Teabagger / Teabaggee
I have never been in much for political protesting, rallies and the like. About the closest I have ever come to partaking in a political march was two-mile “fun run” in Wildlife Prairie Park back when I was 13 or so. These days, however, I find myself sympathizing quite a bit with the Tea Party movement. Although it is mostly a conservative and libertarian movement, the basic theme of limited goverment and fiscal responsibility is a constant, and they seem to be committed to calling out big government politicians on both sides of the aisle.
It pains me when I hear my more liberal friends and family members go off on the movement. This ranges from the lefty catch-all of calling anyone who disagrees with them a fascist, to pointing out the one less-than-moron in the crowd of thousands who decided to draw a Hitler mustache on a xerox of the president, to spewing the ever-so-clever insult, “Teabaggers!”
This morning, the news channels are all abuzz with stories about the seathing cauldron… er, teapot of hate that is the Tea Party movement. These reports range from being overblown to being downright false. At the moment, the movement needs as much support as it can get. So, in order to do my part (without actually having to leave my cave), I have put together this protest sign for you young Tea Party activists to bring to your next rally:
The “Teabaggee” line is borrowed from a Twitter post by Jim Treacher from several months ago. I added the balls (You can never have enough balls, just ask the disembodied ghost of the great juggling enthusiast, Michael Jackson). I liked the way the phrase takes ownership of the word teabagger and throws it back in the face, literally, of those who use it as an insult. I went with this poster idea because it is juvenile, borderline offensive (without being graphic) and, by throwing in the words “limited government” and “fiscal responsibility,” it has a touch of seriousness. Anyhow, I think it would make a good sign in a crowd of Tea Partiers. If you think so too, feel free to grab the PDF and give it a go. Let me know if you manage to use it somehow.
I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but this won’t work, because you have it backwards.
Not that I’m an expert, but it seems obvious that in the sexual practice known as “teabagging”, the “teabagger” is the one taking the action, that is, he(she) is the one sucking on the mans scrotum. This would make the “teabaggee” the one whose scrotum is being sucked.
Sorry, and like I said, I appreciate your motive, but this would just make our side look stupid about a simple linguistic thing, which is exactly the sort of thing that would play into their hands.
The first time I heard the term was in relation to multiplayer shoot-em-up games. After killing your opponent and while standing over the body you hit the “kneel” button to add insult to injury. Your opponent, powerless to stop you, has to watch himself be teabagged.
http://www.avclub.com/articles/april-22-2009,26946/
“To teabag someone, you need a scrotum with which to teabag them: The teabagger dips sack; a teabaggee receives dipped sack.”
I have admitted I was wrong; scroll up.
That is fantastic!
I may be the teabagger, and you may be the teabagee, but the real question is, which one of us has the balls to stand up for freedom and what is right?
More importantly, which have the requisite tools?
Taxed Enough Already, Bought A Gun, Got Excellent Rifle!
http://www.softgreenglow.com/wp/2009/07/holiday-tees/
It would work OK, IMHO, if you took out the “I guess that make’s you the Teabaggee” part, so that it just read:
===
Go ahead and call us Teabaggers.
(Limited Government) (Fiscal Responsibility)
Taste what you have been missing.
===
Then the backwardsness becomes much less obvious.
Even better, again IMHO, would be to make the whole thing more subtle by taking out the “Go ahead and call us Teabaggers” part, but leave in the two balls and the “Taste what you have been missing” line (which is great, BTW.) This would make the whole thing more PG, because you would no longer be using the term “Teabagger”, but would only be subtly referring to it, as innuendo. There would be plausible deniablity for the tender social conservatives, but cool innuendo for the libertarians. Just this:
===
(Limited Government) (Fiscal Responsibility)
Taste what you have been missing
===
Now THAT would really be great.
Hope you don’t mind the criticism, Doing this allows a great idea to be improved by an Internet horde. Of course, you could disagree with everything I’ve said.
You’re just wrong. Admit it.
I just did: scroll up.
Dude… Check the time stamps. I wrote that before you admitted it.
I’m not trying to rag on you or anything,
I know; we were cross-posting. Peace.
