# Why the name "Deep Throat"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 3, 2005, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-name-deep-throat/306783 "2005-06-03T20:45:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2005, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-name-deep-throat/306783/1 "2005-06-03T20:45:39Z")
Why was this (now un-)anonymous source given the name of a pornographic film as an alias? Has the reason for this (IMO) unusual chioce of name ever been explained? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2005, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-name-deep-throat/306783/2 "2005-06-03T20:55:53Z")
> **[Deep Throat (Watergate)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Throat_(Watergate))** > > Deep Throat is the pseudonym given to the secret informant who provided information in 1972 to Bob Woodward, who shared it with Carl Bernstein. Woodward and Bernstein were reporters for The Washington Post, and Deep Throat provided key details about the involvement of U.S. president Richard Nixon's administration in what came to be known as the Watergate scandal. In 2005, 31 years after Nixon's resignation and 11 years after Nixon's death, a family attorney stated that former Federal Bureau of ... > [@](#): > > Howard Simons, the managing editor of the Washington Post at the time, dubbed the secret informant “Deep Throat,” an allusion to a pornographic movie of the same name that had become a cultural phenomenon during the period; it was also a play on the term “deep background”, used in journalism to mean information provided by a secret source that may not be reported directly. Also asked and answered in [this current thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=319082). ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2005, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-name-deep-throat/306783/3 "2005-06-03T20:58:18Z")
“Deep Throat” (the movie) was a phenomenon at the time, and, uh, on everyone’s lips. The psuedonym was applied to Mr. Felt as a sort of pun on the [Deep background](http://www.nae.edu/NAE/pubundcom.nsf/weblinks/AEGR-5L7MAJ?OpenDocument) nature of the information he supplied. > [@](#): > > Deep Background: Refers to information you give that will be included in the article but not attributed to you or to your title or position. Never mind. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Pullet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Pullet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pullet)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2005, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-name-deep-throat/306783/4 "2005-06-03T20:59:09Z")
All of my internet sources are failing me now, but my understanding is that the Porno came out after the political scandal. So, the porno title is a pun. ---
**Author:** ![Pullet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Pullet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pullet)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2005, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-name-deep-throat/306783/5 "2005-06-03T21:02:46Z")
Y’all suck ☹ kidding 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2005, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-name-deep-throat/306783/6 "2005-06-03T21:04:15Z")
I thought it had something to do with the man’s alleged love of cigars and whiskey taking its toll on his vocal cords 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2005, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-name-deep-throat/306783/7 "2005-06-03T21:13:06Z")
> [@Pullet](#): > > All of my internet sources are failing me now, but my understanding is that the Porno came out after the political scandal. So, the porno title is a pun. _Deep Throat_ the movie was released in 1972; the Watergate scandal broke in 1975. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2005, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-name-deep-throat/306783/8 "2005-06-03T21:15:31Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > _Deep Throat_ the movie was released in 1972; the Watergate scandal broke in 1975. Sorry, the scandal started in 1972 and reached its peak in 1974. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2005, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-name-deep-throat/306783/9 "2005-06-03T21:18:51Z")
> [@Tamex](#): > > Has the reason for this (IMO) unusual chioce of name ever been explained? Thing about code names is, they are intended to preserve anonymity. You gotta pick a name that has no connection with you at all. If you pick a name that actually means something, it kinda gives the game away. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2005, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-name-deep-throat/306783/10 "2005-06-03T21:40:37Z")
You mean, like Woodward’s original code name of My Friend, which had no relationship at all to Mark Felt? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Pullet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Pullet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pullet)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2005, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-name-deep-throat/306783/11 "2005-06-03T21:58:13Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Sorry, the scandal started in 1972 and reached its peak in 1974. Yeah, that’s why I retracted my first post. Although some of the links I found date the scandal as starting in the late 60’s. I guess they’re counting from when the crooked deals took place as opposed to when they were discovered? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2005, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-name-deep-throat/306783/12 "2005-06-03T22:39:39Z")
