mondo-, pfx — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

mondo- pfx

[Ital. mondo, the world (cf. -city sfx), first popularized by the Italian cult film Mondo Cane (1961) and, like cowabunga! excl., dude n.¹ and other Californian teen/surfer slang, mondo gained a new lease of life with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles craze of the late 1980s]

(US) used to describe a bizarre, surprising or anarchic view of the topic under consideration, with the implication of salaciousness or (kitschy) bad taste; usu. combined with a real or cod Italian n., e.g. mondo trasho, mondo weirdo, mondo bizarro.

1966		[film title] Mondo Bizarro.
1997–2001		Online Sl. Dict. 🌐 mondo bizarro adj 1. extremely strange; WEIRD. (‘That bird is mondo bizarro.’).
1984		D. Jenkins Life Its Ownself 148: ‘Why is he fooling around with a sitcom?’ ‘Money, Biff.’ [...] ‘Mondo scratcho’ [Ibid.] 241: ‘Mondo whacko,’ said Burt. ‘He’d turn down Ali MacGraw if he knew she had a cavity’ .
1990		Guardian 10 July 37/1: [headline] The Mullah of Mondo Trasho.