#14 Why is it called "SPAM"?!

Was not ready to know spam came from here?! Such a CRAZY story behind this word..

#14 Why is it called "SPAM"?!
Photo by Hannes Johnson / Unsplash


You are reading a not at all spammy, 14th edition of our fun + informative APH newsletter :)

WELCOMEEE, curious cat!

Every Wednesday, we share:

  • 🤯 A WOAHHH! fact
  • 💭 A Quiz for you (with the answer at the end)
  • 🤗 An Arey Pata Hai?! Update
  • 🎁 BONUS
  • ❤️ A Comment that made our week

If you love our quizzes, you will love our Quiz-Wiz eBook . More details in BONUS section.

🤯 WOAHHH! fact

SPAM is actually a meat brand. 

Yup, you read it right.

But how did a food brand come to mean “useless mailon”???

The origin of the brand name “SPAM” is a secret by its parent company - Hormel Foods. 

It's only known to a small circle of former employees.

Popular belief says it’s a contraction of the words “SPiced hAM”

This seems believable, considering their initial package looks like this:


It has also been speculated as an acronym for "Shoulder of Pork And Ham."

But their current website says this:

Anyway, let Hormel keep its secret. 

But SPAM meat became SPAM mail because of this famous skit. 

This skit was made in the 1970s by Monty Python's Flying Circus - a very popular British comedy series which aired on the BBC.

In this skit, the waitress in a restaurant kept saying SPAM while reading the menu. 

Yes, SPAM, as in the brand we just read about. 

That is when a group of people at the corner table started to sing a song repeating “SPAM”. 

They kept singing it till nobody in the restaurant could hear each other. 

This is how SPAM came to be known as an annoying message that keeps repeating itself and interrupts you.

Spam, referring to messages rather than the food product, was first added to the Oxford Dictionary of English in 1998.  

Meanwhile, Hormel has the trademark to use the capitalised version of the word.

In some parts of the world (China, Hawaii etc.) you will actually find McDonald's selling SPAM burgers!

........

Have you ever come across this SPAM meat?

Or did you ever find it on McD's menu?

We are vegetarians, so we really need to hear some SPAM stories.


🔫 QUIZ TIME

The opposite of Spam mail is Ham mail.

But there is an internet slang term that refers to any email that is not necessarily spam but is still not as important as Ham emails.

Eg. - Brand notifications, newsletters (ahh, nooo!) etc.

It starts with "b___" and is named so because it is just better than spam.

Can you guess what the term?


🤗 This week at APH (Arey Pata Hai?!)

We amped up our production set-up!!!

It required some monetary and time investment. Still needs more...

Mohit & Swati in action. Nipun in action behind the cam.

But already loving the lighting and audio in the upcoming episode of Burning Questions. You will see it this weekend❤️


💌 A comment that made our week

In the latest Burning Questions episode, we randomly asked people to comment these 🧡💜

We said this after we finished 2/3 facts.

We were not even sure if anyone would even listen to us till there, let alone follow our random request.

But the comment section of that video is floodeddd with 🧡💜

Made our heart so full to see these comments. You all are the BEST, curious minds🧡💜


🎁 BONUS - QUIZ-WIZ eBook

If you are reading till here and want to know the QUIZ answer, congratulations!

We have made something EXACTLY for you.

An eBook with 100 Questions & Answers!

++ loaded with interesting facts.

10 Categories with 10 questions each:

Its only for Rs.100. Read more details and get it here:

Quiz-Wiz eBook
Hand-picked 100 Quiz questions & answers for you! Added interesting explanation as well. All for Rs. 100!

✅ QUIZ answer

Bacn (pronounced like Bacon) it is!

It is called bacn because they are not quite real messages (ham) but are not quite junk either (spam).


👋 See you with another fun fact, next Wednesday 🔫

Stay weirdly curious!

You will LOVE our eBook. We will LOVE it if you purchase it mail:)

Loveeee,
Team APH 🧡💜

PS: If you did not find this mail as useless as a spam, and learned something new, hit that reply button and let us know :) 


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