E.T The Game

[SSBBFan101]

everyone says that this game is the worst game of all time, so the buried them in the new mexico desert. has anyone like went into the desert and like seen the game on the ground or somthing? or any one else other than u, or a link to a blog that says something like that?

 

[DBloke]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._the_Extra-Terrestrial_%28Atari_2600%29

Even with a rushed game in hand, Atari anticipated enormous sales based on the popularity of the film, as well as the enormous boom the video game industry was experiencing in 1982. By the time the game was complete, so little time was left before the game's desired ship-date that Atari skipped audience testing for the cartridge altogether.[8] Emanual Gerard, who served as co-chief operating officer of Warner at the time, later suggested that the company had been lulled into a false sense of security by the success of its previous releases, particularly its home video version of Pac-Man, which sold extremely well despite poor critical reaction.[9]
Additionally, Atari had expected the game would perform well simply because, the previous October, it had demanded its retailers place orders in advance for the entire year. At that time, Atari had dominated the software and hardware market, and was routinely unable to fill orders. At first, retailers responded by placing orders for more supplies than they actually expected to sell, but gradually, as new competitors began to enter the market, Atari started receiving an increasing number of order cancellations, for which the company was not prepared.[10][9]
While the game did sell well (it ranks as the eighth-best selling Atari cartridge of all time),[6] only 1.5 million of the 4 million cartridges produced were sold.[6] It is an often-stated bit of misinformation that more copies of E.T. were produced than Atari 2600 consoles owned; however, 12 million copies of Pac-Man were produced at a time when Atari research showed that there were about 10 million consoles owned.[11] Despite reasonable sales figures, the quantity of unsold merchandise coupled with the expensive movie license caused E.T. to be a massive financial failure for Atari.
This game was one of many decisions that led to the bankruptcy of Atari, which posted a $536 million loss in 1983, and was divided and sold in 1984.

In September 1983, the Alamogordo Daily News of Alamogordo, New Mexico reported in a series of articles that between ten and twenty[20] semi-trailer truckloads of Atari boxes, cartridges, and systems from an Atari storehouse in El Paso were crushed and buried at the landfill within the city. It was Atari's first dealings with the landfill, which was chosen because no scavenging was allowed and its garbage was crushed and buried nightly. Atari's stated reason for the burial was that they were changing from Atari 2600 to Atari 5200 games,[21] but this was later contradicted by a worker who claimed that this was not the case.[22] Atari official Bruce Enten stated that Atari was mostly sending broken and returned cartridges to the Alamogordo dump and that it was "by-and-large inoperable stuff."[23]
On September 28, 1983, The New York Times reported on the story of Atari's dumping in New Mexico. An Atari representative confirmed the story for them, stating that the discarded inventory came from Atari's plant in El Paso, Texas, which was being closed and converted to a recycling facility. [24]The Times article did not suggest any of the specific game titles being destroyed, but subsequent reports have generally linked the story of the dumping to the well-known failure of E.T. Additionally, the headline "City to Atari: 'E.T.' trash go home" in one edition of the Alamogordo News implies that the cartridges were E.T.[23] As a result, it is widely speculated that most of Atari's millions of unsold copies of E.T. ultimately wound up in this landfill, crushed and encased in cement.[25]
Starting on September 29, 1983, a layer of concrete was poured on top of the crushed materials, a rare occurrence in waste disposal. An anonymous workman's stated reason for the concrete was: "There are dead animals down there. We wouldn't want any children to get hurt digging in the dump."[26]
Eventually, the city began to protest the large amount of dumping Atari was doing; a sentiment summed up by commissioner Guy Gallaway with, "We don't want to be an industrial waste dump for El Paso."[23] Local manager Jack Keating ordered the dumping to be ended shortly afterwards. Due to Atari's unpopular dumping, Alamogordo later passed an Emergency Management Act and created the Emergency Management Task Force to limit the future flexibility of the garbage contractor to secure outside business for the landfill for monetary purposes. Mayor Henry Pacelli commented that, "We do not want to see something like this happen again."[26]
The story of the buried cartridges has become a popular urban legend, which in turn has led some people to believe that the story is not true. As recently as October 2004, Warshaw himself expressed doubts that the destruction of millions of copies of E.T. ever took place, citing his belief that Atari would have recycled the parts instead in order to save money.[19]

 

[Darkonix]

Ditto what Prinny said. A game made in 5 weeks..
E.T. Is the scariest creature ever created!@!

