# Why Wombat user names ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 17, 2010, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wombat-user-names/539766 "2010-05-17T15:00:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wombat-user-names/539766/1 "2010-05-17T15:00:44Z")
No doubt this will be answered in quick time, but its been driving me crackers for quite some time now. I’ve noticed that many Dopers have Wombat related names. A good mate in real life **TPWOMBAT** couldn’t explain why he chose a name involving Wombat, other then it seemed like a good idea at the time. So come clean Dopers, is it some sort of sexual abberation ? Maybe its some sort of secret society like the Masons or the illuminati ? Come clean, you know you’ll feel better for getting it off your chest, almost like …being purified . Just freaking tell me ! I can’t stand the not knowing. ---
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wombat-user-names/539766/2 "2010-05-17T15:03:55Z")
Maybe one of them will explain \*\*his \*\*particular reason as he moves this to another forum! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wombat-user-names/539766/3 "2010-05-17T15:14:10Z")
The wombat is an uncommon animal in the areas where most Dopers live, plus, the word is amusing? WOMBAT = Waste Of Money, Brains, And Time? ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wombat-user-names/539766/4 "2010-05-17T15:14:26Z")
Ancient history: There were running gags about wombats in UNIX and usenet circles from 3 decades ago. They’ve never quite gone away. The “New Hacker’s Dictionary” has this entry: > [@](#): > > [acronym: Waste Of Money, Brains, And Time] Applied to problems which are both profoundly uninteresting in themselves and unlikely to benefit anyone interesting even if solved. Often used in fanciful constructions such as `wrestling with a wombat’. See also crawling horror, SMOP. Also note the rather different usage as a metasyntactic variable in Commonwealth Hackish. > > Users of the PDP-11 database program DATATRIEVE adopted the wombat as their notional mascot; the program’s help file responded to “HELP WOMBAT” with factual information about Real World wombats. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wombat-user-names/539766/5 "2010-05-17T15:19:31Z")
There’s always this: > [@Ogden Nash](#): > > The Wombat > > The wombat lives across the seas, > Among the far Antipodes. > He may exist on nuts and berries, > Or then again, on missionaries; > His distant habitat precludes > Conclusive knowledge of his moods, > But I would not engage the wombat > In any form of mortal combat. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wombat-user-names/539766/6 "2010-05-17T15:22:48Z")
Plus, how are you meant to have a decent game of wom without one? ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wombat-user-names/539766/7 "2010-05-17T17:28:48Z")
Wombats are cool. Not as awesome as coyotes, mind you, but still cool. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wombat-user-names/539766/8 "2010-05-17T18:05:33Z")
Because they’re fans of [jan howard finder](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Howard_Finder). Or maybe [Barry Wom.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Wom) ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wombat-user-names/539766/9 "2010-05-17T18:13:27Z")
There’s a classic ASCII-art PC game called [Castle Adventure](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Adventure)(Ah, memories!). For some reason, it was retitled “Golden Wombat” at one point. There aren’t any wombats in the game. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wombat-user-names/539766/10 "2010-05-17T18:29:53Z")
The vegetable I thought of was carrot. Wait, what? Yeah, wombats are like that. ---
**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:** [May 17, 2010, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wombat-user-names/539766/11 "2010-05-17T18:52:04Z")
I think this is better suited for MPSIMS than GQ. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wombat-user-names/539766/12 "2010-05-17T19:17:33Z")
When I lived in Alaska my license plate said WOMBAT. A common cry among my friends is “I don’t have to put up with this shit. I can go to Australia and breed wombats!” ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wombat-user-names/539766/13 "2010-05-17T19:22:13Z")
I used to work in “wombat” into as many sentences as I could in high school Spanish class. A fuzzy wombat, to be specific. It was silly. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wombat-user-names/539766/14 "2010-05-17T19:26:00Z")
All of this arises from a lesser corollary of the Spooch Theorem: The word “wombat” is intrinsically funny. This is due to its structure and the cognitive dissonance arising from the inclusion of a word for a flying mammal in a word for a flightless mammal. Therefore, the humor value of text or speech can often be increased by the inclusion of the word “wombat”. wombat wombat wombat ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wombat-user-names/539766/15 "2010-05-17T19:51:12Z")
Back in my college days, a linguistics class I was taking had us make up a word. I “invented” **sherdlhu** - a rare form of purple Mongolian snub-nosed wombat. ---
**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:** [May 17, 2010, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wombat-user-names/539766/16 "2010-05-17T19:51:27Z")
Wombats (the word and the animal) show up in a couple of Monty Python sketches. It was the name of the poet inspector (“Wombat Harness”), and they also showed up in “News for Wombats”. Prior to Monty Python, John Cleese performed in _I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again_ on the radio. Some of the episodes in Series 3 had a radio serial called “The Curse of the Flying Wombat”. These may be special cases of **Balance** ’s post. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wombat-user-names/539766/17 "2010-05-17T21:26:24Z")
I’m waiting for a certain mod to show up and give his two cents. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wombat-user-names/539766/18 "2010-05-17T23:36:22Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Back in my college days, a linguistics class I was taking had us make up a word. I “invented” **sherdlhu** - a rare form of purple Mongolian snub-nosed wombat. [Etaoin shrdlu](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETAOIN_SHRDLU)? ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wombat-user-names/539766/19 "2010-05-18T19:51:50Z")
It’s a pretty boring explanation, really. When I first signed up for the SDMB, I noticed the culture of anonymity, so I figured I’d use a nickname (this was unusual for me–I generally believe that if it’s worth saying, it’s worth putting my name on). I’ve only had three nicknames in my life. One was “Fang” (don’t ask), one was “Groundhog” (I don’t even _know_ where they got that one), and the other was “Invisible Wombat.” It came from an “in joke” in my high school involving animals not being allowed on school grounds. In protest, we brought invisible pets. Mine was a wombat. Recently, after becoming a moderator, I decided to switch over to using my real name, but I thought it could be confusing in old threads where I was quoted. That’s why I kept the “Wombat” in my username – although I dropped the “Invisible” because it made the name unwieldy. Once everyone gets used to me being Gary instead of Wombat, I’ll probably drop the Wombat entirely. > [@Sunspace](#): > > WOMBAT = Waste Of Money, Brains, And Time? That explains why there’s a Wombat moderator, anyway. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wombat-user-names/539766/20 "2010-05-18T20:04:59Z")
> [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](#): > > [Etaoin shrdlu](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETAOIN_SHRDLU)? Yep. 😃 Via _Bored of the Rings_, actually. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wombat-user-names/539766.md?page=2)