People like lists of things. They’re everywhere on the Internet. You name any subject matter you can think of, odds are there’s a list about it. Well, here are 10 interesting scientific facts about lists that may explain the fascination.

1. People will tend to remember the first thing on a list

Lists are commonly used as tools for assessing people’s memory. Word lists are a typical tool for testing someone’s ability to remember and recall items, and can be designed and adapted to analyse a wide variety of human memory abilities. One of the things uncovered by this sort of research is the primacy effect, meaning people are more likely to remember the first thing they are presented with, due to the way attention works and the demands of memory formation. So when you try to tell someone about this list, you may end up saying “The first thing on the list was that you’re more likely to remember the first thing on the list”.

2. The human brain may automatically structure information in list form (although it may not)

Much research has been conducted into how humans store and structure their knowledge and thoughts. Collins and Quillan in 1969 proposed their Hierarchical Network model, where concepts and categories are stored at a certain level in the brain/mind and the properties of these are listed “below” (metaphorically). However, this view has met with some criticism, mainly based on how human memory or knowledge is rarely shown to be so rigidly organised. Still, it shows how fundamental lists may be.

3. Lists take advantage of a limited attention span

There is an increasingly common view that internet use shortens a person’s attention span. While a lot of this is Greenfield-esque paranoia about new technology, evidence suggests our visual attention is attracted to novelty, and on the internet novelty is always only a click away. There is data to suggest that this is how internet use works, and much of the web is dedicated to exploiting this. Rather than paragraphs of narrative, pushing the limits of a typical attention span, lists offer novelty every few lines, and thus are more likely to avoid the dreaded TL:DR response.

4. You probably won’t remember all the things on a typical list

A lot of lists are lists of 10, or some multiple thereof, given that the majority of humans have grown up using the decimal system. However, short-term memory, or “working memory” as it’s known to psychologists, has an average capacity of 7 (+/-2). This means you can hold an average of 7 “things” in your short term memory. These can be letters, words, or even sentences, as long as they count as one “thing”. This is the limit of your short term memory. These things can be transferred to the long term memory if you rehearse or encounter them enough, but this means that if you try to remember everything on this list to tell someone about later, you’ll be unable to recall 3 items on average. This bit might be one of them, which would be ironic.

5. People are very good at grouping random things together, so lists can be about anything

Probability theories of category formation demonstrate that we tend to lump very different things together in the same category, (e.g. Football and Chess have very few features in common, but both would be considered a type of game). This tendency to group things together despite their differences mean lists with a nominal subject matter can include things that wander off topic quite bizarrely, like a list of scientific facts about the human body including a discussion of atomic structure.

6. Popular things can be listed

Lists are very popular, so logically lists about popular things would be more popular again. Bacon, sexy ladies, funny cats and tweets, all of these regularly end up on lists. You may say this point isn’t scientific in any way, but I include it as evidence for the above point. Which means it is scientific in a very tenuous way.

7. Lists fit the way humans tend to read

It has been demonstrated many times, in scientific studies and Martin Robbins’ blog, that the way people read things on the internet follows an F-shaped pattern. While this is detrimental to blogs and articles with continuous prose, this is obviously beneficial for lists of things, as the reader is reading in a pattern that largely follows a list structure.

8. There are many popular types of list, not just on the internet

Lists predate the internet by some considerable margin, and aren’t necessarily constrained or dependant on it. Examples include shopping lists, bucket lists, guest lists and hit lists. These lists are invariably detached from the subject matter in some way; nobody ever buys a shopping list, bucket lists rarely feature buckets, a guest list is rarely seen inside a party/club, and there are no records of someone being killed with an actual hit list. Contrastingly, Craigslist was created by someone called Craig. To date, there is no evidence of a popular list of all the angles at which a ship may list, suggesting that list formats are incompatible.

9. Some entries on a list are likely to be just padding

As mentioned, most people use the decimal system. As well as using words like “amazing”, “astonishing”, “Incredible” etc. in the title (which are impressive sounding but technically impossible to disprove), the majority of lists will be a list of 10 things, or a multiple thereof. This will inevitably lead to someone preparing a list and including things that shouldn’t really be in it in order to make it 10 items in length. This makes it look “proper”. See the point before this one for a demonstration of this happening.

10. People will tend to remember the last thing on a list

Lists are commonly used as tools for assessing people’s memory. Word lists are a typical tool for testing someone’s ability to remember and recall items, and can be designed and adapted to analyse a wide variety of human memory abilities. One of the things uncovered by this sort of research is the recency effect, meaning people are more likely to remember the last thing they are presented with, due to the way attention works and the demands of memory formation. So when you try to tell someone about this list, you may end up saying “The last thing on the list was that you’re more likely to remember the last thing on the list”.

-via guardian.co.uk

10. Spiders in Australia actually took over a town.

Wild plants are covered with spiderwebs near to flood waters in Wagga Wagga, about 380 km (236 miles) southwest of Sydney March 7, 2012. Thousands of spiders have cast eerie webs over vast areas of flood-hit Australia after being forced to seek shelter by the rising waters. REUTERS/Daniel Munoz

In March 2012 harmless to humans spiders spin wet blanket over the Australian town of Wagga Wagga. When floodwaters swept through the town and surrounding paddocks, the local spiders had no choice but to flee up, spinning their webs across sticks and bushes.

9. There is a tree in Australia that if you brush against it it will affect you for 3-6 months and if you shake it you can breath in its toxic needles.

Image: anhs.com.au

One of the world’s most venomous plants, the Gympie-Gympie stinging tree can cause months of excruciating pain for unsuspecting humans. North Queensland road surveyor A.C. Macmillan was among the first to document the effects of a stinging tree, reporting to his boss in 1866 that his packhorse “was stung, got mad, and died within two hours”. Similar tales abound in local folklore of horses jumping in agony off cliffs and forestry workers drinking themselves silly to dull the intractable pain.

8. An Australia bushranger escaped from prison so many times the government had to build a special cell to hold him. It was so strong they promised to forgive his crimes if he could escape again.

Moondyne Joe, was Western Australia’s best known bushranger. Moondyne Joe was not known for gunfights or robbing banks, unlike other famous Australian bushrangers. It was Joe’s amazing ability to escape every time he was placed behind bars that won him fame and the affection of early Western Australian settlers.

Johns’ offences seem to have been largely horse stealing and gaol breaking.

Police records of 1861 in Perth Public Library recount how Moondyne Joe broke open his cell at the old Toodyay (then Newcastle) gaol, stole a police horse as well as the saddle and bridle of the Resident Magistrate. On another occasion at Fremantle Gaol, Moondyne escaped through a hole in the wall. A servant of the head warder gave him a suit and as Moondyne walked out the main gate, the guard innocently saluted him. They finally had to build him a special cell at Fremantle to keep him in.

There was another story that after one of his escapes he was the first man to cross the old Fremantle traffic bridge.

Moondyne’s exploits ended in 1869 when he was captured in the act of stealing wine in a cellar of the Houghton Vineyard on the Middle Swan. He later settled down to a quiet life in the South-West.

7. A particular dog was allowed free travel on South Australian Railways in the 1890s. Well loved by railwaymen, the dog was presented with a collar that read: ‘Stop me not, but let me jog, for I am Bob, the drivers dog’.

What was it that made him so special?

Bob the Railway Dog was a great charmer as this excerpt from the memoirs of Stephen William Quintrell shows – “So Bob continued on his merry way and travelled widely to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. At the completion of every trip he always followed the engineman home and was an important visitor. When back in Adelaide he always went for a feed at the Eagle Hotel and the girls always gave him the best. Every traveller knew Bob and the children adored him. I have had him follow me home from Kingston. He was a most deserving dog. Some peevish drivers would put him off, and he knew them and never got on their engine”.

6. Australian magpies swoop down and attack cyclists in the head and neck, sometimes detaching retinas. And they are protected so it is illegal to kill or hurt them.

Magpies are ubiquitous in urban areas all over Australia, and have become accustomed to people. A small percentage of birds become highly aggressive during breeding season from late August to early October, and will swoop and sometimes attack passersby.

These magpies may engage in an escalating series of behaviours to drive off intruders. Least threatening are alarm calls and distant swoops, where birds fly within several metres from behind and perch nearby. Next in intensity are close swoops, where a magpie will swoop in from behind or the side and audibly “snap” their beaks or even peck or bite at the face, neck, ears or eyes. More rarely, a bird may dive-bomb and strike the intruder’s (usually a cyclist’s) head with its chest. A magpie may rarely attack by landing on the ground in front of a person and lurching up and landing on the victim’s chest and peck at the face and eyes.

Magpie attacks can cause injuries, typically wounds to the head and particularly the eyes, with potential detached retinas and bacterial infections from a beak used to fossick in the ground. A 13-year-old boy died from tetanus, apparently from a magpie injury, in northern New South Wales in 1946. Being unexpectedly swooped while cycling is not uncommon, and can result in loss of control of the bicycle, which may cause injury. In Ipswich, a 12-year-old boy was killed in traffic while trying to evade a swooping magpie on 16 August 2010.

5. Australia has a $15.51 minimum wage, 5.2% unemployment, and universal health care.

For comparison the United States minimum wage is currently $7.25 an hour and we have 8.1% unemployment as of today. That’s quite surprising as you would expect the opposite relationship between minimum wages and unemployment.