> [@](#): > > Although some of the links I found date the scandal as starting in the late 60’s. I guess they’re counting from when the crooked deals took place as opposed to when they were discovered? Various nefarious activities by the Nixon administration began in the late 1960s. However, the Watergate Scandal itself began June 17, 1972, with the burglary of the Democratic National Committee office at the Watergate complex. The attempted coverup of links to administration involvement in that event is what eventually brough Nixon down in 1974. Some of the earlier activities became revealed during the course of the Watergate Scandal itself, and hence have become somewhat linked to it. > [@Pullet](#): > > Yeah, that’s why I retracted my first post. Sorry, I didn’t realize saying “Y’all suck” was intended as a retraction. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2005, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-name-deep-throat/306783/13 "2005-06-03T22:51:29Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > “Deep Throat” (the movie) was a phenomenon at the time, and, uh, on everyone’s lips. This isn’t a set-up to a joke but a true story: I read an interview with Dick Martin (of _Laugh In_) fame some years back in which he told of how & Mrs. Martin got a bootleg copy of the movie (the film-canister variety, this being before home video) while it was still hot and as a lark decided to have a showing at his house. Word got out and celebrities from everywhere who were dying of curiosity but obviously wouldn’t be caught dead near a porn theater all vied for an invitation. The guest-list ended up including Sammy Davis Jr. and wife, Mr. & Mrs. Lucille Ball, Frank Sinatra, Liza Minnelli and other A-listers as well as Richard Dawson (a notorious Hollywood horndog in his day) and other _L-I_ and B-List folk. He said it was by far and away his crowning achievement in the Hollywood social world. (He also said that he felt guilt that frequent Laugh-In guest Peter Lawford was originally on the guest-list but he bumped him when Sinatra invited himself [Sinatra _hated_ Lawford and wouldn’t be in the same airspace with him), but he could see Lawford anytime while having Sinatra to your house was a once-in-a-lifetime deal. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2005, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-name-deep-throat/306783/14 "2005-06-03T22:57:59Z")
[Hijack]Lawford was then married to Martin’s former partner Rowan’s daughter.[/Hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Phillip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Phillip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phillip)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2005, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-name-deep-throat/306783/15 "2005-06-03T23:11:25Z")
Interesting; but one question remains unresolved: why was the _movie_ termed “Deep Throat”? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2005, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-name-deep-throat/306783/16 "2005-06-03T23:53:20Z")
In the movie _Deep Throat_, Linda Lovelace plays a woman who gets no thrill from sex, until she learns after a visit to the doctor that her clitoris is in her throat. Thus she learns to get her orgasms from performing fellatio. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2005, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-name-deep-throat/306783/17 "2005-06-04T00:50:32Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > In the movie _Deep Throat_, Linda Lovelace plays a woman who gets no thrill from sex, until she learns after a visit to the doctor that her clitoris is in her throat. Thus she learns to get her orgasms from performing fellatio. More specifically, a type of fellatio that overrides the gag reflex, from which we get the “deep” part. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2005, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-name-deep-throat/306783/18 "2005-06-04T01:01:28Z")
And for those curious why the movie _Deep Throat_ was a phenomenon in 1972, it was the first hard core porn feature (i.e., showing penetration in closeup) to be exhibited in 35mm and outside movie houses that specialized in porn. ---
**Author:** ![bradministrator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a698b9/32.png) [@bradministrator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bradministrator)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2005, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-name-deep-throat/306783/19 "2005-06-04T01:02:46Z")
Was there any backlash to the name? Was it reported widely in TV and print at the time? Or was “Deep Throat” the movie known only to the young and hip, and not to Mr & Mrs John Q Public? Imagine a similar scandal today. Would the WaPo nickname their source “Butt-Fuck Sluts Go Nuts”? ---
**Author:** ![bradministrator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a698b9/32.png) [@bradministrator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bradministrator)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2005, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-name-deep-throat/306783/20 "2005-06-04T01:04:18Z")
^^^ …backlash to **the use of** the name… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-name-deep-throat/306783.md?page=2)