This just in from my correspondent in the east:
And what happens? Some girl calls someone an asshat. Yes. That's right. What's most interesting to me about this is that knowing the way the show mines indie rock to pull together a soundtrack it can sell later (with bands like the Pixies, and Futureheads), I can say with about 90% certainty (because of how tuned in to the interweb the writers are... just a few weeks back they inserted an awkward line like "I a9.com-ed them...") that this asshat line came directly from you. Take a bow.
Dammit! If I had known that television writers were dropping by I would have at least put some pants on.
Hollywood, if you're really that desperate for material — and by the looks of things you are — the movie and television rights for Airbag are still available. Call me.
Join the fray by reading through and commenting at the end.
I too was watching the OC and heard an awkwardly delivered "Asshat." I haven't been to this site in a long time, but anytime I hear "asshat" I think of airbag. If you coined that phrase you should be very proud - you have infected the culture! Good job.
Unless some wayward moose carried the Greg's good word down from Alaska to the midwest many years ago, it's highly unlikely he coined it. I had several friends in Chicago who used asshat on a regular basis when I lived there in the early 90s. My wife (god bless her) used it well before she or I knew what Airbag was.
Greg could jump on the patent rights, though, and make a pretty penny licensing it to Hollywood, Bollywood, and the up-and-coming Fallujahwood.
Yeah, but this is California. No one uses Asshat.
Except for Greg.
And me.
I can't remember where I found that superb adjective but it's always been a nice ice breaker so I keep it in the Swiss Army Insult Catalog. It works for me but perhaps it's time to move on to another word: asscap or assvisor or asskangol.
I'm trying to coin the term 'dickbag' .. its not going so well.
I'm still wondering why assberet has not caught on. It's so metrosexual, so liberating and oh so very chic.
I have to admit (and I really hate giving Greg any credit here, but I'm an honest man), but the first time I ever heard "asshat" muttered out of someone's mouth was from Mr. Storey himself.
I think a few lawsuits are in order.
John Goodman use this term in Raising Arizona ... sorta. When they are robbing the Hayseeds, he says something akin to:
"We'll be back in 5 and anyone moving is going to wear his ass as a hat!"
So, while in college, we used that term all the time ... usually when a buddy got shot down at a bar. One guy was so good at going down in flames, his nickname was asshat.
I prefer assfedora, as it's free and clear of patent challenges.
Web, you 10galloncowboyasshat, two minutes in the penalty box for crossing the line. That said the comment will stay because it made me laugh. Game on.
Ryan, I've already started A9.com'ing intellectual property lawyers. Man am I glad I never signed up for Creative Commons...FOX will be mine!
http://www.asshat.org
A picture is worth a thousand words...
No, kyle... _this_ is the interweb.
it was okay because it was said by the lesbian (person) who is keeping Marissa and Ryan apart . . . I mean, oh what a stupid show. Who would say something like that.
It all comes full circle when you see something on TV that's too much of a coincidence. For example on The Gilmore Girls, my wife's name is Lorelei, she has a daughter named Lorelei, she has parents named Richard and Emily and my name is Chris. Someone tipped the writer of that show off! Geez
10galloncowboyasshat just doesn't roll off the tongue like assberet.
Eddie -- when you say "shot down," I'm hoping you're talking about getting denied while trying to pick up a lady at a bar and not actually getting a capped in the ass......hat.
I am working on the trademark for assbeenie...I think that is like a wool thong though, and not an asshat.
Shut up Andrew!
The lesbian MAKES that show. :)
Greg, how about your 'official' etymology of the word asshat? Oh, and a friend of mine says it's pronounced as-shat...
Way too funny!
Please excuse the intrusion of a new guy offering a new focus, but what about "The O.C.?" My wife's family grew up in Orange County, and I've lived here for almost twelve years, and before that show, I nor my wife, my wife's family or any of my friends ever recall Orange County referred to as "The O.C." The overwhelming demographics were oh so much and way too snooty to limit their hometown persona to a couple of initials.
Oh, and a friend of mine says it's pronounced as-shat...
Your friend would be an idiot. It's pronounced, very quickly, as 'ass'-'hat'.