4. Foster’s Lager – the beer brand marketed worldwide as quintessentially Australian – isn’t very popular in Australia.

I was surprised to learn from Australian friends that I work with that Foster’s Lager just isn’t all that popular in Australia – despite ads in Europe and North America claiming otherwise. Wikipedia seems to back this up.

3. Australia is the 3rd most charitable country, Ireland is 2nd, and the USA comes in first.

Jacob French walked across Australia in 2011-12. He completed the walk wearing the white ‘Storm Trooper’ armour from George Lucas’ Star Wars films, and raised $88,523 for the Starlight Children’s Foundation in the process.

3. When Skylab reentered the atmosphere and the pieces landed in Australia, they fined NASA $400 for littering. NASA never paid.

Due to a calculation error, debris of the space station landed southeast of Perth, Western Australia, and was found between Esperance and Rawlinna. Residents and an airline pilot saw dozens of colorful fireworks-like flares as large pieces broke up in the atmosphere. The Shire of Esperance facetiously fined NASA A$400 for littering, a fine which remained unpaid for 30 years. The fine was paid in April 2009, when radio show host Scott Barley of Highway Radio raised the funds from his morning show listeners and paid the fine on behalf of NASA.

2. It is illegal not to vote in Australia.

Compulsory voting generally hold elections on a Saturday or Sunday in Australia, to ensure that working people can fulfill their duty to cast their vote. Postal and pre-poll voting is provided to people who cannot vote on polling day, and mobile voting booths may also be taken to old age homes and hospitals to cater for immobilized citizens.

If voters do not want to support any given choice, they may cast spoilt votes or blank votes. According to compulsory voting supporters, this is preferred to not voting at all because it ensures there is no possibility that the person has been intimidated or prevented from voting should they wish. In certain jurisdictions, voters have the option to vote none of the above if they do not support any of the candidates to indicate clear dissatisfaction with the candidate list rather than simple apathy at the whole process.

1. A male species of beetle in Australia is dying off from mistakenly having sex with beer bottles.

(Images: University of Toronto Mississauga)

Australian jewel beetle (Julodimorpha bakewelli) has achieved fame simply by choosing a rather unorthodox mate: a beer stubbie. “As a consequence of their mating mistakes, the males [jewel beetles] experience reduced survival,” says Darryl, a biologist at University of Toronto at Mississauga. “Attempts to copulate with stubby beer bottles continue until they are killed by the hot desert sun or by foraging ants.”

Darryl and David recently received an Ig Nobel prize for their curious observation, bringing the subject of their study into the limelight once again. But these jewel beetles are not the only creatures that suffer at the hands of evolution; as it turns out, several other species in Australia have found themselves in similarly misleading situations.

The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? (1964)

The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? (1964)

Horror | Music | Musical

Jerry falls in love with a stripper he meets at a carnival. Little does he know that she is the sister of a gypsy fortune teller whose predictions he had scoffed at earlier. The gypsy turns him into a zombie and he goes on a killing spree.

 Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992)

Action | Comedy

A tough detective’s mother comes to visit him and begins to meddle in his life and career.

 Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! (1978)

Comedy | Horror | Sci-Fi

A group of scientists band together to save the world from mutated tomatoes that KILL!

 The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom (TV 1993)

Comedy | Thriller

Err, the title is almost a summary itself. Based on the true story of a Texas mom who tries to hire a hitman (through her ex’s brother) to kill either or both a cheerleader and her mother. With the intended victims out of the way, Wanda’s daughter gets the chance to become a cheerleader. When the media get hold of the story, Wanda’s trial turns into a media circus.

 Black Snake Moan (2006)

Drama

A God-fearing bluesman takes to a wild young woman who, as a victim of childhood sexual abuse, looks everywhere for love, never quite finding it.

 Throw Momma from the Train (1987)

Crime | Comedy

A bitter ex-husband. A put upon momma’s boy. Both want their respective spouse and mother dead, but who will pull it off?

 Phffft (1954)

Comedy | Romance

After eight years of marriage, Robert and Nina divorce. He takes up with his womanising Navy buddy Charlie Nelson while she looks to her interfering mother for guidance. Both start dating other people, but although they try and ignore each other whenever they accidentally meet, it is obvious the past is not dead. Then one night they find themselves in a nightclub doing the mambo together.

 Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971)

Crime | Drama | Thriller

After saving a Black Panther from some racist cops, a black male prostitute goes on the run from “the man” with the help of the ghetto community and some disillusioned Hells Angels.

 Sssssss (1973)

David, a college student, is looking for a job. He is hired by Dr. Stoner as a lab assistant for his research and experiments on snakes. David also begins to fall for Stoner’s young daughter, Kristina. However, the good doctor has secretly brewed up a serum that can transform any man into a King Cobra snake-and he plans to use it on David.

 Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)

Comedy | Family | Fantasy

The Martians kidnap Santa because there is nobody on Mars to give their children presents.

Ever wondered why they got so angry at you?

The following is a list of weird ethnic slurs (ethnophaulisms) that are, or have been, used as insinuations or allegations about members of a given ethnicity or to refer to them in a derogatory (critical or disrespectful), pejorative (disapproving or contemptuous), or insulting manner in the English-speaking world. For the purposes of this list, an ethnic slur is a term or word[s] used to insult on the basis of race, ethnicity, or nationality. Each term is listed followed by its country or region of usage, a definition, and a reference to that term.

Ethnic slurs may also be produced by combining a general-purpose insult with the name of ethnicity, such as “dirty Jew”, “Russian pig”, “stupid American”, etc. Other common insulting modifiers include “dog”, “filthy”, etc. Such terms are not included in this list.

A

Abbie, Abe, and Abie
(North America) a Jewish male. From the proper name Abraham. Originated before the 1950s.
ABC
(Chinese in the U.S.) American-born Chinese, a term used to refer to Chinese people who were born in the United States.
ABCD
(South Asians in the U.S.) American-Born Confused Desi, a term used to refer to Indian Americans, Pakistani Americans or other South Asians, term as “desi,” who were born in the United States. The condescending term is used chiefly by South Asian immigrants to imply confusion about cultural identity.

Abo/Abbo
(AUS) Australian Aboriginal person. Originally, this was simply an informal term for Aborigine, and was in fact used by Aboriginal people themselves until it started to be considered offensive in 1950s. In remoter areas, Aboriginal people still often refer to themselves (quite neutrally) as Blackfellas (and whites as Whitefellas). Although Abo is still considered quite offensive by many, the pejorative boong is now more commonly used when the intent is to deliberately offend, as that word’s status as an insult is unequivocal.

Alligator bait
(U.S.) also Gator Bait. A black person, especially a black child. More commonly used in states where alligators are found, particularly Florida. First used in the early 20th century, although some hypothesize the term originated in the late 19th century.

Alter kacker / alter kocker (Yiddish) / alter kucker / A.K.
(North America) a disparaging term for elderly Jewish people. The term is of Yiddish origin (literally meaning old shitter). First used in the early 20th century.

Anchor baby
a slur for a child born in the United States to immigrants or other non-citizens, regardless of the immigration status of the parents. The term refers to the supposed role of the child, as a U.S. citizen, in facilitating immigration through family reunification under the provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.

Anglo-pilferer
an Anglo-Celtic Australian, possibly of convict lineage. Based on the belief that all Anglo-Australians are descended from convicts. Particularly offensive.

Ann
(North America) a white woman to a black person—or a black woman who acts too much like a white one. While Miss Ann, also just plain Ann, is a derisive reference to the white woman, by extension it is applied to any black woman who puts on airs and tries to act like Miss Ann.

Ape
(U.S.) a black person.

Apple
(North America) an American Indian (Native American) who is “red on the outside, white on the inside.” Used primarily by other American Indians to indicate someone who has lost touch with their cultural identity. First used in the 1980s.

Asian nigger
an ethnic slur against Filipinos.

Aunt Jemima / Aunt Jane / Aunt Mary / Aunt Sally
(U.S.) a black woman who “kisses up” to whites, a “sellout,” female counterpart of Uncle Tom.

B

Banana
(North America; UK) an Asian person living in a Western country (e.g., an Asian American) who is yellow on the outside, white on the inside. Used primarily by Asians to indicate someone who has lost touch with his or her cultural identity.

Beaner / Beaney
(U.S.) a term widely regarded as derogatory, that refers to people of Mexican descent or, more specifically, mestizos of Central American descent. The term originates from the prevalence of frijoles pintos and other beans in Mexican food.

Bluegum
an offensive slur used by some United States white Southerners for an African-American perceived as being lazy and who refuses to work.

Boche / bosche / bosch
(France; U.S.; UK) a German [shortened from the French term caboche dure (hard head, or stubborn)].

Bog Irish
(UK, Ireland) a person of common or low class Irish ancestry.

Bohunk
(North America) a person of east-central European descent. Originally referred to those of Bohemian (now Czech Republic) descent. It was commonly used toward Ukrainian immigrants during the early 20th century.

Boong / bong / bung
(Aus) Australian aboriginal. Boong, pronounced with ʊ (like the vowel in bull), is related to the Australian English slang word bung, meaning dead; infected; or dysfunctional. From bung, to go bung “Originally to die, then to break down, go bankrupt, cease to function [Ab. bong dead]“. Highly offensive. [First used in 1847 by JD Lang, Cooksland, 430]

Boonga / boong / bunga / boonie
(New Zealand) a Pacific Islander [alteration of boong].

