Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US/W.I., also bubu, bubulups) a fool.

[c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Booby. Bobo. Spanish a Fool].
1957		F.G. Cassidy ‘Iteration as a Word-forming Device in Jamaican Folk Speech’ in AS XXXII:1 50: bobo, a foolish person.
1976		L. Barrett Sun and the Drum 20: A person who is mentally dull is called bobo from the Twi word booboo, meaning a foolish person.
1978		P. Hamill Dirty Laundry 151: Ah, he said. The world is full of bobos.
1983		R. Coniff N.Y. Times Mag. n.p.: He is a nutsy-bobo [R].
1991		L.E. Adams Jam. Patois 51: Bobo, or bubu: fool.
1995		J. Stahl Permanent Midnight 205: What a bigot I was, what a close-minded cliché-ridden bo-bo.
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 124: So when did these bo-bos talk showbiz, before or after they ran the priest over?
2006		R. Antoni Carnival 160: ‘Bubulups!’ she said.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Crime 101’ in Broken 103: ‘[Y]ou don’t want him looking like a bobo or a clown’.

2. a generic insult: an ugly, fat oaf.

1964		E. Shrake But Not For Love 256: ‘I got prospects of being richer’n Waddy Morris or Clint Murchison or H.L. Hunt or Bob Smith or any of them bobos’.
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 49: Every bo-bo with a phone’s gonna be gunnin’ for the reward.

3. (US black) generic for a white man.

2002

G. Pelecanos Hell to Pay 239: White man gonna try to keep a black man down from birth. But Bobo, he couldn’t do it to this black man.