You can't possibly mean that Slava. She's an under developed character who is constantly morphing personalities. Her characteristic are abnormal and over all she is just a bad actress. Though she does get mad props for having a well decorated house and an abnormally good taste in music.
Oh, and a friend of mine says it's pronounced as-shat...
Your friend would be an idiot. It's pronounced, very quickly, as 'ass'-'hat'.
That's what I told him. Then I called him an asswipe.
it was said by the lesbian (person) who is keeping Marissa and Ryan apart . . .
Everyone knows that asshat was said by Summer to Seth in the library. It wasn't said by Alex. Duh....or, um, so I heard as I was channel surfing.
Hey Greg, did you finish up that The O.C. DVD set your wife got you for Christmas?
Kevin,
No one in Orange County calls it "The O.C."; I've lived here since 1989, and I have not heard the O.C. once.
overwhelming demographics were oh so much and way too snooty to limit their hometown persona to a couple of initials.
The overwhelming demographics in Orange County does not reside in Newport Beach, CA, where The O.C. is based. The show's writers seem to have forgotten some of the more middle-class communities like Santa Ana, Fountain Valley, Westiminster, Garden Gove, Fullerton, etc.
Not everyone in Orange County is rich, white, and good-looking with bright-white teeth, like me..
Hey Greg, did you finish up that The O.C. DVD set your wife got you for Christmas?
Not only that but I'm in the running to become the Official 'The O.C.' Club President. If elected I promise to take everyone surfing off the coast of Malibu and Santa Monica (40 miles away from Orange County) where the show is filmed.
Maybe we'll bump into Baywatch!
Hehe... sorry, folks... I'm pretty sure Greg didn't coin "asshat". However, he uses it remarkably well. Just as Nike didn't invent the tennis shoe, they sure are the brand leader for extremity encasement.
I have heard the term used since the 90s in Texas. We call it the grown -up's version of "butthead".
Gee Terry, thanks for clarifying that for us. I guess my own admission to not creating the term earlier in the comment thread wasn't clear enough. You are indeed the personification of the very word this entire thread has been about, ya asskangol.
That's gross, web.
@Mike D.: Really, by Summer? Damn . . . I can't stand for that.
This is way too funny... I concluded a post today apologizing for using the word asshat, but justifying it's use by saying that I saw it on television last night. Didn't know that by doing so, I was admitting to watching the O.C. regularly with my wife. If the word asshat has been around since before airbag, I for one, had not heard it. Thanks for expanding horizons of "television safe" vocabulary, Greg!
I concur that the term 'asshat' was not coined by Greg. He may be the only one who still uses the word, but he definitely didn't come up with it. =D
Mike D,
Yeah, I really find it amusing how far some can actually take "artistic license."
Although my "demographic" reference was more a hint at (ssshhhh!) "Republicans." To dis the GOP in the O.C. can be hazardous to one's ability to secure dinner reservations at local restaurants ... may cause other kids look at your kids funny at school ... ignite a petition to make it mandatory to park one's pick-up truck in the garage (out of site).
Anyway, I've got the white and good looking part down, so I'm batting .500 in the F.V. from the O.C.
I'm surprised that no one, in 32 comments at least, remembers where the term 'asshat' came from. And yes it was said by Summer and not Alex. (I can't stand reality TV, so what else am I to watch?) Besides, though a bit melodramatic, the characters are wonderful and the plot is fairly entertaining even though it is predictable. I mean you can find better discourse on television today than that between Seth and Sandy, or Seth and Ryan.
Asshat was used by geeks back in the day to get around language filters in forums in the 90's and possibly before. Asshole would be flagged as 'a******' but asshat would remain 'asshat'.
Reference to the Orange County as the OC might come more out of the midwest than anywhere else. Back in the 90's some crappy ska band made a big deal about being from Orange County and called themselves the O.C. Supertones. So we could blame them for it, but I'm not too sure anyone ever listened to their music.
@Nathan: Don't be dissing the OC supertones. They used to be the best ska band in pretentious, christian music. There is no way that the Supertones pioneered in with the nickname the "OC,"
true andrew...I wouldn't want to be accuse the the supertones of pioneering anything ;) just coming up with OC references is all.
Don't really wanna burst your bubble, but the term "asshat" has been around for at least 7 years in the online gaming community.
Search this board if you don't believe me!