Bounty Bar
A Bounty chocolate bar, being composed of coconut coated with chocolate; it is white on the inside and brown on the outside. As with wigger, this is both a subcultural and ethnic slur. The immediate target is criticized for having the cultural values of a different ethnic group, with the implication that the ethnic group in question is bad or inferior. Coconut and Oreo are used in the same way.

Brownie
(U.S.) a. a person of mixed white and black ancestry; a mulatto.
b. (U.S.) a young, brown-skinned person 1940s–1950s.

Buddhahead
(U.S.) an Asian; used by Calvinist author R. J. Rushdoony in one of his books.

Bule
(Indonesian) a commonly used word in Indonesia to describe a foreigner, especially Caucasians. Means Albino; sometimes used in pejorative manner.

Buffie
a. a black person.
b. (U.S.) a young, brown-skinned person 1940s–1950s

Burrhead / Burr-head / Burr head
(U.S.) a black person (referencing stereotypical hair type).

C

Camel Jockey
an insulting term for people of Middle Eastern descent.

CBCD
(Subcontinentals in Canada) – Canadian-Born Confused Desi – Similar to ABCD, but used for Canadian-born South Asians who are confused about their cultural identity.

Charlie
1) (African-American, 1960s-1970s) A mildly derogatory term used to refer to white people as a reified collective oppressor group, similar to The Man or The System.
2) (Vietnam War military slang) Non-pejorative slang term used by American troops as a shorthand term for Vietnamese guerrillas. Derived from the verbal shorthand for “Victor Charlie”, the NATO phonetic alphabet for VC, the abbreviation for Viet Cong. Other references to the Viet Cong included “Mr. Charles” as a rueful admission of the skill at asymmetric warfare.

Chee-chee, Chi-chi
an Anglo-Indian or Eurasian half-caste [probably from Hindi chi-chi fie!, literally, dirt] Also can refer to English spoken with a Southwest Asian accent.
Cheese-eating surrender monkey
(UK, USA, Canada) a Frenchman, from the defeat of the French against the German in 1940, and the huge variety of cheeses originating from France. Gained popularity after the term was used on an episode of The Simpsons.

Ching Chong
(U.S. and Canada) mocking the language of or a person of perceived Chinese or East Asian descent. An offensive term which has raised considerable controversy when used by celebrities such as Rosie O’Donnell.

Chinaman
found offensive, used in the gold rush and railway-construction eras in western North America, when discrimination against Chinese was common.[40] Though widely used historically without offensive intent, the term today generates controversy when still used in geographic places associated or resembling Chinese. Fowler’s Dictionary of English Usage as late as 1956 describes it as the term for a Chinese person, whereas the term Chinese was only used as an adjective for things. Though it is widely used as an ironic self-reference by many North Americans of Chinese descent, and is still heard in the lyrics to the 1970s song “Kung Fu Fighting” and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift movie song “Tokyo Drift” by the Teriyaki Boyz, it tends to generate objections in modern times, especially in the US where Asian-American is the preferred nomenclature. (Note that in cricket, the term “chinaman” is used in a non-ethnic sense to refer to a left-handed bowler who uses a wrist spin action, and that a chinaman was also a type of 18th and 19th C. merchant ship, or a dealer in china ware.)

Chink/Chinky
(U.S., UK, and India) used to refer to people of perceived Chinese descent, and by extension for other East Asians. Considered extremely derogatory, although at least one US school proudly used the term as a sports mascot until 1980.

Cholo
(Latin American Spanish, USA) used in Latin America to refer to people of perceived Amerindian or African slaves descent; used in the USA to refer to people of perceived Mestizo descent, especially teenagers and young people in the lowrider subculture. It may be derogatory depending on circumstances. Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo was nicknamed “el Cholo”.

Chonky
refers to a person of Chinese heritage with white attributes, whether being a personality aspect or physical aspect.

Christ killer
a Jew, an allusion to Jewish deicide. On occasion it can also be used as an anti-Italian slur on the basis the Romans, as ancestors of the present-day Italians, executed Jesus.

Chug
(Canada) refers to an individual of aboriginal descent.

Coconut
(US) a person of Hispanic descent who’s accused of acting white.
(New Zealand) a Pacific Islander. Named after the coconut, the nut from the coconut palm.
(UK/AUS) a black person who exhibits behaviour associated with caucasians; (US) a black person trying to be ‘white’.
(South Africa) a black person who acts white
(Canada) an individual of South Asian (typically Dravidian) descent, who is accused of trying to be ‘white’.

Coolie
(North America) unskilled Asian labor, usually Chinese (originally used in 19th-century for Chinese railroad labor). Possibly from Hindi kuli, day laborer. Also racial epithet for Indo-Caribbean people, especially in Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and South African Indians.

Coon
(U.S, U.K and Australia) a black person. Possibly from Portuguese barracão, a building constructed to hold slaves for sale (1837). Popularized by the song “Zip Coon”, played at Minstrel shows in the 1830s.

Coonass, or Coon-ass
(U.S.) a person of Cajun ethnicity.

Cracker
(U.S.) a poor Appalachian or poor Southerner, a white person, first used in the 19th century.

Crow
a black person, spec. a black woman.

Cunt-eyed
(U.S.) adjective: a person with slanted eyes (first used in the 1910′s)
Curry-muncher/Curry-slurper/Curry-stinker
(Australia, Africa, New Zealand, North America) a person of East Indian origin.

D

Dago
(UK and Commonwealth) refers to Italians, Spaniards, or Portuguese, possibly derived from the Spanish name, “Diego,” or a corruption of the title Hidalgo (member of the Gentry, from Spanish > hijo de algo “son of someone [important]“). 2) (U.S.) An Italian or person of Italian descent.
Darky / darkey / darkie
noun. used as a term for a black person, which may cause offense. Randall Kennedy’s Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word notes that some judges have considered “darky” a “term of endearment.” See also Minstrel show. In South Africa, however, it is not considered either racist or offensive, but is quite acceptable

Dink
an Asian, esp. a Vietnamese. Also used as a disparaging term for a North Vietnamese soldier or guerrilla in the Vietnam War. Origin: 1965–70, Americanism

Dogan, dogun
(CAN) Irish Catholic [19th century on; origin uncertain: perhaps from Dugan, an Irish surname].

Dogger
(AUS) A derogatory term for white Australians, primarily used by Greek and Italian migrants.
Dune coon
(US) a derogatory term used for Arabs. By analogy with sand nigger, below.

E

Eight ball
a black person; slang, usually used disparagingly

Eyetie
(British) an Italian person; slang, usually used disparagingly. Originated through the mispronunciation of “Italian” as “Eye-talian.”

F

Fenian
(Northern Ireland and west of Scotland Protestants) originally the name of a political movement, the Fenian Brotherhood, but now a derogatory term aimed at Catholics, especially those thought to sympathise with the IRA.

Flip
(Western World) a derogatory term for Filipinos.

Free Stater
(Northern Ireland) a citizen of the Republic of Ireland, especially to Ulster Protestants. Also used by Irish Republicans to refer to Irish people who they believe are less than patriotic.

Fresh off the boat
(sometimes shortened to “F.O.B.” or “FOB”), a derogatory[citation needed] term for people of foreign nationality, who have arrived in a host nation as tourists, immigrants, students, or most commonly, as work permit applicants.

Fritz
(UK, France, Hungary (“fricc”), Poland [Fryc], Russia [фриц] ) a German [from Friedrich (Frederick)].

Frog
(Canada, UK and US) a French person. Prior to 19th century, referred to the Dutch (as they were stereotyped as being marsh-dwellers). When France became Britain’s main enemy, replacing the Dutch, the epithet transferred to them, due to the French recipe for eating frogs’ legs (see comparable French term Rosbif). Also used in Canada to refer to both the French and French Canadians, and occasionally incorrectly as more broadly to people from Quebec who are not, in fact, necessarily French or French speaking.

Fuzzy-Wuzzy
(UK) colonialist term used to refer to the Hadendoa warriors in the 19th Century. Not applicable in Australia, see Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels

G

Gable
a black person.

Gaijin
(JP) a derogatory term for any non-Japanese person. Shortened form of ‘Gaikokujin’ (person from another country). Used often against Caucasians.

Gin
(AUS) an Aboriginal woman.

Gin jockey
(AUS) a white person having casual sex with an Aboriginal woman. Pejorative. See also gin burglar

Golliwog
A predominately UK expression which originally was a children’s literature character and type of black doll but which eventually became to be used as a jibe against people with dark skin, most commonly Afro-Caribbeans.

Gook-eye, Gooky, Gook
a derogatory term for Asians, used especially for enemy soldiers. Its use as an ethnic slur has been traced to U.S. Marines serving in the Philippines in the early 20th century. The earliest recorded example is dated 1920. It gained widespread notice as a result of the Korean and Vietnam wars.

Goy, Goyim, Goyum
A Hebrew biblical term for “Nation” or “People”. By Roman times it had also acquired the meaning of “non-Jew”. In English, usage may be controversial, it can be assigned pejoratively to non-Jews.

Greaseball, Greaser
A person of Italian descent. It can also refer to any person of Mediterranean / Southern European descent or Hispanic descent.