Yeah, I can see where you are coming from. It doesn’t help that, on top of my complete lack of subtlety as an artist, I love crude humor. The PDF should be editable in Adobe Illustrator should anyone want to tone it down a bit. I heartily appreciate the comments.
Props to you
I’m no linguistic expert when it comes to this stuff, but according to the Urban dictionary, ‘teabagger’ is the do-er, which would make the reciever the ‘tea-bagee’. So you seem to be right on with your choice of terms.
The idea is cute and I love the mixed edgy, serious and slightly vulgar elements.
Good for you – I hope some slightly daring protesters adopt your idea.
(My sign simply had the words ‘Power to the People’ and a (70’s style) fist and at the bottom ‘Not the Government’ – I liked the simple small government message combined with the throwback to 70’s hippie radicalism.
Well, OK then – Re: Urban Dictionary, I never thought to check that august resource. Mea culpa. It seems strange to me, but apparently the guy on the receiving end is considered the doer. Seems linguistly backwards, but who am I to argue with Urban Dictionary?
Fine then, nevermind (although I still think the option of using innuendo instead of outright reference is worth considering.)
In my defense, think about BJ’s. Who’s the BJ-er, and who’s the BJ-ee? I thought teabagging worked the same way. I was wrong.
Hey, apparently Anderson Cooper also got it wrong when he said “It’s hard to talk when you’re teabagging”. If Urban Dictionary (etc.) is right, it should be EASY to talk when you’re teabagging.
I don’t agree… I’m all for reverse humor and so forth, but I don’t think this is a good idea. We’re supposed to be better than the other side. One of the (many) reasons to object to the slurs aimed at us by the liberals is that we don’t want to have to explain to children why the idiot hippie wannabe thinks that it’s funny to call the protesters “teabaggers.”
Once we adopt the term, in any way, it gives them free range to use it, and we get brought down to their level.
There’s a lot to be said for this argument.
Yeah, but It’s still so much fun to think this stuff up (or read it if you weren’t clever enough yourself…)
(Note, my sign was clean ‘Power to the People – Not the Government’ – clean, but not as much fun…)
Love it! – I don’t know that I’ll use it for the April 15th Tea Party in Houston, but it’s definitely going on my Facebook page.
“the seathing cauldron… er, teapot of hate”
I think the term you’re searching for is “scrotum” as in “the seething scrotum of hate in the press and on the left” I read somewhere that the term teabagger as a pejorative for participants of Tea Party rallies was Anderson “Mr. Teabag” Cooper. Probably the only thing he’ll be remembered for.
teabagger or teabagee – Neither, thank you. I would sooner support Mitt Romney than be associated at all with a group of right wing , reactionary nimrods.
Nooooo!! – My previous comment (mentioning the Urban Dictionary) was to say that you were correct – the teabagger gives and the teabagee recieves. No mea culpas – you were correct all along. Please take another look at what I said – I think you interpreted it to mean I was saying that you were wrong- what I was saying was that (according to my understanding and the dictionary) you were right. Take back that mea culpa and stand proud!
🙂
Teh teabaggers are a movement that wraps themselves in ignorance. It’s about fear and distaste of the educated. It’s people who think Science is an “opinion.” It’s the rabid fear-mongering and shameless demonization of anyone they disagree with.
There may be some valid ideas and beefs, but once you start throwing out “Communist”, “Nazi” (how could anyone be BOTH??!?!) or comparing the President to Timothy McVeigh, you’ve lost the debate. Bye. Thanks for playing. Come back and try and again when you’ve taken care of that frothing at the mouth problem.
Personally, I like to wrap myself in a bathrobe made of bacon, sit by the fire and read the scintillating poetry of Danielle Steele.
I’m educated (Ph.D) and I sympathize with the tea-partiers and have been following thier progress (online) for a year now – so there goes the premise about uneducated. Next, it is easy to equate Nazis and communists since they were both totalitarian regimes wherein the state claimed total control of the economy and society under the guise of supporting the proletariat. Also, perhaps you weren’t aware that NAZI was an acronym for national SOCIALISTS? That concludes the information segment of my post, now for the ad hominem attacks – you’re an idiot. And if you support the current administration you must be a socialist, making you both enumerate and driven by envy. Please don’t vote anymore – or reproduce.