Wow Jason! You really got me there buddy! Whoa, man that hurt. I mean disregard my own admission earlier in this thread where I said I didn't create the word. Your leg must have been twitching with excitement knowing you were going to deflate my world with your knowledge about words that begin in a-s-s.
What a dumbass. How is it this post attracted more mouth breathers than normal?
I am particularly fond of assbeenie myself, but when I think of someone who is an ass, a large majority of a certain demographic come to mind. Therefore, I would like to submit asschapeau for consideration.
I really fail to understand your obsession with the humble ass's choice of headwear. Why should an ass's hat be of insult? Surely an ass wears the same sort of hat as a donkey, and everyone knows the debonair donkey about town favours that icon of Mexican culture, the sombrero - http://www.angelfire.com/country/rhapsodyblue22/images/Cosmel.jpg
And Greg, I may be breaking from the norm here, but wouldn't assbag be more appropriate? I like that even better than asschapeau.
Gee Terry, thanks for clarifying that for us. I guess my own admission to not creating the term earlier in the comment thread wasn't clear enough. You are indeed the personification of the very word this entire thread has been about, ya asskangol.
I'm terribly sorry that I missed your comment Greg. I certainly wasn't trying to belittle you or insult you in any way. Not to mention the compliment I gave you for the use of adjective. Frankly, I didn't deserve your harsh comment at all. I'm not going to get into a name calling fight with you, but wow... that was just really uncalled for.
I can't believe you assclowns have tittered on about asshats for 42 posts.
you are all asses or derivatives there of.
(although greg, i can't tell you how much i enjoy having the derogative "mouth-breather" enter my lexicon again)
Cyan, which derivative do you prefer?
Frankly, I didn't deserve your harsh comment at all.
Terry, cowboy-up.
mike, i would like to be the first to call you an assclam.
also, this make me an assquack for posting twice about you assrots prattling on and on about asshats and such.
for a fairly exhaustive list try:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/browse.php?word=ass
Assquack? Is that when your ass makes a duck sound?
Assrot just sounds nasty....
@Greg,
Sorry if I didn't read the 36 responses before mine. But hey, thanks for branding me a dumbass, it really helped me to see where I went wrong. I forgot that people don't make mistakes nowdays.
Sorry if I didn't read the 36 responses before mine. But hey, thanks for branding me a dumbass, it really helped me to see where I went wrong.
Hey no problem. As Duke would always say, "knowing is half the battle".
I maintain that they stole "The OC" from me. I was using it to refer to my site (Overcaffeinated) at least a few months before the show went live.
Basterds.
@ Jason,
If you didn't read the comments to know whether someone already posted the information you're about to post, that does make you a dumbass. That wasn't a mistake, that was laziness. And for the record I gave the origins of the word asshat prior to your post, and Greg had already admitted, a few times actually, that he was not the originator of the word. Assclam! That's a great one...thanks Cyan.
@Joe,
Actually, it was a mistake. See "carelessness" below. It was careless not to read the 36 responses before mine.
I made a mistake and got jumped on for it. There was no polite (as in most civilised conversation), "That's already been said dude, read the comments above yours". It's like Greg took it as a personal offense or something in the way he jumped down my throat.
mis·take (mĭ-stāk') pronunciation
n.
1. An error or fault resulting from defective judgment, deficient knowledge, or carelessness.
Asshat is soooooo last year
While "assbeanie" is cute, I bet Summer calls the mean old dude an "assbag" on the next episode... tonight!
Ah yes, Jerome. The Assbag would be the cranky billionaire asswad that got a9dotcommed by his illegitimate daughter who up and abandoned Ryan, thus throwing him into a downward emotional spiral (or was that because it wouldn't freaking stop raining?).
The journalists at the Guardian seem to have caught on. On page 15 of the Guide (an entertainment supplement) there is an article on the supposed similarities between Sean Penn and George W Bush.
"But while Penn's Post ad and pre-war trip to Baghdad allowed right-wing commentators to smear him as being a clueless Hollywood ass-hat, he had the consoloation of being right in every single prediction he made on WMD's, frosty Iraqi welcomes, civilian death tolls and so on."
Actually I just sat and typed that out, then discovered its on the web.
Here's the article in full.
:-)