 

[DBloke]

Ditto what Prinny said. A game made in 5 weeks..
E.T. Is the scariest creature ever created!@!

Think of bedroom coders
It can take them a week to code (im talkin way back here)
And those shameless movie tieins that come out just as the film comes out

 

[LilWiiWii]

My father might still have this game, Think its worth anything?

 

[DBloke]

I dont think so

 

[Conan the Librarian]

instead of copying and pasting Wiki.......I'll answer your questions as follows,

-they were crushed in the landfill to prevent looting,

-it is worth its weight in feces

-when I used to get dropped off at the baby sitter when I was about 6 or 7, this is one of the games they had at the house I went to. I would go through all the games and stumbled upon E.T.. I popped it in, and low and behold, it WAS the shittiest game ever made. I WAS 6 YEARS OLD!!!! and I was still like "whoah, whoever made this game did NOT know wtf they were doing". The game is like a giant accident. I laughed at the game then and I laugh at it now. The fact that it is incomplete/rushed/total bullshit sticks out like bullocks on a bulldog.

 

[supanova]

It may sound rare but they have plenty of copies of ebay.

Rejoice!

 

[Conan the Librarian]

It probably IS worth the 4 dollars to play a piece of gaming history. However, anybody making money from selling E.T. 25 years after it was released, is going to hell.

 

[My god the Wii owns...]

instead of copying and pasting Wiki.......I'll answer your questions as follows,

-they were crushed in the landfill to prevent looting,

-it is worth its weight in feces

-when I used to get dropped off at the baby sitter when I was about 6 or 7, this is one of the games they had at the house I went to. I would go through all the games and stumbled upon E.T.. I popped it in, and low and behold, it WAS the shittiest game ever made. I WAS 6 YEARS OLD!!!! and I was still like "whoah, whoever made this game did NOT know wtf they were doing". The game is like a giant accident. I laughed at the game then and I laugh at it now. The fact that it is incomplete/rushed/total bullshit sticks out like bullocks on a bulldog.

No you didn't.

 

[supanova]

No you didn't.

Why do you question Mr. Librarian?

 

[DBloke]

Why do you question Mr. Librarian?

Ok
Have you got that epic book by that guy that wrights about epic things in a none epic way

 

[Conan the Librarian]

Ok
Have you got that epic book by that guy that wrights about epic things in a none epic way

yes, I have that book. I didnt think I was being that epic......................I dont know, copying and pasting 400 words from wiki everytime any subject is brought up is pretty epic...........

Prinny
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Prinny
Prinny

Prinnies are a fictional race of creatures in Nippon Ichi's turn based strategy RPGs. They are usually found in the various realms of the company's numerous strategy games, making their first appearance in Disgaea: Hour of Darkness.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Characteristics
* 2 Variations
* 3 Game appearances
* 4 Anime appearances
* 5 External links

Characteristics

A prinny resembles a small, usually blue, pouch-wearing penguin with disproportionately small bat wings and two peg legs where feet would normally be. When thrown, it explodes on impact. A common trait of the prinnies is their upbeat attitude and frequent use of the word "dood" (as an interjection - they constantly end their sentences with "-ssu" in the Japanese dialogue).

According to the game Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, when a human who has led a worthless life (e.g. a thief or murderer) dies, the soul is sewn into the body of a prinny. After being reborn, the newly created prinny will serve as a soldier, slave, or servant in the Netherworld or Celestia until it has earned reincarnation, and leave its servitude in a ritual involving the Red Moon.

