In the 1970’s, DC Comics had a group called the All-Star Squadron, but as far as I know, only Fred Hembeck ever used their initials…
When I attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the university had four letter acronyms for each department to be used when filling out official forms. (This was done, no doubt, to save room on the punch cards.) English was ENGL, History was HIST, Physics was PHYS, PE was officially called “Physcal Activity”, and was PHYA, etc.
A female friend of mine was filling out the forms to declare her major in Comparative Literature. That department only offered upper-level courses, so she had not signed up for anything in the Comparative Literature department before then. She noticed for the first time that the Comparative Literature’s official abbreviation took the first letter from Comparative, and the first three letters from Literature.
My friend then said to her undergraduate advisor (also female), “You mean I’m a - a - CLIT Major?!?” :eek: :smack:
“Yes. Unfortunate, isn’t it?”
More fun with acronyms. UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke U, and North Carolna State U are in relatively close proximity. People started referring to that part of central North Carolina as “the Triangle”. I don’t know if that predated the founding of Research Triangle Park, which was going strong when I arrived in the area. But some of the collaborations between the three universities were named “Triangle Universities Something or another”. For example Triangle Universities Nuclear Lab (TUNL), and the now defunct Triangle Universisites Cmputing Center (TUCC).
Somebody got the bright idea to start an “Center for Advanced Studies” in the Triangle area. Moments before the official press conference announcing this grand scheme, after months if not years of preparation, someone noticed that the acronym for “Triangle Universities Center for Advanced Studies” - TUCAS - sounds like the Yiddsh word for ass.
:eek: :smack: :smack: :smack:
Then one board member said, “Wait a sec - we’re incorporated, aren’t we?”
Yes.
“Well then, we’re TUCASI”.
A quick correction was made to the program, and “heaving a huge sigh of relief smilies” were handed out to all the SDMB members.
It was Major Hoople of Our Boarding House, who had quite a variety of expletives at his disposal. From the linked page:
.
Two lavish sources of comic acronyms, or use of initials for comic effect in general, are old railroad names (and railroad buffs) and the British military.
For old railroads there’s a list here. My personal favorite, for the Jamestown, Westfield and Northwestern, is said to have been coined by a traveling salesman after a bad night on the line.
For the British military, I haven’t found a web site, but Simon Cullen’s “Soldier Talk” is full of examples. For the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment: The Queen’s Last Resort; Queers, Lesbians and Rejects; and Quick, Let’s Run. For the Royal Corps of Transport: Reject Combat Troops; Reckless C**ts in Trucks; and Rubbish Carts and Trollies. Then there’s the infamous “Rob All My Comrades” for the Royal Army Medical Corps, who were suspected of stealing casualties’ effects in World War I.
The E-M-F automobile’s name actually honored the company’s founders, Everitt, Metzger, and Flanders. The initials, however, soon inspired such witty interpetations as “Every Morning Fix-it”, “Every Mechanic’s Friend”, “Eternally Missing Fire”, and “Every Mechanical Fault”. Fiat (actually an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino, or Italian Automobile Factory of Turin) was said by wags to stand for “Fires (or Failures) In All Temperatures”. Then there are the make and model names recast as acronyms, such as the following:
Ford – Fix or Repair Daily, Found on Road Dead
Chevrolet – Cracked Heads, Every Valve Rusts, Oil Leaks Every Time
Pontiac – Poor Old Nincompoop* Thinks It’s A Cadillac
- the sanitized version, as opposed to the original, which featured a racial slur
What, no FUBAR post yet? I can understand why: we all know it stands for Found Under Boulders and Rocks.
Trust me, I wasn’t amused because it was an autosomal gene mutation. 
Not a real one, but I was watching Friends the other day, and it was the episode where Chandler talks to his boss about the Weekly Estimated Net Usage Statistics, and his boss mentions the Annual Net Usage Statistics…
There is a company I’m applying to work for that refers to itself as PMS when not using it’s full name.
The one I’ve always heard for UCLA is “University of Caucasians Lost in Asia” due to the high number of foreign engineering students. I got a laugh out of it.
There’s are lots of good ones in the Unix/Linux tradition.
TLA – Three Letter Acronym
FMH – (used when needing to express extreme frustration in mixed company) Fuck Me Harder
GNU – (one of many self-referential acronyms) GNU’s Not Unix
INTERCAL – (an elaborate practical joke of a convoluted, yet still funcitonal, programming language) Computer Language With No Pronouncable Acronym
And a few from a British TV series called Yes, Minister, a political satire on the civil service. When discussing the honors routinely granted to senior bureaucrats with a particular government ministry, officially the Cross of St. Michael and St. George (CMG), Knight’s Cross of St. Michael and St. George (KCMG) and the Grand Cross of St. Michael and St. George (GCMG), Bernard explains that within that ministry CMG stands for “call me God”, KCMG for “kindly call me God”, and GCMG for “God calls me God”.
The Lexington-Fayette Urban County in Kentucky never ever uses its initials, preferring instead to append the word Government (LFUCG). There’s also a Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council, which never uses its initials, either.
I was told by an EECS* major at Michigan years ago that the name of the programming language APL stood for “A Programming Language.”
*Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, pron. “eeks.”
A better one is the University of California, Irvine, which is better known as the University of Chinese Immigrants. :eek:
When dealing with a snooty or annoying person I sometimes say “see you next time”. C U Next Time. Its a good way to curse at someone without anyone knowing 
No one’s brought up the Kevin Smith classics, invented entirely for their humor and bearing no basis in reality?
Coalition for the Liberation of Itinerate Treedwellers which is an offshoot of the Liberate Apes Before Imprisoning Apes.
I think he oughta get the double word score for that one.
No, no it isn’t.
Another Dilbertism- TTP, which stands for The TTP Project.
I always heard Fiat as “Fix it again, Tony”
I was always a fan of the (fake) acronym for PC cards before they were called PC cards - PCMCIA.
People Can’t Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms
Of course, there’s also PEBKAC - Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair
There’s always TWAIN: Technology Without An Interesting Name.
Back in the 60s, the Boston newspapers refused to abbreviate the Boston Redevelopment Authority. It looks like the acronym is acceptable now, though.
Belgian flag airline Sabena (Societe Anonyme Belge d’Exploitation de la Navigation Aerienne) is now defunct, which is a shame as travelers no longer have the opportunity to joke that the name actually stands for Such A Bad Experience, Never Again.