The etymology of HURF DURF

August 13, 2008 2:55 PM

I've seen a few comments recently claiming or intimating that "HURF DURF" originated here, and I would like to set the record straight on this extremely trivial matter.

"HURF DURF" originated in the Portal Of Evil/POE-News/SexSexWorld/Old Man Murray forum culture, and was originally brought here by u.n. owen, who posted at POE-News as MusingMelpomene. I would link to early uses of the term or to the infamous MusingMelpomene "whole stick of butter" thread, but unfortunately the POE/POE-News webmaster wiped out all threads prior to January 1, 2007 due to "database problems" and thus shoved our whole history down the memory hole.

posted by DecemberBoy to MetaFilter-Related at 2:55 PM (94 comments total)

So we'll have to take your word on this, I guess?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:58 PM on August 13, 2008 [1 favorite]

I would link to early uses of the term or to the infamous MusingMelpomene "whole stick of butter" thread, but unfortunately the POE/POE-News webmaster wiped out all threads prior to January 1, 2007 due to "database problems" and thus shoved our whole history down the memory hole.

How conveeeeenient. *raises eyebrow*
posted by amyms at 3:01 PM on August 13, 2008 [1 favorite]

It's true, several other people know of this. I thought it was common knowledge but whatever.
posted by puke & cry at 3:01 PM on August 13, 2008

If you can dredge up more specific documentation (viva l'archive.org, etc), I'd be fascinated; the POE-origins of "hurf durf butter eater" I've heard, but sourcing "hurf durf" itself to that site is something I haven't seen pinned down.

This is relevant to my interests.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:02 PM on August 13, 2008

Here is the oldest extant post I can find that uses "HURF DURF". So that at least proves it's in common use there as well. All posts from late 1999 to 01/01/07 are gone.
posted by DecemberBoy at 3:03 PM on August 13, 2008

When I was putting that durfnus opus together, ikkyu2 helpfully sourced a lot of hurf-durf like stuff to Jerk City. Here's HURF search results with citations back in '98 and '99, for example. I don't really know the social history of either POE or Jerk City, or how much direct and indirect overlap there was between the two, so I'm not sure if that's really competing or collaborative citations.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:06 PM on August 13, 2008

Maybe this is a candidate for William Safire's "On Language" column?
posted by fixedgear at 3:07 PM on August 13, 2008 [10 favorites]

Good thing that's cleared up! I was worried.
posted by Brocktoon at 3:07 PM on August 13, 2008

Finally the truth is out. The massive conspiracy to cover up the truth has been revealed. Alex Jones' work is done.
posted by adamrice at 3:08 PM on August 13, 2008 [1 favorite]

Winston, don't make me break out the rat cage.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:14 PM on August 13, 2008

'kay. Thanks!
posted by desuetude at 3:15 PM on August 13, 2008

HURF DURF CITATION WEENIE
posted by GuyZero at 3:22 PM on August 13, 2008 [3 favorites]

...wiped out all threads prior to January 1, 2007 due to "database problems" and thus shoved our whole history down the memory hole.

I guess they went the way of the missing White House e-mails, amirite?
posted by ericb at 3:24 PM on August 13, 2008

He already recognizes that this is an extremely trivial matter, so I don't see any reason to bust his chops about it.
posted by Daddy-O at 3:28 PM on August 13, 2008

AT LAST OUR LONG NATIONAL NIGHTMARE IS OVER.
posted by eyeballkid at 3:30 PM on August 13, 2008 [7 favorites]

Your favorite HURF DURF origin story sucks.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 3:31 PM on August 13, 2008 [1 favorite]

I would link to early uses of the term or to the infamous MusingMelpomene "whole stick of butter" thread, but unfortunately the POE/POE-News webmaster wiped out all threads prior to January 1, 2007 due to "database problems" and thus shoved our whole history down the memory hole

What a tragedy. And I was so looking forward to reading it , too.
posted by lysistrata at 3:34 PM on August 13, 2008

When I was young, I thought I invented the word "ginormous." I thought I was pretty clever. Those were the good days.
posted by Bookhouse at 3:40 PM on August 13, 2008

I thought I invented "fugly" in 1981 or so.
posted by tristeza at 3:49 PM on August 13, 2008

I was recently using the expression with a french friend of mine. It seemed to go down particularly well with him as it sounds like 'egg of eggs' . And that, my friends, is a little poem.
posted by Jofus at 3:58 PM on August 13, 2008 [6 favorites]

