Gonzo was a character on the Muppet Show. Gonzo also means beserk, or kamikaze, almost. Now there's gonzo journalism, gonzo marketing and gonzo programming. What came first, the muppet name or the word? I must know. Merriam-Webster doesn't know, but A Word A Day says "Perhaps from Italian gonzo (simpleton) or Spanish ganso (dull or fool, literally a goose)." It also says that Bill Cardoso coined the word in 1971 and Hunter S. Thompson was the first to use it.