In Celestia, prinnies mostly act as maids and domestic servants. The good deeds they do there lead to their reincarnation. In the Netherworld, depending on the lord they serve, they can have horrible after-lives doing excessively hard labor for very little pay, often thrown around just for fun. The money they earn in the Netherworld goes towards their reincarnation.

Prinnies use Machetes as their primary weapons, and occasionally bombs in team attacks. They can also summon a gigantic energy beam known as the "Pringer Beam". In the anime "Makai Senki Disgaea", based off the game Disgaea: Hour of Darkness the prinnies' weaponry is reduced to fish. They keep their arsenal of weapons and various other items in their pouches.

Some prinnies live in a place called "Prinny Land." It is their own world in which prinnies do not explode when thrown. Some prinnies flee there to escape their lives in the Netherworld, and some may have rebelled or have been banished there.

While rarely mentioned in the game, Prinnies have been known to dispense a beverage known as "Prinny Juice". While few know what this fluid actually contains, most surmise that it is literal "Prinny Juice", given Etna's cruel nature.

Another place prinnies can be found is "The Land of Carnage." These prinnies live for battle and look down on new comers. While prinnies manage all shops and such, an old friend can be found here too. Prinny Kurtis makes a comeback as a Land of Carnage ONLY character. While the player can summon Kurtis with cell phones and pass some bills from the EDF (Earth Defense Forces) to help him out, it is not needed to get Kurtis. In the Land of Carnage, the prinnies call warriors who fight hundreds of thousands of battles "Shura." Rumor has it, there is a prinny who lives in the LoC longer than anyone else and is the master of the land.

Variations

There are many different variations of prinnies. Some are just different colors to show their ranks, while others are humans or demons that had enough will to keep some of their physical characteristics.

There are five basic ranks of prinnies. The ranks are similar to a hierarchy starting with Privates, and continuing onto Captains, Generals, Kings, and Gods. Each is a different color. The Prinny God also acts as the leader of Prinny land.

The Prinny Squad is the group of prinnies under Etna's command in Disgaea and Disgaea 2. They serve under her purely out of fear, and even leave her when she becomes no threat to them. She constantly tortures them, and even uses them as chairs.
Big Sis Prinny
Big Sis Prinny

"Big Sis Prinny" is a large red Prinny that stands out in Etna's group in Disgaea. She seems significantly different, lacking the mannerisms of speech that normal Prinnies have. Instead, she speaks in a soft, motherly voice. She gives advice to Flonne and soothes Laharl into letting his servants go into their proper lives being reincarnated at the red moon. She reveals that the sin in life which doomed her to prinnihood was that she took her own life. Laharl realizes that she was his mother after seeing her human form.
Prinny Kurtis
Prinny Kurtis

Kurtis becomes a prinny after sacrificing himself. As a prinny, he becomes green to match his previous hair color, and retains some of his cybernetic parts, allowing him to use most of his abilities. His face shows more emotion than a regular prinny. His eyes are given an angry expression while his beak is slightly longer, also showing anger. At the end of Disgaea, he was shown to pass on at the Red Moon, but in Disgaea 2, he was shown to still be acting out his duties as a defender of Earth in his prinny form.

Uber Prinny is the form that Baal takes after dying . It is much stronger than a regular one. It keeps his evil growl and leaves explosions with each strike of its knives. All of Baal's equipment is max leveled as well as all of his prinny moves. Watch out, because his moves have more range than normal prinny moves. As an example, Prinny Barrage has a five target cross patern instead of a single target attack range.

Pringer X is a very strong robotic prinny. It was first shown to be an imaginary being shown in Etna's false chapter previews in Disgaea with a mention of its reincarnation, Pringer Z. The real thing showed up in Phantom Brave after the defeat of Baal. It is a robotic looking black prinny with two antennas sticking out of its head, glowing red eyes, a marking on its stomach and a cape.