Gringo
a foreigner; especially used disparagingly against North Americans and North Europeans in Latin America. (from the Spanish word “griego”, meaning Greek. The use of the term Greek for something foreign or unintelligible is also seen in the similar expression “it’s Greek to me”.) The term lends itself to derogatory or paternalistic connotations, but in most of the contexts it may not be meant pejoratively.

Groid
(US) A black person. Offensive. Derived from “negroid”.

Gub, Gubba
(AUS) Aboriginal pejorative term for white people

Güero
Mexican term for a light-skinned person.

Gweilo, gwailo, or kwai lo (鬼佬)
(used in South of Mainland China and Hong Kong) A White man. Loosely translated as “foreign devil;” more literally, might be “ghost dude/bloke/guy/etc.” Gwei means “ghost.” The color white is associated with ghosts in China. A lo is a regular guy (i.e. a fellow, a chap, or a bloke). Once a mark of xenophobia, the word is now in general, informal use but still considered derogatory.(Actually to many local Hong Kong people,this term have cutty or even superior respectful kind of meaning)

Guido
(US) An Italian-American male. Usually offensive. Derives from the Italian given name, Guido. Used mostly in the Northeastern United States as a stereotype for working-class urban Italian-Americans.

Guinea, Ginzo
A person of Italian birth or descent. Most likely derived from “Guinea Negro,” implying that Italians are dark or swarthy-skinned like the natives of Guinea. The diminutive “Ginzo” probably dates back to World War II and is derived from Australian slang picked up by US servicemen in the Pacific Theater.
Gypsy, Gyppo, gippo, gypo, gyppie, gyppy, gipp
a. A Romani people . b. (UK and Australia) Egyptians.

H

Hairyback
(South Africa) a derogatory term for Afrikaners

Hajji, Hadji, Haji
(US) Used by some U.S. servicemembers to describe Iraqis, Arabs, Afghans, or Middle Eastern and South Asian people in general. Derived from the honorific Al-Hajji, the title given to a Muslim who has completed the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca).

Half-breed
A derogatory term used to describe anyone who is mixed Native American (especially North American) and white European parentage. Métis is a French term for a half-breed, and mestizo is the equivalent in Spanish.

Half Caste
(UK) Derogatory term against people who are born of mixed race. Often shortened to ‘Halfie’.

Haole
(US, Hawaiian) A non-native, used by Hawaiians mainly to refer to whites (less commonly to refer to non-Hawaiians). Can be used neutrally, dependent on context.

Heeb, Hebe
(U.S.) an offensive term for a Jewish person, derived from the word “Hebrew”.

Hindoo
(AUS) 19th century, Hindu. Often not offensive.

Honky also spelled “honkey” or “honkie”
(1) (U.S.) an offensive term for a white person. Derived from an African-American pronunciation of “hunky”, the disparaging term for a Hungarian laborer. The first record of its use as an insulting term for a white person dates from the 1950s.

House Nigger / House negro
(U.S.) a derogatory term for affluent or highly educated African-Americans. Derived from the fact that African slaves who worked in the homes of their masters gained their favor, and were able to advance socially by reporting suspicious slaves and or activity.

Hun
(U.S. and U.K.) 1) A derogatory term for Germans, especially German soldiers; popular during World War I. Derived from a speech given by Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany to the German contingent sent to China during the Boxer Rebellion in which he exhorted them to “be like Huns” (i.e., savage and ruthless) to their Chinese enemy. 2) An offensive term for a Protestant in Northern Ireland or historically, a member of the British military in Ireland (“Britannia’s huns”).

Hymie
(U.S.) an offensive term for a Jewish person, derived from the personal name Hyman (from the Hebrew name Chayyim). Jesse Jackson provoked controversy by referring to New York City as “Hymietown” in 1984.

I

Ikey / ike / iky
a Jew [from Isaac]

Ikey-mo / ikeymo
a Jew [from Isaac and Moses]

Indon
an offensive term for Indonesian citizens and Indonesia in general. Used mostly in Malaysia and Singapore.

Injun
an offensive term for a Native American, corrupted “Indian”.

J

Jap
(US, especially during World War II) a Japanese soldier or national, or anyone of Japanese descent. Also an acronym for “Jewish-American Princess”.

Jerry
(Commonwealth, especially during World War II) a. a German national. b. a German soldier [Probably an alteration of German]. Origin of Jerry can.

Jigaboo, jiggabo, jigarooni, jijjiboo, zigabo, jig, jigg, jigga, jigger
(U.S. and UK) a black person with stereotypical black features (e.g. dark skin, wide nose, and big lips). Jiggaboo or jigabo is from a Bantu verb tshikabo, meaning meek or servile.

Jock, jocky, jockie
(UK) a Scottish person, Scots language nickname for the personal name John, cognate to the English, Jack. Occasionally used by the English as an insult. but also in respectful reference to elite Scottish, particularly Highland troops, e.g. the 9th (Scottish) Division. Same vein as the English insult for the French, as Frogs.
(US) an athlete, sometimes used pejoratively, as in “dumb jock” (a reference to an athlete with minimal academic skills, a stereotypical belief being s/he was promoted in school simply due to enhance a particular school athletic program) or “pampered jock” (a reference to an athlete getting preferential treatment due to his/her athletic prowess and notoriety, where such treatment – such as reduced punishment for criminal conduct – would not be provided to a non-athlete similarly situated).

Jungle bunny
(U.S. and UK) a black person.

K

Kaffir, kaffer, kaffir, kafir, kaffre, kuffar
(South Africa) a. derogatory for a black person. b. also caffer or caffre: a non-Muslim. c. a member of a people inhabiting the Hindu Kush mountains of north-east Afghanistan. Origin is from the Arab word kafir meaning infidel used in the early Arab Zanzibarian trading posts on the Indian Ocean coast in Africa to refer to the non-Islamic black people living in the interior of Africa. The term is still used as a pejorative by some Muslims, particularly Islamists in such a context. The term passed into modern usage through the British because on early European maps Southern Africa was called by cartographers Cafreria (the name derived from the Arab word “kafir”) and later Kaffraria. Thus the British used the term “kaffirs” to refer to the mixed groupings of people displaced by Shaka when he organized the Zulu nation. These groups (consisting of Mzilikaze, Matiwani, Mantatisi, Flingoe, Khoikhoi, and Xhosa peoples inhabited the region from the Cape of Good Hope to the Limpopo river) fought the British in the Kaffir Wars 1846–1848, 1850–1852, and 1877–1878.)

Kike or kyke
(U.S.) a derogatory term for Ashkenazi Jews. From kikel, Yiddish for “circle”. Immigrant Jews signed legal documents with an “O” (similar to an “X”).

Kala
the nonspecific racist slur of “kala” (Burmese: ကုလား; MLCTS: ku. la:) is used against Muslim and Indian immigrants in Burma, especially when referring to Burmese Muslims.

Keling
a word used to describe people originating from the Indian subcontinent by native Malaysians and Indonesians – originally merely descriptive,it has come since the 1960′s to be considered offensive by a majority of Indians

Kraut (from Sauerkraut)
(North America and Commonwealth) Derogatory U.S. and British term for a German, most specifically during World War II.

L

Limey
(US) a British person. Comes from the historical British naval practice of giving sailors limes to stave off scurvy.

Lubra
an Australian Aboriginal woman.

M

Macaca
originally used by francophone colonialists in Central Africa’s Belgian Congo to refer to the native population; use has expanded to other groups, including North Africans and Indians.

Mack, Mick, Mickey, Mickey Finn
a. (Britain, Commonwealth and U.S.) an Irish person or a person of Irish descent. Mick is considered more offensive in the U.K. and U.S.. From the prefix “Mc”/”Mac” meaning “son of” that is commonly found in Irish surnames. b. (Australia) a Roman Catholic [19th century on, from Michael].

Malaun
(Bangladesh) A derogatory term used to refer to the Hindus. It is considered an ethnic slur.

Mallu
used to call a person of Kerala (Indian) origin or the one who speaks Malayalam.

Mat Salleh (slur) Mat Salleh kotek bengkok
A derogatory Malay term used for Caucasians. Originally, it was used to mock English sailors, that is, as “mad sailors”" Even more insulting is the addition of the words “kotek bengkok”, which means “bent penis”.

Mock / moch
(U.S.) a Jew [first used in the 1960s as an abbreviated form of mocky (qv)

Mocky / moky / moxy / mockey / mockie / mocky
(U.S.) a Jew [first used in the 1930's]

Monday
(US) A black person. Popularized by Russell Peters stand up at Def Jam.

Moulie / Moulignon
Offensive word for a black person, used by Italians in US. It is a corruption of melanzane, the Italian word for eggplant.

Munt / Munter
(among whites in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Zambia) a black person. Derives from muntu, the singular Bantu word for “person” In the UK, the word means “ugly person”, especially “ugly woman”.

Mustalainen (sing.)/Mustalaiset (pl.)
derived from the Finnish word for “Black”, it is a word for the Finnish Kale – a group of the Romani people that lives primarily in Finland and Sweden. It is nowadays sometimes considered an offensive term, and in common and official context romani is considered more appropriate.

Muzzie / Mussie
(Europe and US) A highly offensive[citation needed] slang term for a Muslim.

N

Niglet
a term used to describe a young black person.

Nig-nog
(UK) a black person.[133] – note alternative original mildly derogatory meaning in the UK: “a novice; a foolish or naive person”

Nigger / Niger / nig / nigor / nigra / nigre (Caribbean) / nigar / niggor / niggur / nigga / niggah / niggar / nigguh / niggress / nigette
(International) An American-English slur originally used to refer to black-skinned people, but developed a dual meaning in the late 20th century.