Well, urbandictionary.com says that Metafilter invented it, so that settles this issue as far as I'm concerned.
posted by lukemeister at 3:59 PM on August 13, 2008 [1 favorite]

Wait ... you're saying somebody actually wants credit for this?
posted by jbickers at 4:00 PM on August 13, 2008 [2 favorites]

That's what I been tryin' ta tell you bitches from DAY ONE!
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 4:07 PM on August 13, 2008

Hurf Durf stands for "Ship High In Transit."
posted by drjimmy11 at 4:18 PM on August 13, 2008 [3 favorites]

HURF DURF HURF DURF
posted by never used baby shoes at 4:26 PM on August 13, 2008 [3 favorites]

We have discussed this before.
posted by team lowkey at 4:28 PM on August 13, 2008

(Oops. I didn't mean to link to my own comment. That's just how I found the thread again.)
posted by team lowkey at 4:31 PM on August 13, 2008

They found its body in a forest.
posted by turgid dahlia at 4:35 PM on August 13, 2008

It's one of those things like the repulsively pervasive "om nom" garbage that is merely a placeholder certain people use to indicate that they wish to be making noise, and can't be stopped from doing so, but haven't any actual signals coming down from the grey bits at the moment to structure the noisemaking process.
posted by Wolfdog at 4:35 PM on August 13, 2008 [9 favorites]

And I invented LOL. Really.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 4:36 PM on August 13, 2008 [1 favorite]

I'm not telling you what I invented, cos you'll just claim it.

Or doesn't it work that way?
posted by pompomtom at 4:43 PM on August 13, 2008

I found an older post using it from November of 2003 - apparently not all the posts on the POE side were wiped, just POE News. It was already a longstanding cliche by then.
posted by DecemberBoy at 4:53 PM on August 13, 2008

Wait a minute.

My brother used to do "HURF DUUURFFFFFF!" back in 1968.

It was his impersonation of a fat guy eating a corn dog and then getting punched, or other versions hit with a softball, in the stomach.
posted by tkchrist at 5:10 PM on August 13, 2008

I thought that I resurrected "awesome" from the 1986, returning it to the lofty status it now holds in American slang. But the truth is that -- like some verbal mullet -- "awesome" had simply maintained its hold on my vocabulary well past its sell-by date, and eventually, in spite of me, it became cool again.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 5:11 PM on August 13, 2008 [2 favorites]

It's always sounded like a Farnonism to me. Lots of HURFs, URFs, BURFs and DURFLE DER KOKKEN SUCKEN in Leisure Town. And of course, Farnon was a contributor to Jerk City at the same time.
posted by oneirodynia at 5:11 PM on August 13, 2008

MetaFilter: A likely story
posted by netbros at 5:13 PM on August 13, 2008 [2 favorites]

um. And the best of Leisure Town was 1997-2001 or thereabouts. Though I'm not prepared to go through every episode of LT right now to see if there's an actual instance of HURF DURF.
posted by oneirodynia at 5:14 PM on August 13, 2008

HURF DURF CRAPPY THREADSTARTER.
posted by loquacious at 5:18 PM on August 13, 2008

I'd be startled if this wasn't a Farnonism, given both Leisure Town and JerkCity. Although I suppose it'd be more convenient to source if we were discussing, say,

HUAGHAGHGALGHAGLHAGLHAGLHAG COCKS DURF BLUHLUHLHBLHBLHBLHBLGH BUTTER DICK EATERS

instead of HURF DURF.
posted by scrump at 5:18 PM on August 13, 2008

Jerkcity dialog search finds no matches for "hurf durf". It might have evolved from some similar JerkCity-ism, as many of the early POE posters were big JerkCity/Leisure Town fans, and inlined JerkCity strips were and still are often posted as flippant responses.
posted by DecemberBoy at 5:19 PM on August 13, 2008

Actually, Hurf Durf was a candy bar manufactured by the now-defunct Trio Matari Company of Milan, Italy in 1939. It was popular especially with Romanian troops who fought in the Eastern Front with the Germans, because Hurf was a nickname of Ion Antonescu.
posted by parmanparman at 6:05 PM on August 13, 2008 [3 favorites]

Metafilter reinvented "cabal".
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 6:37 PM on August 13, 2008

/me blinks at parmanparman.