Game appearances

Prinnies have appeared in almost every major Nippon Ichi video game, with minor differences:

* In the game Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, prinnies follow a ranking system, starting at Private Prinny and moving up to Prinny Captain, General, King, Prinny God, and finally the "Uber Prinny". Prinnies are usually under Etna's control. When thrown at a target they explode with a great force, unless in Prinny Land where they do not. The final class of Prinny in Disgaea, the Prinny God, is immune to status effects. Prinny is the only class that doesn't have a 6th 'subclass' in it's class, the highest, the 5th, being Prinny God. It is assumed that the 6th class is actually the 'Uber Prinny', which Prinny Baal is, although it's not unlockable. This is later remedied with a class in-between Prinny and Prinny God in Makai Kingdom (Phantom Brave did not use a 'subclass' system)
* In the game Phantom Brave, Prinnies are allowed to use all weapons, but have a less story-backed role. However, "Pringer X" serves as the final challenge of the bonus storyline. Phantom Brave's Prinnies cause explosions upon being summoned or unsummoned-these explosions do not injure the Prinny itself.
* In Makai Kingdom: Chronicles Of The Sacred Tome, another Nippon Ichi game, the weaponry available to a prinny is expanded to include expertise with shovels and wrenches. In this game prinnies actually have one of the highest non-special class TEC stats in the game, making them among the best suited for using guns and vehicles. TEC is the hardest of the three attack stats to buff and thus becomes less useful as the game progresses. Also, if the player takes the time to earn it, the final rank of the class ("Prinny God") is immune to negative status effects. Also in Makai Kingdom, the Prinnies do not explode when thrown.
* In Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories, the prinnies lead the "Dark Court" and are responsible for judging the party's crimes, of which a guilty verdict will always be passed. In general the felonies applied by the Dark Court are to the player's benefit but if one wants to remove them from a character for various reasons then the character must reincarnate as a prinny to "atone for your sins." Unlike most other incarnations, "Prinny Gods" do not have immunity to status effects.

Anime appearances

Prinnies have an expanded role in the storylines of the Anime "Makai Senki Disgaea" as compared to their role in Disgaea: Hour of Darkness.

External links

* Official Disgaea English Website
* Prinny Desktop Pet


v • d • e
Disgaea video games

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness • Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories • Disgaea 3
Makai Senki Disgaea
Characters

pwned

 

[Mike-Dix]

The artest formaly known as prinny can do that to

Wanker is a pejorative term of British origin, common in Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, and gaining usage in Canada and the United States. It initially referred to "one who masturbates" but has since become a general insult. It is synonymous with tosser and toss-pot. In parts of the UK the word 'tosser' and its other forms have become so widespread that it isn't generally regarded as a swear word and is socially acceptable in general conversation.

Contents [hide]
1 Meaning
2 Wanker in other contexts
3 Usage
4 References
5 Further reading



[edit] Meaning
Wanker literally means "one who wanks" (masturbates). It is normally intended as a general insult rather than as an accusation. Wanker has similar meanings and overtones to American pejoratives like "jerk",[1] "jerk-off", and "prick". One particular connotation is of someone self-obsessed or a show-off (usually male).[2]

The term "wanker" originated from British slang in the 1940s, based on the verb "wank".[3] By the 1970s, the general meaning of wanker had shifted from its literal origin (as a masturbator) to that of a generic insult;[4] for example, "a contemptible person". This shift in usage is comparable to that of "dick" or "jerk." A common use is in the chant "The Referee's a Wanker", or "Who's the wanker in the black?", used by football supporters to express disapproval towards a referee.

In Australia the word has developed a metaphorical usage, in which to wank or to be a wanker implies egotistical and self-indulgent behaviour. This meaning is used in phrases like smug wanker, egotistical wanker or pretentious wanker.[5] Wanker is sometimes used to refer to a person in the same way as snob for subjects perceived as pretentious; for instance, wine wanker, fashion wanker, car wanker.[6] This meaning is shown in Whatareya?, a song by TISM, which contrasts "yobs" (uncouth working class) to "wankers" (which according to the context means pretentious intellectuals). In the United States the current usage of the term is more in reference to the person being an idiot or moron, as opposed to the standard dick or jerk synonym in other countries.


