TVSquad

Have you been noticing that "douchebag" has really reasserted itself in the common vernacular? I just logged onto a website to check some bar reviews in Los Angeles, and on the front page was this gem: "Drinks are well priced, and usually not too many douche baggy people are there."

It's been a mainstay on The Daily Show, where Jon Stewart has really taken the insult to heart, having coined the phrases "Congressional Medal of Douchebaggery" and "Douchebag of Liberty." You know you've really made it in the media when Stewart devotes an entire montage to how much of a douchebag you are, as he's done with Robert Novak.

However, it's also been cropping on television with increasing regularity on everything from The Office, where Andy worked it into an Oompa Loompa song about Dwight to 30 Rock, where Molly Shannon used it to lovingly refer to Nathan Lane. In fact, NBC seems to really love the term, since it apparently first appeared on Saturday Night Live way back in 1980. Remember the "Lord Douchebag" sketch? I tried to find it on YouTube unsuccessfully, but searching the term does turn up over 1,200 videos. Gather some friends around and recreate it with the script you can find here.

Wikipedia tells us, "the slang usage of the term dates back to the 1960s. Initially, it was used to insult a woman. The origin of the use of the term as an insult is derived from lesbian activities. However, over time it has become a term for either gender." They also list other derivaties of the word as douche, DB, and ... shower pocket? Just try calling someone a shower pocket and see what kind of a look you get.

Oddly enough, Southwest Airlines' in-flight magazine 'Spirit' has a brief article about the rise of profanity (if douchebag can be considered that) on television, and 67% of people surveyed admit that they hear more profanity on TV than they did 20 years ago, so maybe we can trace this directly back to SNL. Professor Robert Myers who teaches a class on taboo language at Alfred University says, "Most of the formerly taboo language is uncreative. It is much easier to use a profanity than to express what we're feeling or thinking with more words."

I'd like to think of a clever response to Myers, but I'll probably just end up calling him a shower pocket.


Lord Salisbury: "Well, well, well.. I was just asking Lord Sandwich, "Where the devil are those Douchebags?"