Gee Duh-bya
“Gee Duh-bya” parody playing cards, highlighting the President’s peculiar use of language.
No US President has been the subject of more packs of playing cards than G.W. Bush, 43rd U.S. President (2001-2009). Alongside those that are supportive of his Presidency (relatively few in number), there was a plethora of packs criticising Bush himself, the major and minor figures of the administration, and the policies they pursued. Yet another reason for this multitude of Bush packs in this period was the President’s peculiar use of language. This undated pack, produced by Just Playin’ Cards, Inc., Los Angeles, pokes fun at the President’s peculiar use of language and parodies the linguistic errors during his public speeches (colloquially referred to as Bushisms). Each card has one of the President’s unconventional statements, phrases, malapropisms, and other strange word combinations with unintentional meaning. See the box►
Above: “Gee Duh-bya” George W. Bush parody playing cards produced by Just Playin’ Cards, Inc., Los Angeles. Undated.
By Peter Burnett
Member since July 27, 2022
I graduated in Russian and East European Studies from Birmingham University in 1969. It was as an undergraduate in Moscow in 1968 that I stumbled upon my first 3 packs of “unusual” playing cards which fired my curiosity and thence my life-long interest. I began researching and collecting cards in the early 1970s, since when I’ve acquired over 3,330 packs of non-standard cards, mainly from North America, UK and Western Europe, and of course from Russia and the former communist countries.
Following my retirement from the Bodleian Library in Dec. 2007 I took up a new role as Head of Library Development at the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) to support library development in low-income countries. This work necessitated regular training visits to many sub-Saharan African countries and also further afield, to Vietnam, Nepal and Bangladesh – all of which provided rich opportunities to further expand my playing card collection.
Since 2019 I’ve been working part-time in the Bodleian Library where I’ve been cataloguing the bequest of the late Donald Welsh, founder of the English Playing Card Society.
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