Green’s Dictionary of Slang

nonsense; irrelevant, irritating activity.

1879		Dodge City Globe 5 Sept. in Miller & Snell Why the West was Wild 157: ‘Getting to the booze joint,’ as it were, in good shape, and ‘making a ranikaboo play for ourselves’.
1897		A.H. Lewis Wolfville 63: Nor make no ranikaboo plays to get even.
1898		Denver Eve. Post 4 Jan. 4D: [heading] The Reinikaboo (News).
1901		S.E. White Westerners 313: This (sulphurous ) outfit of ranikaboo ijits has gone plum’ locoed.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 31 Aug. 2/3: [T]he beaux follow them there and mash them ardently, and the three belles discover them, and there’s a rare old rallykaboo.
1914		Ade ‘The New Fable of What Transpires’ in Ade’s Fables 142: His Advice was to up and marry her before she had time to pull one of her temperamental Stunts and hand out the Rinkaboo.
1923		Wodehouse Leave it to Psmith (1993) 570: Last night’s rannygazoo perhaps shook your nervous system to some extent?
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 212: If such rannygazoo is to arrive, I do not remain any longer in this house no more.
1949		Wodehouse Mating Season 171: What started all this rannygazoo?
1954		Indep. Record (Helena, MT) 9 Oct. 3/7: If you’re thinking of playing a prank on a friend, the word is ‘ranikaboo.’.
1960		Wodehouse Jeeves in the Offing 172: Thus avoiding any rannygazoo.
1966		G. & K. Swarthout Whichaway (1967) 54: What a rannicaboo!
1975		New Scientist 24 July 228: Every day a sackful of the day’s cables abroad go down to the Admiralty where persons of great charm and intelligence go through them one by one, wondering what sort of rannygazoo these five figure groups contain.
1995		R. Zelazny Warriors of Blood and Dreams 103: ‘I’m afraid it's all rather a complicated rannygazoo,’ I said.
2001		R. Stanhope No Place for the Maudlin Heart 27: No inflationary shifting sands, no metric hokum, no ersatz rannygazoo.
2014		Eve. Standard 9 Apr. 🌐 There's a bit of a rannygazoo about the 20th anniversary of Britpop at the moment.