“It was meaty okra” (mediocre)

“Meaty okra” is a jocular eggcorn for the word “mediocre.” “McAdams, meanwhile attributed his mediocre results to eating a plateful of ‘meaty okra’” was cited in a Texas newspaper in 1973. “The heavy metal band Meaty Ochre (not to be confused with the even more obscure Cajun Zydeco band ‘Meaty Okra’ )” was cited in a 1993 book.
 
 
14 September 1973, Richardson (TX) Daily News, “Scribes try 2nd guesses,” pg. 5, col. 8:
McAdams, meanwhile attributed his mediocre results to eating a plateful of “meaty okra.”
   
Google Books
When you see a sacred cow—milk it for all it’s worth
By Swami Beyondananda and Steve Bhaerman
Lower Lake, CA: Aslan Pub.
1993
Pg. 9:
One night, Zach was playing at a bar in Louisville as lead guitarist for the heavy metal band Meaty Ochre (not to be confused with the even more obscure Cajun Zydeco band “Meaty Okra”) and he accidentally slobbered some beer onto his amplifier chord.
 
Google Groups: alt.kids-talk
Did you ever misunderstand . . .
The Kid
6/25/96
Did you ever misunderstand a word, saying, or concept when you were a kid?  I have.  For example, when I was 5 or 6, I thought that shaking salt on food cooled it off.  (After all, doesn’t pepper make it “hot”?)  My daughter used to think that “mediocre” was “meaty okra”.  She couldn’t quite understand what that word meant, as we had grown okra in the garden. I am interested in compiling “misunderstandings” of kids for publication in a book.  If you would like to contribute, E-mail the misunderstanding, the childs first name, and age at the time to: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
     
Google Books
Elijah’s Gifts
By Renee Poore
Bloomington, IN: CrossBooks
2009
Pg. 33:
“Well, it looks like I’m just meaty okra.”
 
“Meaty ... what?”
 
“You know, meaty okra, average, not really good at anything.”
 
“Oh! You mean mediocre.”
 
Twitter
Mina Ross
‏@wilhelminaross
Thoughts on recently used words: is meaty okra mediocre?
2:21 AM - 2 May 2009
 
Twitter
Meaty Okra
@meatyokra
Step your game up.
Everywhere
Joined August 2009
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Meaty Okra : a Tale of Southern Pathos!.
Author: Valerie Levin
Publisher: Cork : BookBaby, 2013.
Edition/Format:   Print book : Document   Computer File : English
Database: WorldCat
Summary:
Meaty Okra is a tender coming of age story that takes place in small town Georgia in the 1970’s. The narrator, Mallory Leak, is a seven-year-old with clever observations on the humor and pain of the raging grown-ups all around her. Her vivacious and mercurial mother, Nita Ann, endures a volatile, abusive relationship with Mallory’s father, Earl, a.
 
reddit
I made beef stuffed okra for dinner. My wife didn’t really like it
submitted May 4, 2016 by amazingBarry
She thought it was mediocre meaty okra.