OT: Question For Bruce Banners

Green’s Dictionary of Slang
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bruce n.
1. (gay, also brucie) a term of address among male homosexuals [Bruce is seen as a ‘typical’ gay name; ? its potential, in camp usage, for being lisped; ? the relationship betwen Batman, i.e. Bruce Wayne and his ‘ward’ Robin (Dick Grayson)].

1972 [US] B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 95: George (hetero sl) male homosexual ‘Oh, George, you’re gorgeous!’ Syn: Bruce; Cy; Oscar.
1980 [UK] (con. 1966) W. Sherman Times Square 13: ‘I’m Brucie,’ he said, lifting his skirt again and tangoing around the lamp post.
1980 [US] Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 233: Johnny Carson and others with gigantic audiences can rapidly establish that Bruce is the basic ‘gay’ name.
2. (US campus) a male who thinks he is suave and sophisticated but really is not.

1987
1987 [US] Eble Campus Sl. Spring.
3. (Aus.) a tough ‘macho’ male [stereotypical ‘Aus.’ name + kung fu superstar Bruce Lee (1940-73)].

2008
2008 [SA] Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) 23 Sept. 🌐 Aussie blokes have a reputation for being tough [...] They are typical Bruces; rough, hard-drinking, ute-driving tattooed types.
4. (N.Z. prison) an Asian [from Bruce Lee (see above), but with no assumed sense of toughness].

2001
2001 [NZ] D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 31/2: Bruce n. an Asian.
← brr-y, adj.Bruce Lees, n. →

Digital edition © Jonathon Green 2024.

Johnson changed the name of the Hulk's comic book alter ego, Dr. Bruce Banner, to Dr. David Banner for the television series. This change was made, according to Johnson, because he did not want the series to be perceived as a comic book series, so he wanted to change what he felt was a staple of comic books, and Stan Lee's comics in particular, that major characters frequently had alliterative names. According to both Stan Lee and Lou Ferrigno, it was also changed because CBS thought the name Bruce sounded "too gay-ish", a rationale that Ferrigno thought was "the most absurd, ridiculous thing [he had] ever heard". On the DVD commentary of the pilot, Johnson says that it was a way to honor his son David. "Bruce" ultimately became the television Banner's middle name, as it had been in the comics. It is visible on Banner's tombstone at the end of the pilot movie, and that footage is shown at the beginning of every episode of the series.

In an interview with Kenneth Johnson on the Season 2 DVD, he explains that he had also wanted the Hulk to be colored red rather than green. His reasons given for this were that red, not green, is perceived as the color of rage, and also that red is a "human color", whereas green is not. However, Stan Lee, an executive at Marvel Comics at the time, said that the Hulk's color was not something that could be changed, because of its iconic image.

The Hulk is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in the debut issue of The Incredible Hulk (May 1962). In his comic book appearances, the character, who has dissociative identity disorder (DID), is primarily represented by the alter ego Hulk, a green-skinned, hulking and muscular humanoid possessing a limitless degree of physical strength, and the alter ego Dr. Robert Bruce Banner, a physically weak, socially withdrawn, and emotionally reserved physicist, both of whom typically resent each other.