Bu Laʻia (born as Shawn Kaui Hill in Waimanalo,

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

) is a

comedian A comedian (feminine comedienne) or comic is a person who seeks to entertainment, entertain an audience by making them laughter, laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolishly (as in slapstick), or employing prop c ...

known for his use of

Hawaiian pidgin Hawaiian Pidgin (known formally in linguistics as Hawaiʻi Creole English or HCE and known locally as Pidgin) is an English-based creole language spoken in Hawaiʻi. An estimated 600,000 residents of Hawaii speak Hawaiian Pidgin natively and ...

and for wearing a large "afro style" wig and blacking out one of his front teeth while performing. He starred in a cable television show in the early 1990s and released two comic musical albums entitled ''False Crack???'' And ''Hawaii's Most Wanted.'' He also attained fame—or notoriety—when he ran for governor of Hawaiʻi in

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

(when he was too young to legally do so) and again as a member of the Natural Law Party in

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

. He also attracted attention when he was arrested for riding a skateboard at Honolulu International Airport. Bu is pidgin for "Bull". The name "Bu Laʻia" is a

homophone A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning or in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (past tense of "rise"), or spelled differently, a ...

of "Bull Liar", a phrase meaning "an outrageous liar". His name is reminiscent of the character created by Hawaiian comedian Kent Bowman, “ K.K. Kaumanua” (K.K. Cow–Manure) famous for his "Pidgin English Children's Stories," although Bowman's character uses the pidgin English of an earlier generation.

References

Living people American male comedians 21st-century American comedians Year of birth missing (living people) Comedians from Hawaii {{US-comedian-stub