# Laugh, Sorry, Mean the origin of Spam as it applies to email not the food product. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 23, 2001, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laugh-sorry-mean-the-origin-of-spam-as-it-applies-to-email-not-the-food-product/89083 "2001-10-23T14:28:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2001, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laugh-sorry-mean-the-origin-of-spam-as-it-applies-to-email-not-the-food-product/89083/1 "2001-10-23T14:28:37Z")
Thought it was funny that noone thought I was referring to email, but then I did capitalize it. ---
**Author:** ![micco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f8ce5/32.png) [@micco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/micco)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2001, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laugh-sorry-mean-the-origin-of-spam-as-it-applies-to-email-not-the-food-product/89083/2 "2001-10-23T14:41:41Z")
[http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/entry/spam.html](http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/entry/spam.html) It comes from an old Monty Python skit where they just repeat “spam spam spam” over and over. ---
**Author:** ![Mojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2001, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laugh-sorry-mean-the-origin-of-spam-as-it-applies-to-email-not-the-food-product/89083/3 "2001-10-23T14:55:45Z")
Specifically it came about because someone on the fledgling internet stumbled across a pern hatching (don’t ask), was somewhat rude to the hatchers, they booted him from their group, and he repeatedly came back into the group typing “SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM”. They repeatedly booted him and kept referring to him as “the guy who spammed us”. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2001, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laugh-sorry-mean-the-origin-of-spam-as-it-applies-to-email-not-the-food-product/89083/4 "2001-10-23T15:39:45Z")
“Pern Hatching?” 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Threadkiller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aca169/32.png) [@Threadkiller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Threadkiller)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2001, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laugh-sorry-mean-the-origin-of-spam-as-it-applies-to-email-not-the-food-product/89083/5 "2001-10-23T16:15:30Z")
Cecil sez: [What’s really in Spam?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_229.html) > [@](#): > > As for what Monty Python saw in Spam, one supposes they were celebrating the ineffable, I dunno, inkness of it all. (The Brits, like so many others, had been introduced to Spam during World War II.) Their famous spam sketch, in which the dialogue is periodically drowned out by the chorus “Spam, Spam, Spam,” was the inspiration for the Internet term “Spam,” meaning the junk E-mail that now floods the net. ---
**Author:** ![Mojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2001, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laugh-sorry-mean-the-origin-of-spam-as-it-applies-to-email-not-the-food-product/89083/6 "2001-10-23T17:33:52Z")
I specifically said “don’t ask”- I’m not quite sure of the details but basically its a game where those involved are trying to hatch a dragon or “pern”, named for Anne McCaffrey’s “Dragonriders of Pern” series. That’s about all I know as I’m fairly (blissfully) ignorant on the subject. You may be able to get more info here- [http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/tellegraweyr](http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/tellegraweyr)