Just the Funny Bits: Teabagging

You would have to be living in a cave (with no wifi) this week to not have heard the term "teabagging" at least 100 times. Fox News and some other right wing groups organized "tea parties" on tax day, to protest taxes and big government. Without barrels of loose tea around to dump into harbors, landlocked protesters took to throwing or wearing old tea bags. Many protesters talked about "teabagging Barack Obama" without knowledge of the terms common street (or bedroom) usage. 

(Ok, some of them knew.)

MSNBC got on board early with the mocking. Rachel Maddow and a guest spent a good ten minutes trying to cram the words "tea bagging" as many time as possible into one segment without giggling, and David Shuster quipped the winning pun, "if you are planning simultaneous tea bagging all around the country, you're going to need a Dick Armey." Ahhh yes, that one was good. The Daily Show even mused that MSNBC was the new Daily Show, with Jon Stewart refusing to go back to waiting tables. I wouldn't worry Jon, your scrotal humor crown is in no danger, not with hilarious field reporting the likes of John Oliver's on Thursday night. (I have the full episode here, John Oliver's is the second segment.)

I thought for sure the Daily Show had put the tea bag to rest (it's had a busy week), but not so. Today I find people [BoingBoing] going to the tea bagging source, who is apparently John Waters, to ask where the term originates. 

JOHN WATERS: "Teabagging" is by my definition the act of dragging your testicles across your partner's forehead. In the UK it is dipping your testicles in your partner's mouth. I didn't invent the term or the act but DID introduce it to film in my movie "Pecker." "Teabagging" was a popular dance step that male go-go boys did to their customers for tips at The Atlantis, a now defunct bar in Baltimore. Hope this helps. -- John Waters

John Waters is always so full of helpful answers to sleazy questions! Here's a clip from what is one of our family favorites, Pecker [also BoingBoing], if you didn't make it to the protests, you get a chance to see some tea bagging in action. (See it's so hard not to make a bad joke!)