Friday, January 08, 2010

"The Underwear Bomber" May Be The Nicest Nickname They Give To Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab (Update)

After seeing a handful of different nicknames the media have given to Mutallab, I got a little curious--and found some of the other nicknames they are giving to Mutallab (in no particular order):

The Lap Bomber
The Knicker Bomber
The Underwear Bomber
The Underpants Bomber
The Undies Bomber
The Lap Bomber
The Testicle Bomber
The Detroit Bomber
The Christmas Day Bomber
The Syringe Bomber
The Eunuch Bomber
The Crotch Bomber
The Pantie Bomber
The Hoop Skirt Bomber
The Underoo Bomber
The Skivvy Bomber
The BVD Bomber
The NWA Bomber
Mr. Sizzlepants (in the comments, Seth mentions that he has seen this nickname used on a number of tech blogs)

There others, but I can't print them here, just in case my mother decides to read my blog.
A number of them of course are just synonyms for underwear. A number of them are increasingly uncomplimentary.

But as far as I know, in other incidents like this, there was no comparable competition for the zingiest terrorist nickname. The Shoe Bomber is The Shoe Bomber--and that's it.

Why is that?

I think part of the reason is the anger people feel--an anger fueled by a feeling of helplessness, and impatience for the people we trust to protect us and get airport security right.

And there is only so long that people can vent by just namecalling.

Technorati Tag: and and

3 comments:

robert said...

my wife stopped me when I suggested putting on my Facebook a video of Jerry Lee lewish singing "Great Balls of Fire"

Daled Amos said...

Hmmmm, Jerry Lee Lewish?

Actually, I often make the same mistake when I write about Bernard Lewish...um Lewis.

Seth said...

The best I have heard is 'Mr. Sizzlepants' on many of the tech blogs.