# BFE or EBF?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bfe-or-ebf/591478
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [August 4, 2011, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bfe-or-ebf/591478 "2011-08-04T17:10:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2011, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bfe-or-ebf/591478/21 "2011-08-04T19:24:49Z")
It doesn’t sound right to you because you’re saying it wrong. It’s not BFE, California; it’s just BFE. Bumfuck because it’s a strange and backward place. Egypt because it’s far away and, like the desert, there’s nothing there. So when you say that someone lives in BFE, you’re saying they live in a distant, barren wasteland populated by backward people unfamiliar with civilization.
Why would you call it EBF, Oklahoma? There’s nothing eastern about it, and you’re already in Oklahoma so it’s not that far away. How does that make any sense?
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2011, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bfe-or-ebf/591478/22 "2011-08-04T20:24:04Z")
Upstate New York. I’ve heard both Bumfuck, Egypt and East Bumfuck used.
But never East Bumfuck, Egypt. Apparently there’s no such place.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2011, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bfe-or-ebf/591478/23 "2011-08-04T20:25:55Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#):
>
> It doesn’t sound right to you because you’re saying it wrong. It’s not BFE, California; it’s just BFE. Bumfuck because it’s a strange and backward place. Egypt because it’s far away and, like the desert, there’s nothing there. So when you say that someone lives in BFE, you’re saying they live in a distant, barren wasteland populated by backward people unfamiliar with civilization.
>
> Why would you call it EBF, Oklahoma? There’s nothing eastern about it, and you’re already in Oklahoma so it’s not that far away. How does that make any sense?
I think you’re misunderstanding the OP. Hilarity is saying people in Oklahoma say East Bumfuck and people in California say Bumfuck, Egypt.
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### Author:  [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2011, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bfe-or-ebf/591478/24 "2011-08-04T20:29:53Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#):
>
> I learned BFE as Beyond Fucking Egypt.
Me, too.
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### Author:  [@perfectparanoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/perfectparanoia)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2011, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bfe-or-ebf/591478/25 "2011-08-04T20:44:23Z")
Up here, we say Bumfuck, Nowhere. Weird.
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### Author:  [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_the_Lord)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2011, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bfe-or-ebf/591478/26 "2011-08-04T20:45:58Z")
Northern Illinois here, northwest burbs of Chicago. For me, it’s BFE–Bumfuck, Egypt. I don’t think I heard the term until I was 19 or so, which would’ve been in 2002. I won’t usually say the whole thing, but I will say BFE. Like, yeah, he lives way out in BFE; just take 64 out past DeKalb, you can’t miss the town.
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2011, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bfe-or-ebf/591478/27 "2011-08-04T21:18:06Z")
Bumfuck. It was too small to have a suburb.
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### Author:  [@Chopper9760](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chopper9760)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2011, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bfe-or-ebf/591478/28 "2011-08-04T22:55:46Z")
BFE, Idaho
I’ve only heard the acronym and only knew it meant the middle of nowhere, this has been educational.
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### Author:  [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2011, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bfe-or-ebf/591478/29 "2011-08-04T23:54:20Z")
In the midwest, it was Bumfuck Egypt, (state). It makes a particular sort of sense because there are plenty of Midwestern one-stoplight towns with exotic names. Off the top of my head, I recall towns named Cairo, Versailles (pronounced ver-SAYles), Peru, Mexico, Bremen (BREE-min), Athens, Warsaw… So of course you were in Bumfuck Egypt, because you’re three hours outside South Bend, lost, and the last sign of civilization you passed was Morocco, 30 minutes ago.
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### Author:  [@Just\_Ed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Ed)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2011, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bfe-or-ebf/591478/30 "2011-08-05T00:24:11Z")
Seems this has come up a [couple](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=17010) of [times](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=107165) before . . .
Around my way (NYC Metro area), I’ve usually heard “Bumblefuck.”
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### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2011, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bfe-or-ebf/591478/31 "2011-08-05T00:24:35Z")
We said “East Buttfuck” but also “BFE”, which stood for “Buttfuck East”.