Nip
(U.S. and UK) A derogatory term for someone of Japanese descent (shortened version of Nipponese, from Japanese name for Japan, Nippon)

Nitchie / neche / neechee / neejee / nichi / nichiwa / nidge / nitchee / nitchy
(CAN) a North American Indian [From the Algonquian word for "friend"].

Northern Monkey
(UK) (See also Southern Fairy) used as a pejorative in the south of England, relating to the supposed stupidity and lack of sophistication of those in the north of the country. In some cases this has been adopted in the north of England, with a pub in Leeds even taking the name ‘The Northern Monkey’.

O

Ocker
(AUS and NZ) an uncultivated Australian.

Ofay
(US) a white person, unknown etymology.

Orange bastard
(Scotland, (Northern) Ireland) used by Catholic Irish or Scottish Republicans for a presumed Protestant in Ireland or Great Britain, who is perceived to be a Unionist, i.e. supporting union of Northern Ireland with the United Kingdom. “Orange” refers to the Orange order, an order in Northern Ireland, playing a major role on the Unionist Protestant side in the Northern Ireland Conflict (see Orangemen’s Day), typically a supporter of the Glasgow football club Rangers FC (see Old Firm, Sectarianism in Glasgow).

Oreo
(US) a racial slur for being black on the outside and white on the inside, hinted by the appearance of an Oreo cookie. Compare Magic Middle.

P

Paddy
(Primarily UK) an Irishman.[143] derived from a nickname for Pádraig. Often derogatory; however, Lord Edward FitzGerald, a major leader of the United Irishmen of 1798, proclaimed himself proudly “a Paddy and no more” and stated that “he desired no other title than this”.

Paki
(United Kingdom) used as a derogatory term directed towards South Asians (and sometimes Middle Eastern people), it is usually considered offensive when used by a non-Asian in the UK.

Poppadom
(United Kingdom) Used as a derogatory term directed towards South Asians (and sometimes Middle Eastern people). The term was most infamously used during a Celebrity Big Brother racism controversy.

Pancake Face, Pancake
an Asian person

Pepper or Pepsi
(Canada) a French Canadian or Québécois Derived from the Anglo-Canadian jibe that their stereotypically bad dental hygiene was due to drinking Pepsi or Dr Pepper for breakfast.

Pickaninny
a term – generally considered derogatory – that in English usage refers to black children, or a caricature of them which is widely considered racist.

Pikey / piky / piker
(Britain) derived from “turnpike”. a. Irish Traveller, b. Gypsy, c. an itinerant or vagrant lower-class or poor person. Sometimes used to refer to an Irish person [19th century on].

Pindos
(Russia, Ukraine, Belarus) Originally used by Russian troops as a disparaging term for an American soldier during Kosovo_War. Currently is applied to any American.

Pocho / pocha
(Southwest U.S., Mexico) adjective: term for a person of Mexican heritage who is partially or fully assimilated into American culture (literally, “diluted, watered down (drink); undersized (clothing)”).

Polack
a Pole or a person of Polish origin,[151] from the Polish endonym, Polak (see Name of Poland). Note: the proper Swedish demonym for Polish people is polack[152] and the Norwegian equivalent is polakk.

Pom, Pohm, Pommy, Pommie, Pommie Grant
(AUS/NZ/SA) a British (usually English) immigrant. Some claim it derives from “Prisoner of Mother England” or “Prisoner of Her Majesty”, but it probably derives from pomegranate, rhyming slang for “immigrant”. It is often used irreverently and is usually considered offensive. Many such migrants to Australia, such as Prime Minister Julia Gillard, call themselves “ten pound poms”, because they paid ten pounds for their passage to Australia between 1945 and 1972 under an assisted migration scheme. Often combined with an adjective, particularly whingeing pom, a reference to migrants who complained about their adopted country. Often used in a sporting (especially cricket and rugby) context, with liberal use of ‘pom’ and ‘Aussie’ being used by the media; the term is often seen as unoffensive in this context, and instead as light-hearted banter by those who use it, but still possibly as offensive by those whom it is directed at.

Porch monkey
a black person referring to perceived common behavior of groups hanging out on front porches or steps of urban apartment complexes in U.S. cities.

Prairie nigger
a Native American

Peckerwood
a slur that was used through the mid 20th century by southern African Americans and upper class whites used to describe poor rural whites. It is still used mostly by African Americans against White people.

Q

Quashie
a black person. From the West African name Kwazi, often given to a child born on a Sunday

R

Raghead
an ethnic slur used against Arabs, Indian Sikhs and some other peoples, denigrating them for wearing traditional headdress such as turbans or keffiyehs. Sometimes used generically for all Islamic nations. See Towel head.

Redlegs
in Barbados, the term is offensive to many, and refers to the islands’ laborer-class whites.

Redneck
in the US, the term is offensive to many, and refers to Southern laborer-class whites.

Redskin
a controversial term referring to Native Americans, used in the names of several sports teams in the US.

Roundeye
(English-speaking Asians) a white or non-Asian person.

Russki, Russkie
disparaging when used by foreigners for “Russian” (actually, these are transliterations of the Russian “Русский” (in Russian pronounced: Rooskiy) for “Russian” and the spelling Russkiy is almost always in a literary context. “Russki” in Russian simply means someone who is an ethnic Russian as opposed to a minority nationality within the Russian Federation.)

S

Sambo
(U.S.) a derogatory term for an African American, Black, or sometimes a South Asian person.

Sand nigger
an ethnic slur used against Iranians, Arabs and those thought to be Arabs.

Sawney
(England, archaic) a Scottish person, local variant of Sandy, short for “Alisdair”.

Schvartse
a Yiddish derogatory term for someone of African descent.

Seppo, Septic
(Australian/British) An American. (Cockney rhyming slang: Septic tank – Yank)

Sheeny
(U.S.) a 19th-century derogatory term for an “untrustworthy Jew.”

Shelta
(Ireland) a pejorative term for the Travelling Folk. Derived from siúilta, which means “The Walkers” in Irish.

Shiksa (Yiddish)
a pejorative term, mostly in North America, for a non-Jewish woman. Derived from the Hebrew root Shin-Qof-Tzadei (שקץ), meaning loathsome or abomination. Most commonly used to refer to a non-Jewish woman who is dating or married to a Jewish man.

Shine
a disparaging term for a black person originating from their working at shoe shine stands on urban streets or in bus and train station terminals.

Shkutzim (Yiddish)
a pejorative term used by Jews against non-Jewish men, especially those perceived to be anti-Semitic. The singular is sheigetz.

Skip /Skippy
(Aus) a person of Anglo-Australian decent, alluding to the name of a kangaroo in a once-popular Australian television show for children.

Slant-eye, Slant
a pejorative term for a person of Far Eastern origin (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese etc.) Derived from the term for those who have epicanthic folds

Slope, slopehead, slopy, slopey
(U.S. and Aus) a person of Asian (in Australia, especially Vietnamese; in America, especially Chinese) descent.

Smoked Irish / smoked Irishman
(U.S.) a 19th century term for Blacks (intended to insult both Blacks and Irish).

Snowback
a Canadian working, studying, living, or immigrating illegally to the U.S. or a Canadian spending the winter in the US. Also known as a frostback.

Sooty
a black person [originated in the U.S. in the 1950s]

Spade
a black person, recorded since 1928 (OED), from the playing cards suit.

Spearchucker
A term used for an African American, or other person of African descent.

Spic, spick, spik, spig, or spigotty
(U.S) a. a person of Hispanic descent, or a person of actual or presumed Puerto Rican origin whether or not of Hispanic descent. Use of the word is often perceived as extremely offensive if used by a person not of Latino descent in any context. Origin uncertain. First recorded use in 1915. Theories include from “no spik English” (and spiggoty from the Chicano no speak-o t’e English), but common belief is that it is an abbreviation of “Hispanic” b. the Spanish language. In the UK this term is more commonly used towards people of Italian/Mediterranean descent rather than Hispanics.

Spook
a black person, attested from the 1940s. This particular slur plays a pivotal role in the novel The Human Stain and the film based on it.

Squarehead
a Nordic person, esp. German. The slur refers to either the stereotyped shape of their heads, or to the shape of the Stalhelm M1916 steel helmet, or to its owner’s stubbornness (like a block of wood).

Squaw
(U.S. and CAN) an often offensive term for female Native American. Derived from lower East Coast Algonquian (Massachuset: ussqua), which originally meant “young woman”, but which took on strong negative connotations in the late 20th century. (The equivalent derisive for a male is “buck”, and for a child, “papoose”.)

Sucker fish
a term used ambiguously in southern Oregon directed towards the Klamath people during a dispute over the sucker fish of the Klamath River which was considered sacred by the tribe. Troublemakers displayed bumper-stickers with the message “Save a Farmer, Fillet a sucker fish.”

T

Tan
(Ireland) a British person, a derogatory term for British people, derived from the Black and Tans, the nickname for an auxiliary British Army unit deployed to Ireland in the 1920s and which gained a reputation for brutality.