The wanker gestureWanker may be indicated by a one-handed gesture, usually to an audience out of hearing range.[7] It is shown by curling the fingers of the hand into a loose fist and moving the hand back and forth to mime male masturbation. This is equivalent to saying, "[you are a] wanker". Some motorists show the wanking gesture in front of the rear-view mirror, where other motorists from behind can see the gesture.

Wanker is the centre of a popular story regarding the TV quiz show Countdown in which contestants have to form the longest word possible from nine randomly selected letters. On one occasion the letters permitted the spelling of 'wanker' (or 'wankers') and both contestents replied with the word, leading one to quip "we've got a pair of wankers." The sequence was edited out of the show (as is common with risqué words, although the spelling of 'erection' was permitted) but has been shown as an outtake on other shows.[8]

'The Winker's Song (Misprint)' by Ivor Biggun is one of many songs about masturbation. It humorously describes the singer's masturbation exploits: "I'm a wanker, I'm a wanker. And it does me good like it bloody well should." It reached number 22 in the UK charts despite being banned by BBC Radio 1.[9]


[edit] Wanker in other contexts
Wanker is also a German surname; according to the 1990 census, "Wanker" is the 53,492nd most common surname in the United States.[10] Several American TV shows have used this surname, either referring to or in ignorance of its other meaning. The sitcom Married... with Children featured a character whose maiden name was Wanker, who was from a fictitious Wanker county in Wisconsin. An episode of Mork & Mindy featured a character called Arnold Wanker and aired unedited on UK television. An inept stuntman in the Australian Paul Hogan Show was called Leo Wanker, a double entendre playing on a local impression of Leo (the Starsign) – egotistical and self-indulgent, with the equivalent in the Australian sense of a Wanker – self-indulgent and egotistical.

Wanker can also have other meanings, depending on context. Some American college students use it as a slang term for penis. This usage implies that the purpose of the penis is for masturbation[11]


[edit] Usage
In December 2000, research published by the Advertising Standards Authority into attitudes of the British public to pejoratives ranked wanker as the fourth most severe pejorative in English.[12] The BBC describes it as 'moderately offensive' and 'almost certain' to generate complaints if used before the watershed.[13] In Australia it is considered mildly offensive but is widely accepted and used in the media.[14] Big Brother UK 2006 winner, Pete Bennett, who has Tourette syndrome uses the word "Wankers" in the majority of his verbal tics.[citation needed] For some, this word has become less offensive as a result of hearing him say it so much.[citation needed]


[edit] References
^ Etherington, Mike: The very Best of British The American's guide to speaking British
^ Ludowyk, Frederick: Anatomy of Swearing
^ Online Etymology Dictionary
^ Broader use of term esp. Aus
^ http://au.geocities.com/austlingsoc/proceedings/als2003/stollznow.pdf
^ http://au.geocities.com/austlingsoc/proceedings/als2003/stollznow.pdf
^ Etherington, Mike: The very Best of British The American's guide to speaking British
^ snopes.com: Countdown
^ yearsofgold.org.uk
^ 1990 US Census
^ Cameron, Deborah 'Naming of Parts: Gender, Culture, and Terms for the Penis among American College Students' in American Speech Vol. 67, No. 4 p372
^ Delete expletives?. Advertising Standards Authority. Retrieved on January 6, 2007. (pdf)
^ BBC - Editorial guidelines, definition of offensive language (accessed 2007-01-20)
^ http://au.geocities.com/austlingsoc/proceedings/als2003/stollznow.pdf

[edit] Further reading
Karen Stollznow, 2004, Whinger! Wowser! Wanker! Aussie English: Deprecatory language and the Australian ethos. In Christo Moskovsky (ed), Proceedings of the 2003 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society. [1]
Jenny Cheshire, 1991, English Around the World: sociolinguistic perspectives. Published by Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521395658.
Anthony McEnery and Tony McEnery, 2005 ,Swearing in English: Bad Language, Purity and Power from 1586 to the Present. Published by Routledge, ISBN 0415258375.
Etymology online [2]
19 November 1996. "Wanker." The Mavens' Word of the Day. Random House, Inc. [3]
Websters Online Dictionary: Wanker
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanker"
Categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since August 2007 | Profanity | Sexual slang | Pejorative terms for people

It is used as follows
You are a wanker

 

[Conan the Librarian]

Thanks man, try this one.....and dont steel my clever ideas or jokes.

the "artest" can do that "to"? I thought you guys invented our language, why dont you treat it with respect?

