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I have come around that expression a few times and as a non-native speaker, I am unsure as to whether it is actually "correct" and if yes, how and when it would be appropriate to use it?

I know what "bonkers" means by the context of the usage examples and other occurrences that I had come around the information on Google, originating from the Oxford Dictionary. https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/bonkers

But I have a hard time comprehending the grammar of the expression, e.g. "calling x on y". Is "Calling bonkers on" a unique idiom or can the expression be generalized? E.g. could I "call awesome on this".?

Usage examples found in text online:

Patrick2000
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    Just a slightly less obscene way of saying call bullshit. – Hot Licks Feb 21 '20 at 20:23
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    @HotLicks That is not true. A person or situation is bonkers and spouts BS. A person is not BS. If a "thing" is BS, it means what a person is saying, which again cannot be called bonkers. – Lambie Feb 22 '20 at 15:15
  • @Lambie - I've known several people (especially politicians) who were pure BS. – Hot Licks Feb 22 '20 at 17:55
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    @HotLicks One need only think a bit: Politicians spout pure bullshit, talk pure bullshit, etc. It is really doing a disservice to the asker to say that bonkers and bullshit are related grammatically. bullshit is a noun, bonkers is an adjective, in most places. Never have I seen: a person is bullshit. Only what they say. Please. Sometimes, people make comments that are cute but misleading to OPs. I dunno why. – Lambie Feb 22 '20 at 18:28
  • @Lambie -- Too bad there's no such thing as a "metaphor". – Hot Licks Feb 22 '20 at 18:32
  • @HotLicks Politicians are bullshitters". – Lambie Feb 22 '20 at 18:40
  • @Lambie - So you can't think of one you'd describe as a "real turd"? – Hot Licks Feb 22 '20 at 21:02

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You can go ahead and call X on Y, but I believe in most cases it would be a non-standard construction and might confuse some listeners. In other words, if you say, "I call awesome on that!" Someone might understand that you are adapting a known construction and inserting an uncommon adjective, for fun, but someone else might not understand the sentence.

I suspect the phrase "call bonkers on" comes from "I call foul on", or "I call a foul on", where someone might literally shout "foul" on a sports field. "I call foul!"

Another common use of this construction is "call bullshit on", which I encounter often in every day conversation among English speakers. "I call bullshit on that."

To "call bonkers on" feels like a more recent construction, I had not heard it until I saw this question, but I instinctually understood it.

If you call "foul" on someone, you are trying to stop the game because something happened that doesn't follow the rules of the game. If you call bullshit on something, you are trying to stop the conversation to say that the rules of argument aren't being followed, a falsehood is being used to argue for something, etc. If you call "bonkers" on someone, you are trying to stop whatever is being presented as normal and argue that it makes no sense at all, is crazy.

ADDING: As is common when constructions are picked up and expanded, to "call bonkers on" something may be a nicety introduced to avoid using "bullshit". Bullshit is a curse/swear word not used in public in many English-speaking cultures. Even though bonkers has a distinctly different meaning that bullshit--we sometimes just slip in a word that's close enough when we want to remove the curse word from an idiom.

I'd personally pick "baloney" instead of "bonkers", as the meaning is closer... but I have to acknowledge that bonkers is really fun to say. :-)

Beagley
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  • Thanks a lot! This really sharpens my understanding of the construction as well as the term "bonkers". I was not even aware of the difference in meaning in contrast to "bullshit" but also somehow like it because it avoids the fecal language. – Patrick2000 Feb 21 '20 at 21:49
  • bonkers is not a euphemism for bullshit. A person is bonkers or not. You can't say a person is bullshit really. Something is bullshit. It is baloney that is a euphemism for bullshit. [And, by the way, bullshit is acceptable in many speech contexts.] – Lambie Feb 21 '20 at 22:23