Taffy or Taff: (UK) a Welsh person. First used ca. 17th century. From the River Taff or the Welsh pronunciation of the name David (in Welsh, Dafydd). Children’s rhyme: “Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief”. Generally considered offensive when used by an English person, although it has appeared in such family-friendly series as Dad’s Army, where it was used as a lighthearted nickname.

Taig (also Teague, Teg and Teig)
a vitriolic slur used by loyalists in Northern Ireland for members of the nationalist/Catholic/Gaelic community. Derived the Irish name Tadhg, often mistransliterated as Timothy.

Tar baby
(UK; U.S.; and N.Z.) a black child.

Teapot
(British) A black person. [19th century]

Teuchter
(Southern Scotland) somebody from the north of Scotland or rural Scottish areas. Used as a derogatory term to cause offense.

Thicklips
(UK) a black person.

Timber nigger
an ethnic slur against Native Americans.

Tinker / tynekere / tinkere / tynkere, -are / tynker / tenker / tinkar / tyncar / tinkard / tynkard / tincker
a. (Britain and Ireland) an inconsequential person (typically lower class); (note that in Britain, the term “Irish Tinker” may be used, giving it the same meaning as example b.)
b. (Scotland and Ireland) a Gypsy [origin unknown – possibly relating to one of the 'traditional' occupations of Gypsies as travelling 'tinkerers' or repairers of common household objects][190]
c. (Scotland) a member of the native community previously itinerant (but mainly now settled) who were reputed for their production of domestic implements from basic materials and for repair of the same items, being also known in the past as “travelling tinsmiths”. The slur is possibly derived from a reputation for rowdy and alcoholic recreation. Often wrongly confused with Gypsy/Romany people.

Touch of the tar brush
(British) derogatory descriptive phrase for a person of predominantly Caucasian ancestry with real or suspected African or Asian distant ancestry.

U

Uncle Tom
a pejorative for an American black person who is perceived as behaving in a subservient manner to white authority figures. “Tío Tomás” is the equivalent pejorative slur by Hispanics towards Hispanics who learn English and are serious about their studies.

W

Wetback
(US) a derogatory term for a Latino person. Originally applied specifically to Mexican migrant workers who had crossed the Rio Grande border river illegally to find work in the United States, its meaning has since broadened.

White Nigger / Wigger / Whigger / Wigga
(US) used in 19th-century United States to describe the Irish. Sometimes used today in reference to white people in a manner similar to white trash or redneck. Also used to describe white youth that imitate urban black youth by means of clothing style, mannerisms, and slang speech. The ‘w’ at the start of wigger refers to the white person and the ‘igger’ refers to nigger, which is a racial slur for black people. Also used by radical Québécois in self-reference, as in the seminal 1968 book White Niggers of America.

Whitey
a term for a Caucasian, commonly used in a derogatory manner.

Wog
(UK and Commonwealth) a generic term for any swarthy or dark-skinned foreigner. Possibly derived from “golliwogg” In Britain, it usually refers to dark skinned people from Asia or Africa, though any truly xenophobic Englishman knows that “the Wogs begin at Calais”. Wog is also a backronym for Worthy Oriental Gentleman. In Australia the term “wog” is usually used to refer to Mediterranean Europeans (Spaniards, Italians, and Greeks), Eastern Europeans (Bosnians, Macedonians, Serbians, Croatians, or Albanians), and Near Eastern or Middle Eastern people (Turks, Arabs and Persians).

Wop
(North America and UK) a racial term for anyone of Italian descent, derived from the Italian dialectism, “guappo,” close to “dude, swaggerer” and other informal appellations, a greeting among male Neapolitans.[196] Although this is the term’s original origin, “wop” evolved into a racial slur against Italians and Italian Americans during the 20th century, with its most common use being a derogatory backronym for ‘WithOut Papers’.

Y

Yank
shortened form of Yankee; English-speaking countries outside the United States may use it as a derogatory term for Americans.

Yellow
designating or pertaining to an Asian person, in reference to those who have a yellowish skin color.

Yid
disparaging term for a Jew, although it is an endonym among Yiddish-speaking Jews. Used in Britain to describe Tottenham Hotspur fans (often proudly by themselves, for example calling themselves “the Yid Army”), which include a large Jewish supporting base from north-east London.

Z

Zog Lover
used by white nationalists to describe an Aryan who is subservient to the Jews (“Zog”=Zionist Occupation Government).

Zip, Zipperhead
an Asian person. Used by American military personnel during the Korean War and Vietnam War. Also seen in the films Platoon, Full Metal Jacket and Gran Torino. The phrase “zips in the wire” from Platoon has also been used outside of this context.

Source: Wikipedia.

Australia

• Deadly Serious Party (defunct)
• Imperial British Conservative Party (see also: Cecil G. Murgatroyd)
• Sun Ripened Warm Tomato Party (defunct)
• Party! Party! Party! (defunct)
• Surprise Party (defunct)

Austria–Hungary

• PFGFIDSDG Partei für gemäßigten Fortschritt in den Schranken der Gesetze (Party for Moderate Progress Within the Bounds Of the Law, 1911–1921)

Belarus

• Beer Lovers Party (liquidated in 1998)

Belgium

• NEE

Active federal party

Canada

• Absolutely Absurd Party (defunct)
• Canadian Extreme Wrestling Party (defunct)
• Christian-Atheist Party of Canada (defunct)
• Prince Edward Island Draft Beer Party (defunct)
• Parti Citron (Lemon Party, defunct)
• Rhinoceros Party
• Rhinoceros Party of Canada / Parti Rhinoceros
• Fed-Up Party (also known as FU)
• Lemon Party

Denmark

• Union of Conscientiously Work-Shy Elements (defunct)
• Nihilist People’s Party

Estonia

• Royalist Party of Estonia (defunct)

Faroe Islands

• Hin Stuttligi Flokkurin‎ (The Funny Party)

Germany

• Die PARTEI (‘The Party’; Party for Labour, Rule of Law, Protection of Animals, Promotion of Elites and Grassroot-Democratic Initiative)
• APPD Anarchist Pogo Party of Germany

Hungary

• Double-tailed Dog Party

Iceland

• Best Party
• Framboðsflokkurinn (defunct)

Israel

• Pikanti (a food manufacturer that contested the 1992 election as an advertising gimmick)

Italy

• Partito dell’Amore (“Love Party”, defunct)

New Zealand

• Bill and Ben Party (defunct)
• Imperial British Conservative Party (defunct)
• McGillicuddy Serious Party (defunct)

Netherlands

• Party of the Future
• Rapaille Partij (defunct)

Norway

• Beer Unity Party
• The Political Party (defunct)

Poland

• Orange Alternative
• Polish Beer-Lovers’ Party (defunct after winning 16 seats in 1991)

Romania

• Partidul Liber-Schimbist (defunct)

Russia

• Beer Lovers Party

Slovakia

• Paliho Kapurková, Cheerful Political Party

Spain

• Coordinadora Reusenca Independent
• Partido del Karma Democrático, PKD (“Party of the Democratic Karma”)

Sweden

• Donald Duck Party

Ukraine

• Ukrainian Beer Lovers Party

Official Monster Raving Loony Party

United Kingdom

• Adam Lyal’s Witchery Tour Party (defunct)
• Church of the Militant Elvis Party
• Citizens for Undead Rights and Equality – They fielded four candidates in the United Kingdom general election, 2010.
• Death, Dungeons and Taxes Party
• Dog Lovers Party (defunct)
• Fancy Dress Party
• Glow Bowling Party (defunct)
• Happening Happy Hippy Party (not actually a political party, but perceived as one by many)
• Hardcore: You Know the Score party (defunct) – The early 90s rave outfit Altern8 formed a party which stood in the 1992 general election.
• I Want to Drop a Blancmange Down Terry Wogan’s Y-Fronts Party, for which Pamela Stephenson stood for parliament
• Mongolian Barbecue Great Place to Party: it stood in the 1997 election, scoring just 112 votes in Wimbledon, but achieved some fame through its absurd name, which was argued to be one of a wave of new parties that were using their name to advertise.
• New Millennium Bean Party
• Miss Great Britain Party, a political party in the United Kingdom founded in 2008, whose candidates are mostly women who have entered the Miss Great Britain beauty contest
• Official Monster Raving Loony Party
• Raving Loony Green Giant Party (defunct)
• Rock ‘n’ Roll Loony Party (defunct)
• Teddy Bear Alliance (defunct)

Other parties, such as the Corrective Party or the Rainbow Alliance, were often seen as frivolous, but included some genuine policy aims in their manifestos.

United States

• Mickey Mouse, while not a party, can be used as a protest or joke write-in candidate
  

  Jimmy McMillan is the founder of the Rent is Too Damn High Party

• Guns and Dope Party
• OWL Party (Washington State, 1976)
• Straight Talking American Government Party (STAG) (defunct)
• Surprise Party (defunct)
• Rent Is Too Damn High Party (part serious, part joke)

The Bald Archy.

The Bald Archy is an Australian art prize, a parody of the Archibald Prize, an important portraiture award. It usually includes cartoons or humorous works making fun of Australian celebrities. It is judged by Maude, a cockatoo. It began in 1994 at the Coolac Festival of Fun, in the tiny town of Coolac near Gundagai, New South Wales but is now a popular event presented in Sydney, Melbourne and other locations.

Past Winners:

Winner 2011 "Bad Ass...ange" by Xavier Ghazi (Julian Assange)

The Bent Spoon Award.

