# Who first applied "teabaggers"..... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 6, 2009, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-first-applied-teabaggers/520200 "2009-12-06T15:51:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-first-applied-teabaggers/520200/1 "2009-12-06T15:51:36Z")
… to conservative “tea party” attendees? Related question… is it generally considered a hetero sexual move or otherwise? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-first-applied-teabaggers/520200/2 "2009-12-06T16:11:44Z")
> [@What\_the](#): > > Related question… is it generally considered a hetero sexual move or otherwise? In my experience . . . otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-first-applied-teabaggers/520200/3 "2009-12-06T16:35:35Z")
From Wikipedia: _An article in [Salon.com](http://Salon.com) by Alex Koppelman traced the controversy to a photograph by David Weigel posted on The Washington Independent website on 27 February,[121] showing a protester holding a sign that read “Tea Bag the Liberal Dems Before They Tea Bag You!!”[122] Weigel’s report was referenced by bloggers, including Wonkette, who used “teabagging” or “teabagger” in their headline.[121]_ ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-first-applied-teabaggers/520200/4 "2009-12-07T02:44:33Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > In my experience . . . otherwise. Really? Previous to this latest revival of the term, I’ve always seen the term used to name frat pranks…frat brother X is passed out drunk, let’s teabag him and take pics of it to embarrass him. ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-first-applied-teabaggers/520200/5 "2009-12-07T02:55:47Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Really? Previous to this latest revival of the term, I’ve always seen the term used to name frat pranks…frat brother X is passed out drunk, let’s teabag him and take pics of it to embarrass him. Wait a minute! So, a frat boy gets drunk and passes out. His brothers play a prank on him by tea bagging him and taking pictures of themselves tea bagging him. Who is supposed to be embarrassed here? ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-first-applied-teabaggers/520200/6 "2009-12-07T02:59:46Z")
I always associated with frat boy pranks as well. It is referenced in an episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, where it is revealed that the gang used to do it to a crippled guy in their class who later became a priest. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-first-applied-teabaggers/520200/7 "2009-12-07T03:29:37Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Really? Previous to this latest revival of the term, I’ve always seen the term used to name frat pranks…frat brother X is passed out drunk, let’s teabag him and take pics of it to embarrass him. Explain how this is heterosexual. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-first-applied-teabaggers/520200/8 "2009-12-07T03:46:45Z")
I first saw the term used by Samantha in “Sex in the City”. She said referred to sucking on a guy’s testicles during oral sex play. I’m hoping the frat boys from the Greek world meant something else? If you think it means something else and you are conservative, you still haven’t got the joke… ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-first-applied-teabaggers/520200/9 "2009-12-07T04:14:01Z")
I first heard of “teabagging” in John Waters’ film Pecker. [Here](http://www.bostonphoenix.com/archive/movies/98/08/06/JOHN_WATERS.html)’s an interview from the Boston Phoenix where he talks about the scene. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-first-applied-teabaggers/520200/10 "2009-12-07T04:41:21Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I first heard of “teabagging” in John Waters’ film Pecker. Same here. I laughed and laughed. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-first-applied-teabaggers/520200/11 "2009-12-07T04:56:57Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Explain how this is heterosexual. A bunch of guys want to live together. How is that heterosexual? ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-first-applied-teabaggers/520200/12 "2009-12-07T05:25:44Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I first heard of “teabagging” in John Waters’ film Pecker. [Here](http://www.bostonphoenix.com/archive/movies/98/08/06/JOHN_WATERS.html)’s an interview from the Boston Phoenix where he talks about the scene. Yea, the question is who started applying it to teabaggers _to the attendees of Conservative Tea Party’s_ though. I think it came from the brief trend of mailing tea-bags to Congress, which the Conservatives dubbed “tea-bagging”, some presumably aware of the double-entendre, some not so much. From there, its a quick leap to calling a person who teabags a…teabagger. [Here’s](http://www.reteaparty.com/2009/02/27/) the blog post to the teabagger site that I suspect started the trend. Some of the commenters are obviously aware of the meaning of the term, but I’m not sure about the original poster (who I think is Santelli, the guy that started the thing with his cable-TV rant.) ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-first-applied-teabaggers/520200/13 "2009-12-07T05:36:07Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Explain how this is heterosexual. Because they’re ostensibly not doing it for sexual pleasure but in the interest of embarrassing their frat brother or guest by implying that he would enjoy having other men’s testicles in his face. If the testicles were put there with the explicit expectation that they would be used by the teabagee to give the teabagger sexual pleasure, THEN it would be gay. This does not rule out the possibility of illicit hopes that such would happen. We just call that “closeted”. ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-first-applied-teabaggers/520200/14 "2009-12-07T05:52:35Z")
Chalk me up as another person who’s pretty much only seen it used in a “heterosexual” content- a dude that drops his balls onto another dudes face. Usually both parties are straight, and it’s a show of pwnage. Also done in online video games by repeated squatting over the other player’s dead body. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-first-applied-teabaggers/520200/15 "2009-12-07T05:58:06Z")
