Would you believe that spam got named after a Monty Python script? We’re talking about the annoying mass emails here, not the canned food. But surprisingly the two are connected. Spam emails and spam food
How exceedingly frustrating and annoying is spam? We have all been the recipient of it in one form or the other. For most of us it usually by the way of emails, but for webmasters it come in the form of spam comments where one site aims gain a link to their own site by using comments. This improves their rank in Google, but can have a detrimental affect on the targeted website. Often the spam comments in blogs are generated in bulk and distributed to thousands of websites by the use of a computer, and just as with emails the content is exactly the same each time the computer bot hits. Spam has become such a problem that many jurisdictions have tried to curtail it, especially in regards to email marketing. Given it’s high presence in society, how many people know why spam is called spam? We can tell you that spam got it’s name from a Monty Python script.
Now it’s time to give a truncated history lesson on spam. On March 31, 1993, Usenet administrator Richard Depew inadvertently posted the same message in excess of 200 times to a discussion group. It was following this accidental posting that Usenet users coined the term for mass messaging and junk emails. While this wasn’t the first spam email sent, it was the catalyst for the naming of them. So where’s the connection between spam and a Monty Python script? In 1970 the popular British television show, Monty Python’s Flying Circus had a small segment that was set in a restaurant. The menu for the restaurant comprised of nothing more than “spam”, the canned variety, over and over again. Just like the multiple emails that are sent automatically by computer systems.
