Do You Have Spunk and Gumption?


Spunk and gumption - assets in a job interview?

I watched a lot of TV growing up. My favorites were always the sitcoms, and I saw them all: new, old, good, bad, anything!

One of the funniest shows I remember was Mary Tyler Moore, and a while back I saw the very first episode where Mary is meeting Lou.

Part of the exchange is this:

Lou: You know what? You’ve got spunk.
Mary: Well, yes
Lou: I hate spunk.

Funny, and “spunk” is just a great word! That got me thinking of other words like it, and this cartoon came to me.

If I ever meet Mary Tyler Moore I’m going to have to say thanks.

* * * * *

Mark Anderson, professional cartoonist

About the Author: Mark Anderson’s cartoons appear in publications including The Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. Anderson is the creator of the popular cartoon website, Andertoons.com, where he licenses his cartoons for presentations, newsletters and other projects. He blogs at Andertoons cartoon blog.

13 Comments ▼

Mark Anderson Mark Anderson's cartoons appear in publications including Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. His business cartoons are available for licensing at his website, Andertoons.com.

13 Reactions
  1. What does the word spunk mean?! 😉 I have to check out the dictionary…

    Gumption is common sense, right? 🙂

  2. You know what, I’ll have to look too. I have a vauge sense of their meaning, which I think is pretty similar.

  3. Mark,

    You could check out Tyda.se if you want to find out the meaning of a word. And you could learn some Swedish too! 😉

    http://tyda.se/about

    “Tyda.se is a bi-directional Swedish-English dictionary with more than 1.5 million words. This is Sweden’s and probably also the world’s biggest dictionary of its kind.”

  4. Martin, I think “spunk” means that you have spark and are lively. “Gumption” means you take initiative.

    They’re kind of old-fashioned words in English, which is why I think they’re funny.

    Anita

  5. Anita,

    Thanks for the explanation. It is always good to add words to your vocabulary! I think I have to check out The Mary Tyler Moore Show. I look forward to watch some new funny comedy series.

  6. One cannot find spunk at Wal-Mart, however, they do sell it at Target… 😉

    I get gumpted…by reading the posts here. Motivated, that is. Thanks for the powerful stuff, Anita and experts. Really. This network has become my way of spunk-starting my day.

  7. Haha, those words make me laugh. I picture a newspaper editor from the 20’s and 30’s using those words a lot.

  8. Very funny , thx. Always nice to end the work day with a smile!

  9. These are getting better and better each week. . . I LOL when I read this one 🙂

  10. Cute, Very cute. I love it. These are the kind of things that we all need to be careful of when we communicate. Doubly so as professionals. That is why I am very sure to be clear in my word choices. I use secure IM’s to communicate.

  11. how do register a spink and gumption account.