Cliché Month: Act the Giddy Goat 🐐
G. O. A. T. Cliché
I’m smiling as I write this, mostly because I found a cliché I’d never seen or heard before, and it’s just so funny and cute. I’ve mentioned before about Gabby, the goat owned by my babysitter when I was in second grade. Gabby was a typical hop-on-everything, climb every tree (especially the mostly-barren eucalyptus in the back yard), and eat the can or paper you’re holding kind of goat. So, I can totally picture the kind of person about whom someone might say, “Don’t act the giddy goat.”
I’m also laughing because it makes me think about how often the Google Play Store gives me a persistent tap on the shoulder while saying, “Hey Crystal, you look like someone who would really enjoy “Goat Simulator.” But then, that’s only one of many they think I’d enjoy, but still… Did they see my pictures from Goats on the Roof in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, or did they hear that one of my favorite restaurants there is “Local Goat“?
I haven’t actually downloaded it yet, but I asked Gemini about the game. It says it’s basically this cliché turned into a game: An absolute, unbridled, ragdoll physics mayhem.
The algorithm clearly thinks I need a daily dose of pure, nonsensical chaos, and I can’t exactly say it’s wrong! I mean, don’t we all just need to let go and be silly sometimes? So, what does it truly mean to “act the giddy goat”? It turns out, that delightful barnyard cliché has a surprisingly fun, head-spinning history.
From Divine Madness to the Barnyard
While the modern phrase might feel perfectly suited to the madness of a video game goat bouncing on a trampoline, the linguistic roots run far more serious and much deeper. To “act the giddy goat” is a colloquial gem, primarily British and Irish in flavor, that means to behave foolishly, play the clown, or carry on without restraint. It first became a popular idiom in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but the component words have been doing their own unique dance for hundreds of years.
The real surprise is in the etymology of “giddy.” It actually originated from the Old English word “gidig,” which literally translated to “possessed by a god” or mad. It described a frantic, intense, and often dangerous level of frenzy. Over time, the divine madness definition softened. By the Middle Ages, “gidig” was describing simple physical dizziness or lightheadedness. Centuries later, it settled comfortably into the meaning we often associate with it today: slightly silly, lighthearted, and excitable.
Combine that evolving “giddiness” with goats—creatures clearly designed to be chaotic acrobats like Gabby, renowned for sudden, joyful, frantic sideways leaps and head-butts—and you have the perfect expression for someone whose common sense has, at least for a delightful moment or two, left the building.
But when you think about goats, sometimes their “giddiness” looks a little… different. You can’t talk about funny goat antics without thinking about screaming goats, goat yoga, and the dramatic swooning of the Tennessee Fainting Goat. Because of a genetic oddity, they just comically go stiff as a board whenever they get scared or excited. And boy did I find a lot of videos of them!
Fainting Goat Videos
Letting Go(at)…
One of the videos I watched had some African visitors to America looking for goat meat and finding a farm with fainting goats. They mentioned how those same goats at their home would become quick meals for hyenas. It made me think of how we humans, when faced with things that startle or surprise us, might also freeze in our anxieties. But freezing could put us at risk of attack from the enemy of our souls, so we need to do like many of the goats and get up quickly. Maybe even get in a quick scream.
But the true giddy goat reminds us of the value of periodic folly. Taking ourselves too seriously all the time can be a fast track to burnout and spiritual stiffness. Scripture reminds us that a cheerful heart has a continual feast, and sometimes the most healing thing we can do is smile at our own awkwardness. Munch down that stubborn homework or tin can, jump up on a picnic table, and just enjoy a little random silliness. Which makes me think I really should try that game. Have you tried it? What do you think?
On the more serious side of things, I may have mentioned the devotion by a writer friend (Harriet E Michael) who was a missionary kid in Nigeria. I can’t recall which of her books mentions her complaint to her father about why God calls His followers sheep when all she saw growing up were smart goats and stupid sheep. Her father gently reminded her that goats are fine on their own, but sheep need a shepherd. And if we’ve become a wooden goat or a giddy goat for a time, we need to always come back home and find our true identities in being sheep that belong to Our Shepherd.
John 10:14 BSB
[14] I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me,
https://bible.com/bible/3034/jhn.10.14.BSB
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