Is he serious? I can't tell anymore. OMG GIANT ROBOTS ATTACKING AFK.
posted by loquacious at 6:52 PM on August 13, 2008

This "memory hole" you speak of, is it a tube of some sort?
posted by Tube at 7:00 PM on August 13, 2008

I'm glad that's settled.
posted by fourcheesemac at 7:08 PM on August 13, 2008

We'll always have beanplating.
posted by Smart Dalek at 7:14 PM on August 13, 2008

HURF DURF BUTTER BEATER
posted by kuujjuarapik at 7:15 PM on August 13, 2008

Metafilter reinvented "cabal".

And Carl Steadman perfected it.
posted by ryanrs at 7:22 PM on August 13, 2008

I have no idea what you're talking about.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 7:41 PM on August 13, 2008 [3 favorites]

Now if we can only find the person who coined "staycation", I could punch them in the dick, and this would be all over with.
posted by horsemuth at 7:47 PM on August 13, 2008 [2 favorites]

I once got the phrase "HURF DURF BUTTER EATER" stuck in my head for two days, just like when you get a song stuck in your head. Only with a song you can pass it along to other people, and that doesn't work with a nonsense phrase no one around you knows, it turns out. So you suffer.
Damn you, butter eaters!
posted by smartyboots at 8:17 PM on August 13, 2008

I actually invented Metafilter, but all the HTML was destroyed by the Y2K BUG.
posted by Brocktoon at 8:42 PM on August 13, 2008

HORS D'OEUVRE BETTA RITA
posted by hangashore at 9:19 PM on August 13, 2008

This "memory hole" you speak of, is it a tube of some sort?

Nope, it's a big truck.
posted by b1tr0t at 9:27 PM on August 13, 2008

Did we invent punch him in the dick? We couldn't have could we?
posted by oddman at 9:40 PM on August 13, 2008

Actually, little known fact, but HÜRFE DÜRFE BÜTTER ÄTER actually originated as a Swedish Chef / Miss Piggy skit that was cut from an episode of The Muppets. You Internets kids think you invented everything!
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:01 PM on August 13, 2008 [1 favorite]

OEUF D'OEUFS BEURRE DE AIDA
posted by mwhybark at 10:24 PM on August 13, 2008 [4 favorites]

Holy shit cortex, you are the bean-plate master.

It should be noted for the record that matildaben's photographic shout-out to hurfdurfery caused a long discourse at table on the then-recent u. n. owen AskMe thread.

Also your log recounts three (I think) folks attributing hurf-durfery to Jerk City, including one proximate to the immediate first usage.
posted by mwhybark at 10:58 PM on August 13, 2008

Did we invent punch him in the dick? We couldn't have could we?

Metafilter did not invent dickpunching, but it mastered dickpunching like none before it.
posted by DecemberBoy at 11:03 PM on August 13, 2008

Hurf.
posted by Ceiling Cat at 11:06 PM on August 13, 2008

I've never seen "Hurf Durf" outside of Something Awful, so consider me informed.

Bioshock: Is a man not entitled to the HURF of his DURF?
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:16 PM on August 13, 2008

[NOT HURF-DURF CREATIONIST]
posted by sanko at 11:49 PM on August 13, 2008

HURF Hussein DURF. He's a muslim! Vote McCURF!
posted by Kwine at 11:57 PM on August 13, 2008 [2 favorites]

This "memory hole" you speak of, is it a tube of some sort?

Nope, it's a big truck.

This comment struck me as a lot cleverer when I couldn't find the comment it was quoting.

someone please get the license number of the comment that struck me
posted by spiderwire at 12:35 AM on August 14, 2008

When I remember something embarrassing, I'm strangely compelled to shout HURF DURF.

Does that happen to anyone else, or is it just me?
posted by ottereroticist at 12:45 AM on August 14, 2008 [1 favorite]

"HURF DURF" originated in the Portal Of Evil/POE-News/SexSexWorld/Old Man Murray forum culture ... but unfortunately the POE/POE-News webmaster wiped out all threads prior to January 1, 2007

PICS OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN

I like totally just invented that locution
posted by dgaicun at 12:54 AM on August 14, 2008

Every time I see a HURF DURF, I think "Who was that knobshine who imported it to MetaFilter? Oh yeah, her. Ugh.". It's one of the many unstoppable thought processes that are the bane of my sodding life.
posted by jack_mo at 4:38 AM on August 14, 2008

Huh, and there I was thinking the Portal of Evil was just some awesome video filter site.

