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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, May 25, 2003

'Spam' linked to Monty Python skit

Los Angeles Times

Monty Python comics Terry Jones, Terry Gillam, John Cleese and Michael Palin unwittingly gave a name to the unsolicited e-mail ads now called spam.

Associated Press library photo • 1999

As electronic advertisements quickly lost their novelty, they gained a name. The term "spam" comes from Hormel's canned meat by way of a popular Monty Python skit. The setting is a cafe that insists every order come with a helping of the porky pink delicacy.

"Have you got anything without Spam?" asks a despairing customer.

"Well, there's Spam, egg, sausage and Spam," the waitress says. "That's not got much Spam in it."

In the background, a group of Vikings keeps breaking into song, repeating the word "Spam" over and over.

According to Net entrepreneur Brad Templeton's research, the word was first used by programmers to mean flooding a chat room or computer with so much data as to cause it to crash. Spontaneously and almost immediately, it was applied to the new mass advertisements that were sent over and over.