So some further digging around the tea-bagging site, and here’s what I got. Febuary 19th, Santelli goes on his rant on the floor of the Exchange about how people should protest the Stimulus Package by recalling the Boston Tea Party. Later that day, his supporters register [reTeaParty.com](http://reTeaParty.com) and start planning protests. A commenter gives this idea on the 22nd: > [@](#): > > Instead of dumping anything, why don’t we all steal an idea from the 60s Yippie, Abbie Hoffman and his “Steal This Book” and on April first send 1 teabag each to the White House with a simple signed note, “Mr. President, are you listening?” > > We could also send 1 teabag to Pelosi, Reid, Baucus, Grassley, Boehner, Cantor, McConnell, Lott and Thune. > > Millions of teabags arriving in Washington on a single day with a signed note should get the message across! Later that day, people on the site are calling the idea tea-bagging, most of then seem aware of the double entendre. > [@](#): > > If they scream in DC when they hear someone wil dump some tea or send some teabags… (And I LOVE the idea of “tea-bagging” as a punishment.)… As the idea catches on, and the first protests happen and the end of Feb, people on the site who don’t get the joke take up the term, and since they’re tea-bagging, the call themselves “teabaggers” > [@](#): > > Liberty Bell said: > > Congratulations to Rick Santelli and all his teabaggers! > > Santelli is the new Santorum! > [@](#): > > Across the nation yesterday, people from all walks of life gathered in American cities to “get their teabag on”. The point? Protesting provisions in the multi-bill Stimulus Package which help people refinance their mortgages, because preventing foreclosures is wrong. We journeyed to Portland to join in the teabagging fun! So its a little more complicated then the accepted story of clueless Conservatives latching onto the term. The originaters got the joke, they just didn’t think it out far enough to realize that if what they were doing was tea-bagging, then they would be called tea-baggers. From there clueless Conservatives started calling themselves teabaggers, and from there liberal blogs picked it up and went, well, nuts. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-first-applied-teabaggers/520200/16 "2009-12-07T06:10:05Z")
Also, does anyone know what the Abbie Hoffman reference from the first quote in my last post is in reference to? Presumably something in “Steal This Book”, but did Hoffman really come up with the tea-bag idea, or just sending random crap to politicians, or just the general idea of weird and amusing protest actions. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-first-applied-teabaggers/520200/17 "2009-12-07T06:18:27Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Really? Previous to this latest revival of the term, I’ve always seen the term used to name frat pranks…frat brother X is passed out drunk, let’s teabag him and take pics of it to embarrass him. Yes. I took “hetero” as meaning a man and a woman. I’m not denying that this has never happened, but I’ve usually heard of it happening with two (straight) guys. ---
**Author:** ![mrpayday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@mrpayday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrpayday)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-first-applied-teabaggers/520200/18 "2009-12-07T06:49:57Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > So some further digging around the tea-bagging site, and here’s what I got. Febuary 19th, Santelli goes on his rant on the floor of the Exchange about how people should protest the Stimulus Package by recalling the Boston Tea Party. > > Later that day, his supporters register [reTeaParty.com](http://reTeaParty.com) and start planning protests. A commenter gives this idea on the 22nd: > > Later that day, people on the site are calling the idea tea-bagging, most of then seem aware of the double entendre. > As the idea catches on, and the first protests happen and the end of Feb, people on the site who don’t get the joke take up the term, and since they’re tea-bagging, the call themselves “teabaggers” > > So its a little more complicated then the accepted story of clueless Conservatives latching onto the term. The originaters got the joke, they just didn’t think it out far enough to realize that if what they were doing was tea-bagging, then they would be called tea-baggers. From there clueless Conservatives started calling themselves teabaggers, and from there liberal blogs picked it up and went, well, nuts. Liberty Bell probably got the joke. ---
**Author:** ![BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-first-applied-teabaggers/520200/19 "2009-12-07T06:56:08Z")
> [@ToeJam](#): > > Chalk me up as another person who’s pretty much only seen it used in a “heterosexual” content- a dude that drops his balls onto another dudes face. Usually both parties are straight, and it’s a show of pwnage. > Also done in online video games by repeated squatting over the other player’s dead body. I think you’re conflating the “roman helmet” with teabagging. For actual teabaggery to occur, the balls have to be dipped inside the mouth. > [@panache45](#): > > In my experience . . . otherwise. Well of course in your experience it’s otherwise 😉 ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-first-applied-teabaggers/520200/20 "2009-12-07T07:22:18Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > As the idea catches on, and the first protests happen and the end of Feb, people on the site who don’t get the joke take up the term, and since they’re tea-bagging, the call themselves “teabaggers” > [@](#): > > Liberty Bell said: > > Congratulations to Rick Santelli and all his teabaggers! > > Santelli is the new Santorum! > [@mrpayday](#): > > Liberty Bell probably got the joke. **Simplicio** may not be aware of the significance of [Santorum](http://www.spreadingsantorum.com/). Santorum may be unsafe for work environments and offensive to some readers. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-first-applied-teabaggers/520200.md?page=2)