The Bent Spoon Award is an award given by Australian Skeptics, “presented to the perpetrator of the most preposterous piece of paranormal or pseudoscientific piffle”. The name of the award is a reference to the spoon bending of Uri Geller. Although awarded yearly since 1982, only one copy of the trophy exists, as “anyone wishing to acquire the trophy must remove it from our keeping by paranormal means” and no winner has yet overcome this obstacle.

The winner should either be an Australian or have carried out their activities in Australia.

Past Winners:

• 2010: the Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority (ACARA) for its draft science curriculum.
• 2008: Dr Kerryn Phelps, who used to be the President of the Australian Medical Association but now sells quackery and woowoo
• 2006: The pharmacists of Australia, who manage to forget their scientific training long enough to sell quackery and snake oil (such as Homoeopathy and ear candles) in places where consumers should expect to get real medical supplies and advice.
• 2001: The Lutec “Free Energy Generator”
• 2000: Jasmuheen who claims one can live without food and water.

Big Brother Awards.

The Big Brother Awards recognize “the government and private sector organizations … which have done the most to threaten personal privacy”. They are named after the George Orwell character Big Brother from the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

The Big Brothers are:

• Public sector category: Ministry of Internal affairs.
• Business category: Google.

Carbuncle Cup.

The Carbuncle Cup is an architecture prize, given annually by the magazine Building Design to “the ugliest building in the United Kingdom completed in the last 12 months”. The award was based on an idea created by the Scottish architecture magazine Prospect, which has run the Carbuncle Awards since 2000. It is intended to be a humorous response to the prestigious Stirling Prize, given by the Royal Institute of British Architects to “the architects of the building which has made the greatest contribution to British architecture in the past year.” The name of the award is derived from a comment by Prince Charles, an outspoken critic of modern architecture, who in 1984 described Richard Rogers’ proposed extension of London’s National Gallery as a “monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend”. The award was launched in 2006, with the first winner being Drake Circus Shopping Centre in Plymouth by Chapman Taylor. A shortlist is announced by Building Design each year, based on nominations from the public, and usually timed to coincide with the Stirling prize shortlist. Public voting via the magazine’s website was used to select past winners, giving the award a sense of democratic involvement. Since 2009 a small group of critics has selected the final winners.

Past Winners:

Strata, winner of the 2010 Carbuncle Cup

Drake Circus Shopping Centre, winner in 2006

Darwin Awards

The Darwin Awards are a tongue-in-cheek honor, created by Wendy Northcutt to recognize individuals who contribute to human evolution by self-selecting themselves out of the gene pool, through putting themselves (unnecessarily) in life-threatening situations. A book series is paralleled by a website, “www.DarwinAwards.com” (stylised as “www.đar̆winĀwar̆ḍs.ćōm”), whose “Rules” section explains:

In the spirit of Charles Darwin, the Darwin Awards commemorate individuals who protect our gene pool by making the ultimate sacrifice of their own lives. Darwin Award winners eliminate themselves in an extraordinarily idiotic manner, thereby improving our species’ chances of long-term survival.

Accidental self-sterilization also qualifies; however, the site notes: “Of necessity, the award is usually bestowed posthumously.” But the candidate is disqualified if “innocent bystanders”, who might have contributed positively to the gene pool, are killed in the process.

The Darwin Awards books state that an attempt is made to disallow known urban legends from the awards, but some older “winners” have been ‘grandfathered’ to keep their awards. The Darwin Awards site does try to verify all submitted stories, but many similar sites, and the vast number of circulating “Darwin awards” emails, are largely fictional.

Past Winners:

• When his .38 caliber revolver failed to fire at his intended victim during a hold-up in Long Beach, California, would-be robber James Elliot did something that can only inspire wonder. He peered down the barrel and tried the trigger again. This time it worked.
• The chef at a hotel in Switzerland lost a finger in a meat cutting machine and after a little shopping around, submitted a claim to his insurance company. The company expecting negligence sent out one of its men to have a look for himself. He tried the machine and he also lost a finger. The chef’s claim was approved.
• A man who shoveled snow for an hour to clear a space for his car during a blizzard in Chicago returned with his vehicle to find a woman had taken the space. Understandably, he shot her.
• After stopping for drinks at an illegal bar, a Zimbabwean bus driver found that the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be transporting from Harare to Bulawayo had escaped. Not wanting to admit his incompetence, the driver went to a nearby bus stop and offered everyone waiting there a free ride. He then delivered the passengers to the mental hospital, telling the staff that the patients were very excitable and prone to bizarre fantasies. The deception wasn’t discovered for 3 days.

The Doublespeak Award

The Doublespeak Award is an “ironic tribute to public speakers who have perpetuated language that is grossly deceptive, evasive, euphemistic, confusing, or self-centered.” It has been issued by the National Council of Teachers of English since 1974.

Past Winners:

2009 – Glenn Beck
2008 – The term “Aspirational goal”.
2007 – Alberto Gonzales
2006 – George W. Bush
2005 – Philip A. Cooney
2004 – George W. Bush Administration
2003 – George W. Bush

Ernie Awards

The Ernie Awards are an Australian award for comments deemed misogynist.

It is named after former Australian Workers Union secretary Ernie Ecob, who was known for his misogynist remarks. One of his best-known remarks was “Women aren’t welcome in the shearing sheds. They’re only after the sex,” which is why there is a sheep on top of the Gold Ernie. The inaugural awards night was in celebration of him resigning from the Labor Council of New South Wales.

A dinner is held for 400 women each year and the winner is determined by the person who receives the most booing when their sexist statement or action is read out.

A variety of categories have featured, such as the Gold Ernie, the Warney (for sport, named after Shane Warne), the Media Ernie, the Political Ernie, the Judicial Ernie, the Anon (for boys behaving better, formerly called the Gareth after Gareth Evans), the Elaine (for females making comments unhelpful to the sisterhood, named after Elaine Nile) and the Clinton (for repeat offenders). The categories of offenders have changed over the years, according to Meredith Burgmann.

A collection of comments have been compiled in “One Thousand Terrible Things Australian Men Have Said About Women” by Meredith Burgmann and Yvette Andrews.

Past Winners:

• 1993: Joe de Bruyn, National Secretary, Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association, “All childcare subsidies should be removed and reallocated to women who stayed home to mind their children.”

• 1994: Terry Griffiths, former New South Wales Liberal minister: (in response to allegations of sexually harassing his staff) “I honestly believe that my personal behavior was in a family mode. They’re like my own kids. I’m a toucher…I have a habit of touching people in that regard. I’m old fashioned.”

• 1995: Justice John Gallop, Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court: (upon imposing a bond upon a man convicted of raping a 12-year old girl), “Our jails would be full if we locked up everyone who did this.”

Golden Snowball Award

The Golden Snowball Award is an annual award presented to the Upstate New York city that receives the most snowfall in a season. The original award was the result of a friendly competition of National Weather Service offices in Upstate. After the Rochester and Syracuse offices closed in the mid-1990s, the competition died out.

The award was revived during the 2002-2003 snowfall season, in which Syracuse won. It has won every year since then as well. The prize is accompanied by a ceremonial $100 check to one of that city’s school’s hat and mitten drive.

Past Winners:

2002-2003: Syracuse
2003-2004: Syracuse
2004-2005: Syracuse
2005-2006: Syracuse
2006-2007: Syracuse
2007-2008: Syracuse
2008-2009: Syracuse
2009-2010: Syracuse

Ig Nobel Prize

The Ig Nobel Prizes are an American parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given each year in early October for ten unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research. The stated aim of the prizes is to “first make people laugh, and then make them think”. Organized by the scientific humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), they are presented by a group that includes Nobel Laureates at a ceremony at Harvard University’s Sanders Theater, and they are followed by a set of public lectures by the winners at MIT.

Past Winners:

• Biology: Daryll Gwynne and David Rentz for discovering that certain kinds of beetle mate with certain kinds of Australian beer bottle.

• Chemistry: Makoto Imai, Naoki Urushihata, Hideki Tanemura, Yukinobu Tajima, Hideaki Goto, Koichiro Mizoguchi and Junichi Murakami for determining the ideal density of airborne wasabi (pungent horseradish) to awaken sleeping people in case of a fire or other emergency, and for applying this knowledge to invent the wasabi alarm.

• Literature: John Perry of Stanford University for his Theory of Structured Procrastination, which states: “To be a high achiever, always work on something important, using it as a way to avoid doing something that’s even more important.”
• Mathematics: Dorothy Martin of the USA (who predicted the world would end in 1954), Pat Robertson of the USA (who predicted the world would end in 1982), Elizabeth Clare Prophet of the USA (who predicted the world would end in 1990), Lee Jang Rim of Korea (who predicted the world would end in 1992), Credonia Mwerinde of Uganda (who predicted the world would end in 1999), and Harold Camping of the USA (who originally predicted the world would end on September 6, 1994, and later predicted that the world will end on May 21, 2011, which preceded his final prediction on October 21, 2011), for teaching the world to be careful when making mathematical assumptions and calculations.

• Medicine: Mirjam Tuk, Debra Trampe and Luk Warlop, and jointly to Matthew Lewis, Peter Snyder, Robert Feldman, Robert Pietrzak, David Darby and Paul Maruff for demonstrating that people make better decisions about some kinds of things – but worse decisions about other kinds of things – when they have a strong urge to urinate.

