Believe it or not, we can blame this change on Bugs Bunny, the cartoon character created in the 1940s. He is so popular that TV Guide in 2002 named him the “greatest cartoon character of all time.” Bugs is best known for his catchphrase “What's Up, Doc?” But for one of his chief antagonists, the inept hunter Elmer Fudd, Bugs would chide, “What a moron! [pronounced like maroon] What a nimrod! [pronounced with a pause like two words, nim rod].” So for an entire generation raised on these cartoons, the word took on the sense of ineptitude—and therefore what was originally a good joke got ruined.