Faggot (epithet)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
A Westboro Baptist Church demonstration's picket signs, using the word as an epithet
A Westboro Baptist Church demonstration's picket signs, using the word as an epithet
Look up faggot in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Faggot or fag, in modern North American and Australian English usage, is a generally pejorative term for a homosexual or effeminate man. Its use has spread to varying extents elsewhere in the English-speaking world.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Etymology
* 2 British meanings
o 2.1 "Faggot"
o 2.2 "Fag"
o 2.3 The American meaning in Britain
* 3 Earliest written uses
* 4 Usage in popular culture
* 5 Usage by religion publications
* 6 See also
* 7 References
* 8 External links

Etymology

The origins of the word in this sense are rather obscure.

One historical meaning of the word faggot, "a bundle of sticks for burning", is not likely to have been a reference to homosexuals, since burning at the stake was never a punishment for homosexuality in England, making the connection of the two an urban legend.[1]

The Yiddish word faygele, lit. "little bird", is claimed by some as the origin of the word. The similarity in form and pronumciation in English between the two words makes this quite likely to be true, although if not, it may have served as a reinforcing effect.[2]

The word has also been used since the late sixteenth century to mean "old or unpleasant woman", and this would appear to be a likely derivation.[3] Female terms, it should be noted, are often used with reference to homosexual or effeminate men (cf. nancy, sissy, queen). The application of the term to old women may possibly be a shortening of the term "faggot-gatherer", applied in the nineteenth century to people, especially older widows, who made a meagre living by gathering and selling firewood.[4] It may also derive from the sense of "something awkward to be carried", an etymology that is more plausible if one considers the use of "baggage" as a pejorative term for old women.[5]

An obsolete reference from the British 17th-century refers to a "man hired into military service simply to fill out the ranks at muster".

British meanings

"Faggot"

The primary traditional meaning of the word is indeed 'a bundle of sticks for burning' . Another meaning, especially common in Wales and the Black Country, is a kind of pork meatball covered in gravy. See Faggot (food).

The word faggot is occasionally used in parts of Britain to denote a silly or foolish person, presumably as an extension of its earlier association with old women. In the pilot episode of the 1960s British comedy In Loving Memory from Yorkshire Television, undertaker Jeremiah Unsworth is killed in an accident at work. After the funeral, widow Ivy receives the condolences of her old friend Amy Jenkins, who says, "He heard the call. He answered it. And he fell in the line of duty. No man can ask for a better epitaph than that." Ivy thanks her, says good-bye, and then turns to her nephew, Billy, as soon as the door is shut and says in reference to Amy, "Silly old faggot! 'He heard the call?' 'He answered it?' The only call your Uncle Jeremiah ever heard was, 'Time, Gentlemen, please!'."

"Fag"

In British English the term fag (though not faggot) most commonly means a cigarette. A military marching song popular with the British army during the First World War featured the line "while there's a Lucifer (matchstick) to light your fag...". This is derived from the original meaning (OED 1) of "fag-end" :"the last part of a piece of cloth", which by extension became used (OED 2, 1st citation 1612) for "the last part or portion of anything". When cigarettes were invented, this was applied to the unsmoked part, and then came to mean the whole cigarette. But the various historic British uses of "fag" and "faggot" were always distinct.

"Fag" was a term used for a junior boy who acted as a servant for a senior boy at Eton College, near Eton, Berkshire, and other British public schools. This practice, known as "fatigue duty", shortened to "fagging", was ended in the 1970s. Since the homosexual meaning was not common in the UK at this time and seems to have been first attached to faggot, not fag, this is not a likely origin for the American use of the word.

