My favourite collective noun is "flange" when applied to baboons. Bizarrely, it was coined as part of a comedy sketch and for some reason has now been adopted. From the Urban Dictionary;
Quote:
FLANGE: Commonly misused collective term for a group of baboons. Has since been adopted by the Scientific community due to its publication and usage in otherwise professional documents.
The correct collective tem for baboons is a 'troop' or 'congress'.
Origin credited to Richard Curtis, comedy writer. The word was used in a 'Not the Nine O'Clock News' comedy sketch entitled "Gerald The Intelligent Gorilla", purely for comedic effect. Gerald was played by Rowan Atkinson. The sketch also starred film director and comedian Mel Smith.
Whoop is now also used as a baboon collective term, due to appearing in the same sketch.
NTNON was a popular UK sketch show in the 1980s.
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