer and pesticide brand), and visually, of "vulgar."

[Nancy Friedman]

Right on, Jessica! And I'm sure all you Scrabble players out there know the meaning of that useful word "vug": a hole in a rock.

[Bob Cumbow]

I thought of Vigoro, too ... but I thought even more of boogaloo, Subaru, and most of all the much-feared loupgarou of bayou folklore. My guess is that Eisner was thinking of something like "view - guru," suggesting a master of things to look at. But that's no excuse. It's still ugly. - Bob

[Nancy Friedman]

Now you guys have me singing: "...when you do that Vuguru that you do so well..."

Or as they say in the blogosphere, "Go Vug Yourself!"

[Ben Zimmer]

Well, as we know from Hulu and Lulu, "u" is clearly the go-to vowel for online media these days. Guess they're running out of consonants to alternate with the u's.