# What Does 'Tub Thumping' Mean? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 8, 2004, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-tub-thumping-mean/238927 "2004-04-08T10:15:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-tub-thumping-mean/238927/1 "2004-04-08T10:15:36Z")
I’ve heard it a couple of places, including on these boards. What does the expression “tub thumping” mean? And where is it derived from? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Griffin)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-tub-thumping-mean/238927/2 "2004-04-08T10:23:01Z")
It’s that song by Chumbawumba isnt it? ---
**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-tub-thumping-mean/238927/3 "2004-04-08T10:54:17Z")
> [@Jim B.](#): > > I’ve heard it a couple of places, including on these boards. What does the expression “tub thumping” mean? And where is it derived from? From the OED: > [@](#): > > 1. A speaker or preacher who for emphasis thumps the pulpit; a violent or declamatory preacher or orator; a ranter. > 1662 H. FOULIS Hist. Plots Pretended Saints 80 Tub-thumpers…a sort of people more antick in their Devotions than Don Buscos Fencing-Master. > 1720-1 Lett. fr. Mist’s Jrnl. (1722) II. 225 An honest Presbyterian Tub-thumper, who has lost his Voice with bawling to his Flock. > 1864 Athenæum 27 Aug. 267/3 Preachers, humorous tub-thumpers. > 1908 Daily Chron. 3 Nov. 5/7 It would reduce the M.P…to the position of a Temperance tub-thumper. > > So (as a back-formation) tub-thump v. intr.; also tub-thumpery; tub-thumping n. and a. > 1888 Contemp. Rev. Aug. 253 Very modest gifts, belonging to what may be called the tub-thumping school of oratory. > 1894 Westm. Gaz. 22 Aug. 1/2 What we demand is not a display of tub-thumping at the fag-end of a Session,…but a deliberate plan of campaign, carefully thought out and doggedly pursued. > 1909 Times 21 Mar., A democratic election, with all its tub-thumping and unreasoning passion and sheer noise. > 1920 ‘SAPPER’ Bulldog Drummond iv. 117 The sort of type one sees tub-thumping in Hyde Park. > 1927 Observer 28 Aug. 11/4 Fanny Hawthorne’s refusal to be made an honest woman…may still be regarded as advanced in ethics, even if its expression is not without a suspicion of tub-thumpery. > 1933 DYLAN THOMAS Let. (1966) 75 And thank you for…heeding my dogmatic tub-thumpery. > 1934 E. POUND ABC of Reading 113 A bad reader of fourteeners is almost certain to tub-thump. So: roughly the same as getting on one’s soapbox about something, especially if volume and emphasis is used to replace a coherent argument. Sounds like conservative talk radio pundits to me. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-tub-thumping-mean/238927/4 "2004-04-08T10:55:13Z")
It’s like standing on your soapbox and talking a bunch of personal rhetoric. If you’ve got something to say, and you decide to stand up and say it, that’s tub-thumping. I think. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Griffin)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-tub-thumping-mean/238927/5 "2004-04-08T11:16:52Z")
“I get knocked down, but I get up again, you’re never gonna get me down!” ;j ---
**Author:** ![Lazlo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lazlo/32/9678_2.png) [@Lazlo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lazlo)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-tub-thumping-mean/238927/6 "2004-04-08T14:36:41Z")
Damn. I always thought it meant buying beer from the tubgirl instead of at the main bar. Example: “I’m tubthumping, anyone want anything?” This would let your friends know that their drink options are somewhat limited on that round. At least that’s how we use it, and the Chumbawumba song seemed to justify it. I feel so ignorant. By the way, for your own protection, do not look up the term “tubgirl” on google. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-tub-thumping-mean/238927/7 "2004-04-08T15:36:46Z")
> [@Lazlo](#): > > I always thought it meant buying beer from the tubgirl instead of at the main bar. Tubgirl doesn’t sell it in bottles; she serves it warm from the tap. ---
**Author:** ![Lazlo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lazlo/32/9678_2.png) [@Lazlo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lazlo)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-tub-thumping-mean/238927/8 "2004-04-08T17:47:10Z")
> [@Olentzero](#): > > Tubgirl doesn’t sell it in bottles; she serves it warm from the tap. Sigh… So much for me finishing this chai I just bought. Thanks a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-tub-thumping-mean/238927/9 "2004-04-08T20:00:43Z")
_spots abandoned chai_ You gonna finish that? ---
**Author:** ![St\_Ides](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@St\_Ides](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/St_Ides)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-tub-thumping-mean/238927/10 "2004-04-08T20:39:15Z")
> [@Olentzero](#): > > Tubgirl doesn’t sell it in bottles; she serves it warm from the tap. Genius. I’m still laughing. ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-tub-thumping-mean/238927/11 "2004-04-08T21:10:52Z")
Tubgirl is just too… alien for me to fully comprehend. I mean, I know what my eyes see, but somehow I don’t have the instant puke reflex action that most people have. I should be thankful that I don’t have Smell-O-Net. ---
**Author:** ![snorlax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@snorlax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snorlax)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-tub-thumping-mean/238927/12 "2004-04-08T23:08:06Z")
Disregarded googling advice and ended up at the goatse vs tubgirl site. Bleurgh. Have you noticed that part of her anatomy is digitally blurred? As if this is the part of the photo most likely to offend… ---
**Author:** ![bleach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bleach/32/3106_2.png) [@bleach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bleach)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2004, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-tub-thumping-mean/238927/13 "2004-04-09T03:13:42Z")
In the context of the Chumbawamba song, here’s their definition as published in [an interview](http://www.pauseandplay.com/chumbawamba.htm) (at the very bottom of the page). > [@](#): > > “A ‘tubthumper’ is an actual word from the English dictionary, and it describes someone in history, who before the invention of electricity and microphones, would stand on a soap box on the street corner and spout their view to anyone who would listen. People still do it in Hyde Park in London. In the song, it describes a bloke in the pub, who after a crap week at work, is doing the same from the bar, railing against his boss or his crap wages, but rising above it, and having the dignity to go home singing ‘Danny Boy’ at the end of the night.” ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2004, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-tub-thumping-mean/238927/14 "2004-04-09T03:36:38Z")
> [@sturmhauke](#): > > Tubgirl is just too… alien for me to fully comprehend. Apparently, and I only have this via purportedly firsthand information, the substance we’re seeing in the picture is some sort of chemically very active soap. It foams. Why this seems fun or erotic to do either to yourself or to someone else is out of my league to determine.