# The Word "teabagger"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-teabagger/511160
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [September 23, 2009, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-teabagger/511160 "2009-09-23T00:08:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2009, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-teabagger/511160/1 "2009-09-23T00:08:26Z")
Does anyone else think that this name sounds icky? Every time I hear it, I think it means something sexual. So I picture them doing some sort of sexual favors to get their cause.
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### Author:  [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2009, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-teabagger/511160/2 "2009-09-23T00:11:27Z")
> [@BigT](#):
>
> Every time I hear it, I think it means something sexual.
[That’s because it does!](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=teabagger) :eek:
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### Author:  [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2009, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-teabagger/511160/3 "2009-09-23T00:23:35Z")
It will always mean the person does tea bagging every time I hear it.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2009, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-teabagger/511160/4 "2009-09-23T00:50:42Z")
It confuses me.
I know the sexual meaning. I don’t know why it’s being used all the time all of a sudden to refer to… whomever it refers to. Republicans of some ilk, I think. Something to do with the Boston Tea Party, of which I know nothing.
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2009, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-teabagger/511160/5 "2009-09-23T01:27:19Z")
Wait.
This is the term they are using to describe those people?
:eek:
😕
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### Author:  [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2009, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-teabagger/511160/6 "2009-09-23T01:41:57Z")
> [@BigT](#):
>
> Does anyone else think that this name sounds icky? Every time I hear it, I think it means something sexual. So I picture them doing some sort of sexual favors to get their cause.
That’s exactly why the libs starting calling people that.
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### Author:  [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2009, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-teabagger/511160/7 "2009-09-23T01:51:10Z")
> [@Clothahump](#):
>
> That’s exactly why the libs starting calling people that.
That’s what I’d say.
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### Author:  [@PatriotGrrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotGrrrl)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2009, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-teabagger/511160/8 "2009-09-23T02:21:47Z")
Yep, the liberals are just making themselves sound like Beavis and Butthead.
“Boys, come to class” “Hehe hehe. You said ‘come’ Heheheh” “But…” “Hehe hehe, you said ‘butt’. Heheheh”
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2009, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-teabagger/511160/9 "2009-09-23T02:26:19Z")
> [@Clothahump](#):
>
> That’s exactly why the libs starting calling people that.
The libs didn’t start it, the baggers were originally calling themselves that.
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2009, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-teabagger/511160/10 "2009-09-23T02:28:12Z")
> [@PatriotGrrrl](#):
>
> Yep, the liberals are just making themselves sound like Beavis and Butthead.
>
> “Boys, come to class” “Hehe hehe. You said ‘come’ Heheheh” “But…” “Hehe hehe, you said ‘butt’. Heheheh”
If you’re going to call yourself an obscene name, don’t get offended when people laugh at you.
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### Author:  [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2009, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-teabagger/511160/11 "2009-09-23T03:12:39Z")
I’m glad someone asked about this. I’ve been wondering since the threads appeared whether these people inflicted the nickname on themselves or were saddled with it by their political opponents. I’d rather assumed the latter.
If not… what the hell were they thinking?! 🙂
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### Author:  [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2009, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-teabagger/511160/12 "2009-09-23T04:25:16Z")
> [@Apollyon](#):
>
> If not… what the hell were they thinking?! 🙂
They are Republicans. Nothing more need be said.
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### Author:  [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2009, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-teabagger/511160/13 "2009-09-23T04:30:17Z")
> [@Apollyon](#):
>
> I’m glad someone asked about this. I’ve been wondering since the threads appeared whether these people inflicted the nickname on themselves or were **saddled** with it by their political opponents. I’d rather assumed the latter.
Better saddled than [saddleback](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=saddleback).
It is really weird seeing all these professional news people say it – constantly – with a straight face. But then I found it slightly odd when everyone was saying ‘caucus’ all the time a few years back, and that doesn’t even have a dirty definition.
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### Author:  [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2009, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-teabagger/511160/14 "2009-09-23T04:37:57Z")
I thought they called themselves that. I figured they wanted to let everyone know that they can take it on the chin.
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### Author:  [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2009, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-teabagger/511160/15 "2009-09-23T04:49:16Z")
Great galloping cats, I’m tired of this. A bunch of hip people on the Internet coin the term “teabagging” to mean something sexual. Og knows where they got that. They could have called it “balling” and it would have made more sense.
So now someone else is using the term? To mean something else? Well, har de har. Let’s point and laugh.
Language evolves, you know? (Except for the suffix -gate, which will be forever appended to the name of the most recent scandal.)
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2009, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-teabagger/511160/16 "2009-09-23T05:05:32Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#):
>
> A bunch of hip people on the Internet coin the term “teabagging” to mean something sexual.
‘Teabagging’ was used in John Waters’s _Pecker_, which was released in 1998; and this is where I first heard the term. The Internet really started taking off in 1996. (Certainly the Internet was started before then, but that’s when it really exploded.) John Waters is and has been a figure in the gay and alternative communities for a lot longer than that, and he often uses references from various subcultures in his films.
So I think that ‘teabagging’ started out as a sexual term, and that when the Teabaggers started calling themselves Teabaggers, they didn’t know what it meant. After all, the type of people who are Teabaggers are not generally known (except for some political and religious figures 😛 ) for being particularly knowledgeable about such communities.
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#):
>
> Og knows where they got that. They could have called it “balling” and it would have made more sense.
Consider the shape of the testicles in the scrotum, the shape of a tea bag, and the dipping motion many people use when they make tea. It makes perfect sense.
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### Author:  [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2009, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-teabagger/511160/17 "2009-09-23T05:07:49Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#):
>
> Great galloping cats, I’m tired of this. A bunch of hip people on the Internet coin the term “teabagging” to mean something sexual. Og knows where they got that. They could have called it “balling” and it would have made more sense.
I’m quite sure its sexual meaning pre-dates the internet, as it was called that when my friends’ brothers were being hazed in high school in the '80s. I think that’s what makes the adoption extra odd – it’s not some totally obscure piece of slang confined to S&M insiders.
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### Author:  [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2009, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-teabagger/511160/18 "2009-09-23T05:10:15Z")
I think the term “balling” was already taken.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2009, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-teabagger/511160/19 "2009-09-23T05:18:14Z")
Wasn’t ‘baller’ a '50s term for someone who liked to party/overindulge in drink?
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### Author:  [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2009, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-teabagger/511160/20 "2009-09-23T05:18:42Z")
> [@Cat\_Fight](#):
>
> I’m quite sure its sexual meaning pre-dates the internet, as it was called that when my friends’ brothers were being hazed in high school in the '80s. I think that’s what makes the adoption extra odd – it’s not some totally obscure piece of slang confined to S&M insiders.
Yeah, but consider the people likely to be part of the Tea Party movement. A sizable portion of these were probably raised innocent flowers in squeaky-clean churches and would probably have their heads explode if they were told their eyes **won’t** spew forth locusts if they had sex in any position other than missionary. And the people that did know the term, through some incident or other, probably thought it would be “improper” to bring up, or quickly hushed for thinking dirty and that “normal people [subtext: like us] wouldn’t think of something like that! I don’t think we have to worry about that.”
At the very least if the movement got attacked on those grounds you have free clips that you can take out of context and claim that people have no REAL attacks on your stance, just juvenile jokes. I’m sure some people probably played that angle too if people spoke up about it.
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