You learn something new every day on Mefi. But I guess that's the point.
posted by saturnine at 4:39 AM on August 14, 2008

"Hurf durf butter eater" was the confirmation that Julia Child gave when they asked 'Tarragon or rosemary?'
posted by fixedgear at 5:33 AM on August 14, 2008 [4 favorites]

So you're saying it's code for "Gary Powers is okay"?
posted by Plutor at 6:17 AM on August 14, 2008

This is really gonna hurt the resale value on metafilterinventedhurfdurf.com.
posted by inigo2 at 7:02 AM on August 14, 2008

I INVENTED THE REMIX
posted by klangklangston at 7:26 AM on August 14, 2008

You guys are over-hurfing a pancake of dickpunching.
posted by chugg at 7:36 AM on August 14, 2008

Yeah, Hurf Durf was around Jerkcity, then POE, then SA before it came here.

JUST IN CASE ANYONE GIVES TWO SHITS IN A BOX ABOUT IT.
posted by Damn That Television at 8:50 AM on August 14, 2008

DecemberBoy: "I've seen a few comments recently claiming or intimating that "HURF DURF" originated here, and I would like to set the record straight on this extremely trivial matter.

If we can't have credit for HURF DURF, then we will start saying FRUD FRUH.
posted by WCityMike at 9:06 AM on August 14, 2008

You guys are over-hurfing a pancake of dickpunching.

Something something ziggity-bop?
posted by Rock Steady at 9:43 AM on August 14, 2008

JUST IN CASE ANYONE GIVES TWO SHITS IN A BOX ABOUT IT.

I don't think we invented the whole two-shits-one-box thing.
posted by GuyZero at 10:25 AM on August 14, 2008

> Your argument is invalid.
posted by elfgirl at 11:30 AM on August 14, 2008

I'm just happy because I've finally found out where"Twenty-five bucks, same as in town" comes from.
posted by triggerfinger at 11:50 AM on August 14, 2008

Marlon Brando muttered "hurf durf" under his breath while demanding the prompt delivery of a stick of butter in 1973. I thought everyone knew that.
posted by xod at 12:15 PM on August 14, 2008

Twenty five? Christ, that's not right.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:28 PM on August 14, 2008 [1 favorite]

I know. Inflation is seriously spiraling out of control these days.
posted by triggerfinger at 12:52 PM on August 14, 2008 [1 favorite]

maybe it's not the same as in town now?!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:36 PM on August 14, 2008 [1 favorite]

With gas prices as they are, it had better get a lot cheaper on the outskirts.
posted by klangklangston at 2:06 PM on August 14, 2008 [1 favorite]

I thought everyone knew it was from Comte Heurf d'Oeurfe, companion of Roland at Roncevaux. He couldn't fight worth a damn, but he sure could eat butter.
posted by languagehat at 2:34 PM on August 14, 2008 [2 favorites]

Twenty five? Christ, that's not right.

A little of my patented Hurf Durf™ butter-flavored product will help those incredulous feelings go down smoothly.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:00 PM on August 14, 2008

Brando's famous triple entendre Basque muttering, referring simultaneously to ancient Scottish poetry, Roncevaux, and the Dutch word for 'audacity.' It was, according Maria Schneider, an improvisational expression of the fact that neither one of them could believe it wasn't actually butter.

The Ted Bates ad agency has always claimed Mr. Brando telephoned the agency in 1974 and pitched the "I Can't Believe it Not Butter!" campaign for the margarine product over the telephone.
posted by xod at 3:49 PM on August 14, 2008

1. invented by jerk city
2. popularized by ssw
3. endlessly abused by the UNFUNY on POE and SA.
4. leapt o'er ye olde sharke and then turned around and fucked it on metafilter.*

5. leisuretown was/is/will forever be the fucking shit yall.

* TM TM TM TM
posted by fishfucker at 10:35 PM on August 14, 2008 [3 favorites]

T METAFILTER ALL I HEAR OUT OF YOUR MOUTH IS A LOT OF HURFING AND DURFING

...

BETTER PUT MY DICK BACK IN I GUESS
posted by Mikey-San at 12:24 AM on August 15, 2008

Is there a word for when one thinks they have invented a word (or anything else) that has already been invented?
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 8:08 AM on August 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

I invented humannaire.
posted by humannaire at 8:56 PM on August 16, 2008

Colbert's Fallacy
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 9:05 PM on August 16, 2008

Yeah, I thought it was Swedish Chef.
And I thought Cookie Monster uttered the original "om nom" - so, really, it all boils down to something Muppetastic.
posted by sadiehawkinstein at 8:30 AM on August 17, 2008 [1 favorite]

[NOT HURF-DURF CREATIONIST]
I invented the whole Hurf Durf/Not X-ist mashup, and thanks to Cortex I have the citation to prove it.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 8:41 AM on August 17, 2008