The American meaning in Britain

Originally confined to the United States, the homosexual sense of "fag" and "faggot" has been spread by American popular culture to other English-speaking countries, where it has partly displaced terms such as "queer" or the British "poof" as colloquial or abusive terms for gay men, particularly among heterosexual youth. However, the continuing use of "fag" and "faggot" with other meanings in the British isles has severely limited adoption of the American usage there.

The use of fag and faggot to mean homosexual have become understood as an Americanism in British English, primarily due to their use in films and television series imported from the United States. When Labour MP Bob Marshall-Andrews was heard supposedly using the word in a bad-tempered informal exchange with a straight colleague in the House of Commons lobby in November 2005, he was criticised for using homophobic abuse.[citation needed]

Earliest written uses

The earliest known reference to the word in print was in the 1914 Jackson and Hellyer A Vocabulary of Criminal Slang, with Some Examples of Common Usages which listed the following example under the word, drag:

"All the fagots (sissies) will be dressed in drag at the ball tonight."

The word was also used by a character in Claude McKay’s 1928 novel Home to Harlem, indicating that it was used during the Harlem Renaissance. Specifically, one character says that he can't understand:

"a bulldyking woman and a faggoty man"

Usage in popular culture

Historically, "fag" and "faggot" have been offensive terms when addressed to American males (similar to the word "*****" or "slut" to American women). However in recent years, both terms have been reclaimed by gay men in a defiant, self-consciously empowering or self-mocking way, much in the way some African Americans have taken to using the word "******" among themselves, and similar to hackers, geeks and nerds, in their respective cultures. A common example of this would be usage of the term "fag hag" to describe a woman who associates with (and may prefer as non-sexual social partners) gay men, though this use, too, was originally pejorative. When used as a pejorative, however, it is still considered by many to be a term of abuse. The term has also been used to describe lesbians or other homosexual women.

The Dire Straits song "Money for Nothing" makes notable use of the epithet "faggot", although the lines containing it is often excised for radio play, and in live performances Mark Knopfler will use such minced oaths as "mothertrucker" in place of "faggot".
Anti-gay sloganc. 1990
Anti-gay slogan
c. 1990

In the early 1990's, Sebastian Bach, lead singer of the band Skid Row, created a controversy when he wore a t-shirt with the parody slogan "Aids: Kills Fags Dead".[6]

In 1995, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey referred to openly gay congressman Barney Frank as "Barney Fag" in a press interview. [7]

On July 27, 2006 American pundit Ann Coulter said that the former Vice President of the United States (Al Gore) was a "total fag", and that former President of the United States (Bill Clinton) was a "latent homosexual", while being inteviewed by MSNBC's Chris Matthews[8]. Coulter caused a major controversy in the LGBT community; GLAAD and other gay rights organizations demanded to know the reason why such an offensive usage of the word was permitted by the network.

In October 2006, Grey's Anatomy star Isaiah Washington called his co-star T.R. Knight a "faggot" on the set during an argument with Patrick Dempsey. According to Knight, the incident led to him publicly coming out of the closet.[9] Washington again made another outburst using the epithet, this time backstage at the Golden Globe Awards. In January 2007, Washington issued a public apology for using the word "faggot" and went into rehab to help him with what the show's creator Shonda Rimes referred to as "his behavioral issues."[10]

On March 1, 2007, Ann Coulter again created a controversy when she made an off-color joke: "I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot,' so I'm kind of at an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards..."[11][5] Her comments using the "f-word" has triggered a huge response, including a campaign initiated by a gay rights group and media watchdog to persuade mainstream media outlets to dump her for good. There is now an on-line petition with 40,000 signatures to pressure Universal Press Syndicate and newspapers that publish Coulter's words to drop her.[12]

Usage by religion publications

The New Oxford Review, a Catholic magazine, caused controversy by its use and defense of the word in an editorial. During the correspondence between the editors and a homosexual reader, the editors clarified that they would only use the word to describe a practicing homosexual. They defended the use of the word, saying that it was important to preserve the social stigma of homosexuality, which the word preserves.[13]

See also

* homosexuality
* hate speech
* hate mail