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### Author:  [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2011, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bfe-or-ebf/591478/32 "2011-08-05T00:58:14Z")
> [@lazybratsche](#):
>
> In the midwest, it was Bumfuck Egypt, (state). It makes a particular sort of sense because there are plenty of Midwestern one-stoplight towns with exotic names. Off the top of my head, I recall towns named Cairo, Versailles (pronounced ver-SAYles), Peru, Mexico, Bremen (BREE-min), Athens, Warsaw… So of course you were in Bumfuck Egypt, because you’re three hours outside South Bend, lost, and the last sign of civilization you passed was Morocco, 30 minutes ago.
I’m not sure of your location, **lazybratsche** , but my guess is that you are within 30 miles or so of where I grew up in northern Indiana. I always heard it as BFE or Bum(ble) Fuck, Egypt. Another variant I’ve heard since moving south is Bumble Fuck, Statename, as in “He lives way up the plateau in Bumble Fuck, Tennessee.” The only times I’ve heard the East thing has been from military folk and usually then as East Jesus or East Buttcrack.
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### Author:  [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2011, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bfe-or-ebf/591478/33 "2011-08-05T01:15:36Z")
> [@missred](#):
>
> I’m not sure of your location, **lazybratsche** , but my guess is that you are within 30 miles or so of where I grew up in northern Indiana.
Close. I have family in South Bend, but I (mostly) grew up in the Detroit area. Also have family scattered around Ohio. Thus, there were a lot of family road trips taking off-interstate “shortcuts” across the least-populated parts of those states.
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### Author:  [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2011, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bfe-or-ebf/591478/34 "2011-08-05T03:05:57Z")
> [@lazybratsche](#):
>
> In the midwest, it was Bumfuck Egypt, (state). It makes a particular sort of sense because there are plenty of Midwestern one-stoplight towns with exotic names. Off the top of my head, I recall towns named Cairo, Versailles (pronounced ver-SAYles), Peru, Mexico, Bremen (BREE-min), Athens, Warsaw… So of course you were in Bumfuck Egypt, because you’re three hours outside South Bend, lost, and the last sign of civilization you passed was Morocco, 30 minutes ago.
Yup, Fort Wayne native here and yes, it’s bumfuck Egypt or BFE for short since the beginning of time.
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### Author:  [@Agnostic\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agnostic_Pagan)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2011, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bfe-or-ebf/591478/35 "2011-08-05T05:19:46Z")
> [@stretch](#):
>
> Here in Washington State (both wetter Washington and here on the dry side), I’ve heard Bumfuck, Egypt and the associated BFE way more than East Bumfuck or EBF.
>
> AKA the boonies/boones, toolies, or sticks, you know, way out to Timbuk-fucking-tu. Meaning anyplace that isn’t “cool” or meaning living out of town and away from the nearest real store.
I grew up in Washington state also, and I always heard Bumfuck, Egypt or BFE. EBF looks wrong. Buttfuck does not sound right either.
BFE - aka Auburn and Enumclaw.
In the case of Enumclaw, I found this while checking the spelling - [Zoo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoo_%28film%29). I guess you could say it stands for “Broncofuck Enumclaw”
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2011, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bfe-or-ebf/591478/36 "2011-08-05T14:51:59Z")
Grew up in Los Angeles, lived all over the country, now in the midwest. I work all over the country with people who live all over the country.
Before this thread I’d never heard or read of the abbreviations BFE or EBF.
Before this thread I’d never heard or read of the phrase “Bumfuck, Egypt”
I have heard and used “Bumfuck” and “East Bumfuck”, with plain old Bumfuck being slightly the more common.
I think these terms were a lot more popular in the 60s - 80s than they are now.
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### Author:  [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2011, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bfe-or-ebf/591478/37 "2011-08-05T16:13:46Z")
Lifelong Oregonian. Only heard Bumfuck, Egypt or BFE for short.
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2011, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bfe-or-ebf/591478/38 "2011-08-05T16:39:38Z")
I learned it as Butt Fucking Ethiopia.
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