Appalling display – The ignorance you exhibited in your post is astounding. Try doing a little research or at least thinking before you post.
Paging Dr. Freud – Wow…..
Your post is a textbook care of Freudian projection.
hostory lesson – Dear genius; next you’ll be spouting off about “racism”! Your comments are the only frothing at the mouth going on here. Communism and Nazism are quite similar – collectivization, nationalization of major industries, stringent adherence to and promotion of party proaganda, wealth redistribution – want to hear more, or are we already sick of discussing the actual subjects broght up in your rant? These are all hallmarks of recent federal policy, so these “epithets” are not out of line unless one is ignorant. The reason the Nazis and Communists fought so hard against each other in the world wars is not because they are at opposite ends of the political spectrum. It is because they were fighting for the same base. It continues to amaze me that 1- liberals are miserable even when they control the world, and 2- dissent is only accepted by liberals when it agrees with their warped world view.
Ironic in your ignorance… How funny it is that in the same paragraph you decry ignorance and ‘frothing at the mouth’ – right after ignorantly frothing at the mouth in your ‘rabid fear-mongering and shameless demonization of anyone YOU disagree with.’
Sweetly ironic that you’re totally oblivious to your ridiculousness, haha.
Do better – I find “teabaggee” to be a poor choice. It cannot be pronounced elegantly – this term will never slide smoothly into a conversation. It’s obviously a construction made for the sole purpose of responding to the pejorative “teabagger”, and so gives one the image of schoolboy taunts and equally playground-grade responses.
I suggest “teacup”, as in “Anderson, you’re such a metro teacup.”
Too much! – It’s way too contrived to become a slogan. It’s too much information to get to your point. Simplify. Just draw some balls and print “I got balls” under it. That would be far more informative and appropriate.
TeaBaggers? Who’s term?
What’s with all the tea-bagging comments? I know about the “Tea Party” movement. I think it’s great that people who don’t usually get involved in politics except for voting are now exercising their First Amendment “right of the people peacefully to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. This is something we should all appreciate – a grass-roots movement of ordinary people joining together to let their representatives know their thoughts about their governing. They gathered so that “The People’s voice” could be heard. They chose to honor our Founding Fathers who, over 200-years earlier and at considerable risk to their lives, did an act of civil disobedience to protest acts by those who were in power. Their act of disobedience became known as “The Boston Tea Party”, and is a part of our History of how we managed to get Britain to go back across the pond and leave us alone. The message then was, “We are America, DON’T TREAD ON US! This warning has been adopted again by today’s Patriots.
Hearing the slur, “TEA BAGGER”, I had no idea what the charge meant, neither did my friends. I had to find a progressive to explain it to me. I told him that I hated to be judgmental, but most of my friends would find that kind of behavior perverse and would want to stay from it. But I did promise that even though we didn’t go for that kind of stuff, if I ever heard of anything like that I would let him where it was happening so he could get invlved. Did I do wrong?
The poor boy seemed so taken with these “Tea Baggers”. He seems to know all about them. I hope he finds some soon.
This is the most unitentionally hilarious message thread I’ve read in a long time. When I got it from a twitter feed I thought it was the usual wingnut tea party rants. But no way! The back and forth about balls, and who the “teabagger” and “teabaggee” is…hysterical!!!! Thanks for brightening my evening!
I’d like to think I am helping put the nut back in wingnut.
Dear Gomez
Here’s a suggestion:
Fix your thread so it just displays comments in line as they are posted (including replies to previous posts). It is impossible to follow the discussion chronologically the way you have it set up.
Would be a big improvement.
You’ll have to excuse the mess. I have gone from one or two visitors to several thousand in a matter of days and have never had anyone really comment on anything. Threaded comments setting apparently isn’t very easy to follow. I’m playing with the settings to see if I can get something better.
“Teabagger” = “You have Balls!”
You call us ‘Teabaggers’ ? You are stupidly asserting that WE are the ones WITH THE BALLS in this conversation.” Instead of calling us Teabaggers you might have just said “You have BALLS!”
Now that’s a putdown, isn’t it! Idiots.