Goon-baiting is an interaction between the prisoner and the guard, or an oppressor, whereby the prisoner, aiming to ensure he is not endangered, 'plays mind games, or does actions, to confuse or enrage an oppressor to the point of where he'd lose his composure.' Goon-baiting was a term used in WWII.
In WWII, in
prisoner-of-war camp
A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war.
There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, and military prisons. ...
s, goon-baiting was used amongst prisoners of all nationalities. The French sang banned songs without moving their lips at Appell. The aim of goon-baiting was to achieve maximum impact without endangering yourself. Though not all prisoners participated in goon-baiting, some thinking it was bad manners, others thinking it gave any oppressor an opportunity, or more reason to retaliate, therefore it only brought with it more suffering.
Examples of goon-baiting include, one prisoner being counted more than once in Appell in order to cover for a missing comrade, or to sow some confusion; or exaggerated salutes.
Etymology
Some claim the roots of the term 'goon' come from a 1930s cartoon character called
Alice the Goon
Alice the Goon is a fictional character in E. C. Segar's comic strip ''Thimble Theatre'' and in the ''Popeye'' cartoon series derived from it.
History
Alice made her debut in the Sunday, December 10, 1933, ''Thimble Theatre'' strip, part of the ...
and people also used the term goon to describe an incompetent professional bully.
Pete Tunstall
Peter David Tunstall (1 December 1918 – 27 July 2013) was a squadron leader in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War and a prisoner of war (POW) held at Colditz Castle. He holds the record for the most time spent by an Allied POW ...
claims a fellow prisoner called
Bill Fowler was the first to ever coin the term amongst the prisoners and that Fowler referenced a well known comic strip.
See also
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Milgram experiment
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Military slang
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RAF slang
The Royal Air Force (RAF) developed a distinctive slang which has been documented in works such as '' Piece of Cake'' and the ''Dictionary of RAF slang''.
The following is a comprehensive selection of slang terms and common abbreviations used by ...
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Stanford prison experiment
The Stanford prison experiment (SPE) was a psychological experiment conducted in the summer of 1971. It was a two-week simulation of a prison environment that examined the effects of situational variables on participants' reactions and beh ...
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Taking the mick
Footnotes
Sources
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* {{cite book , last = Wilson , first = Patrick , author-link = , title =The War Behind the Wire , publisher = Pen and Sword, series = , volume = , edition = , date = 11 September 2000, location = United Kingdom , pages = , language = English , isbn = 9780850527452
Group processes
Imprisonment and detention
Military slang and jargon