Leonor Lavado imita a Tamara Falcó en El Hormiguero

Does “bizarro” mean “bizarre” in Spanish?

Bizarro is a textbook falso amigo. Its traditional Spanish sense, per the RAE, is valiente — brave, gallant, dashing — nothing to do with the English “bizarre.” But because the old meaning faded and English “bizarre” is everywhere, speakers now widely use bizarro to mean strange or weird. So qué bizarro can mean “how brave!” to a purist and “how weird!” to almost everyone under forty — a live shift you can hear happening.

In this El Hormiguero bit the line “hay algo muy bizarro en esto” is exactly the modern, anglicized “there’s something very weird about this” — not “brave.” It is unmistakably Peninsular comedy, full of Spain-specific texture (me horroriza la gente que va con la sombrilla… esa nevera tan vulgar). Use bizarro knowing your listener may read it the other way.