• Peace: Arturas Zuokas, the mayor of Vilnius, Lithuania, for demonstrating that the problem of illegally parked luxury cars can be solved by running over them with a tank.

• Psychology: Karl Halvor Teigen of the University of Oslo, Norway, for trying to understand why, in everyday life, people sigh.

• Physics: Philippe Perrin, Cyril Perrot, Dominique Deviterne, Bruno Ragaru and Herman Kingma for trying to determine why discus throwers become dizzy, and why hammer throwers don’t, in their paper “Dizziness in discus throwers is related to motion sickness generated while spinning”.

• Physiology: Anna Wilkinson, Natalie Sebanz, Isabella Mandl and Ludwig Huber for their study “No evidence of contagious yawning in the red-footed tortoise Geochelone carbonaria”.

• Public safety: John Senders of the University of Toronto, Canada, for conducting a series of safety experiments in which a person drives an automobile on a major highway while a visor repeatedly flaps down over his face, blinding him.

Most Phallic Building contest

The World’s Most Phallic Building contest was a contest held in 2003 by Cabinet magazine to find the building which most resembled a human phallus. The contest originated when writer Jonathan Ames drew the ire of Slate readers by claiming, in a diary that was later published in his book I Love You More Than You Know, that the Williamsburg Bank Building in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, was the world’s most phallic. This led Cabinet magazine to initiate a search of its own to find which building was truly the “world’s most phallic”. Cities and readers subsequently poured in their views and staked their claims to the magazine’s editors.

Past Winners:

Ypsilanti Water Tower, winner of the Most Phallic Building contest

Pigasus Award

The Pigasus Award is the name of an annual tongue-in-cheek honor recognized by noted skeptic James Randi. The awards seek to expose parapsychological, paranormal or psychic frauds that Randi has noted over the previous year.

Past Winners:

Category 1 – Scientist
1996 — Scientist/physicist Ed May, who headed the CIA “remote viewing” project.

Category 2 – Funding
2006 — Templeton Foundation for spending US$2.4 million and ten years research on a study researching the effectiveness of prayer.

Category 3 – Media
2009 — The Oprah Winfrey Show

Category 4 – Performer
1979 — Philip Jordan, who was hired by Tioga County, New York, Public Defender R. L. Miller to assist in choosing jurors by their “auras”.

Category 5 – Refusal to face reality
2009 — Scientologists

Salt Lick Award

The Salt Lick Award is an award given to Canadian manufacturers of foods that demonstrate high sodium levels. The name refers to salt licks.

Past Winners:

• 2009 – Canadian pizza producers

Stella Awards

The Stella Awards are awards given to people who file outrageous and frivolous lawsuits, named after Stella Liebeck who, in 1992, ordered a cup of McDonald’s coffee at a drive thru, took off the lid and put it in between her knees while sitting in the passenger seat of her grandson’s car. The 180 to 190 °F (82 to 88 °C) coffee spilled from the cup, causing third degree burns. The lawsuits are documented by Colorado writer Randy Cassingham. Cassingham documents the awards on a website and in a 2005 book, both known as The True Stella Awards.

Past Winners:

• Roy L. Pearson Jr. The 57-year-old Administrative Law Judge from Washington DC claims that a dry cleaner lost a pair of his pants, so he sued the mom-and-pop business for $65,462,500. That’s right: more than $65 million for one pair of pants. Representing himself, Judge Pearson cried in court over the loss of his pants, whining that there certainly isn’t a more compelling case in the District archives. But the Superior Court judge wasn’t moved: he called the case “vexatious litigation”, scolded Judge Pearson for his “bad faith”, and awarded damages to the dry cleaners. But Pearson didn’t take no for an answer: he’s appealing the decision. And he has plenty of time on his hands, since he was dismissed from his job. Last we heard, Pearson’s appeal is still pending.

World Stupidity Awards

The World Stupidity Awards is an award ceremony that recognizes achievement in ignorance and stupidity during the past year.

Past Winners:

• Stupidest Woman of the Year: Paris Hilton, Ashlee Simpson, ‘Brangelina’, The Runaway Bride, Paula Abdul.

The fastest speeding ticket in the world allegedly occurred in May 2003 in Texas. It was supposedly 242 mph in a 75 mph zone. The car was a Swedish-built Koenigsegg CC8S, which was involved in the San Francisco to Miami Gumball 3000 Rally.

The fastest convicted speeder in the UK was Daniel Nicks, convicted of 175 mph on a Honda Fireblade motorcycle in 2000. He received six weeks in jail and was banned from driving for two years. The fastest UK speeder in a car was Timothy Brady, caught driving a 3.6-litre Porsche 911 Turbo at 172 mph on the A420 in Oxfordshire in January 2007 and jailed for 10 weeks and banned from driving for 3 years.

The most expensive speeding ticket ever given is believed to be the one given to Jussi Salonoja in Helsinki, Finland, in 2003. Salonoja, the 27-year-old heir to a company in the meat-industry, was fined 170,000 euros for driving 80 km/h in a 40 km/h zone. The uncommonly large fine was due to Finnish speeding tickets being relative to the offender’s last known income. Salonoja’s speeding ticket was not the first ticket given in Finland reaching six figures.

There are many competing claims as to the first speeding ticket ever issued depending whether the claim goes by the first traffic violation or the first paper ticket ever issued. Great Britain may have the earliest claim with the first person to be convicted of speeding, Walter Arnold of East Peckham, Kent, who on 28 January 1896 was fined for speeding at 8 mph (13 km/h) in a 2 mph zone. He was fined 1 shilling plus costs. A New York City cab driver named Jacob German was arrested for speeding on May 20, 1899 for driving 12 miles per hour on Lexington street in Manhattan. In Dayton, Ohio, police issued a paper ticket to Harry Myers for going twelve miles per hour on West Third Street in 1904.

Another early speeding ticket was issued in 1910 to Lady Laurier, the wife of Wilfrid Laurier, Prime Minister of Canada, in Ottawa, Canada, for exceeding the 10 miles per hour speed limit.

Among the most unpopular tickets, a mention is deserved of the small municipality of Segrate arranging to put a speed limit between two near-by traffic lights synchronized such that drivers were forced to either break the speed limit or pass with the red. It took months before the hated machines were eventually dismantled by the Guardia di Finanza.

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,

Buildings and land

• Bridgeville, California (pop. 25) was the first town to be sold on eBay in 2002, and has been up for sale 3 times since.

• In January 2003, Thatch Cay, the last privately held and undeveloped U.S. Virgin Island, was listed for auction by Idealight International. The minimum bid was $3,000,000.00 and the sale closed January 16, 2003.

• In September 2004, the Indiana Firebirds arena football team was auctioned off, first in a regular auction that failed to reach the reserve price, and again as a “Buy it Now” item for $3.9 million.

• In late November 2005, the original Hollywood Sign was sold on eBay for $450,400.

• A man from Brisbane, Australia, attempted to sell New Zealand at a starting price of A$0.01. The price had risen to $3,000 before eBay closed the auction.

• In May 2006, the remains of U.S. Fort Montgomery, a stone fortification in upstate New York built in 1844, were put up for auction on eBay. The first auction ended on June 5, 2006, with a winning bid of $5,000,310. However, the sale was not completed, and the fort and lands surrounding it remain for sale and have been relisted on the site several times since.

• In October 2008, amidst the 2008–2009 Icelandic financial crisis, one seller put up Iceland for sale. The auction started with a bid of 99 pence and reached 10 million pounds (US $17.28 million). However, singer Björk was “not included” in the sale. The notice read: Located in the mid-Atlantic ridge in the North Atlantic Ocean, Iceland will provide the winning bidder with — a habitable environment, Icelandic Horses and admittedly a somewhat sketchy financial situation. Bidders’ questions included: “Do you offer volcano/earthquake insurance?”

Vehicles

• In June 2005, the wife of Tim Shaw, a British radio DJ on Kerrang! 105.2, sold Tim’s Lotus Esprit sports car with a Buy It Now price of 50 pence after she heard him flirting with model Jodie Marsh on air. The car was sold within 5 minutes, and it was requested that the buyer pick it up the same day.

• In May 2005, a Volkswagen Golf that had previously been registered to Joseph Ratzinger (then a cardinal, who had since been elected pope and chose the regnal name Benedict XVI on April 19, 2005) was sold on eBay’s German site for €188,938.88 ($277,171.12 USD). The winning bid was made by the GoldenPalace.com online casino, known for their outrageous eBay purchases.

• Disney sold a retired Monorail Red (Mark IV Monorail) for $20,000

Military vehicles

• In February 2004, a scrapped F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet was listed on eBay by Mike Landa, of Landa and Associates, with a starting bid of $1,000,000. He was the legal owner of the plane after purchasing it from a scrap yard and also offered to have it restored to flying condition for a Buy It Now price of $9,000,000. Landa also told potential buyers that maintenance of the plane would cost roughly $40,000 a month for just 2 to 3 hours of flying time. The FBI told Landa that he could only sell the plane to an American citizen residing in the United States, and that the plane must not leave U.S. airspace. The auction ended without a sale.

• A seaworthy 16,000-ton aircraft carrier, formerly the British HMS Vengeance, was listed early in 2004. The auction was removed when eBay determined that the vessel qualified as ordnance, even though all weapons systems had been removed.

• In May 2006, a Chinese businessman named Zhang Cheng bought a former Czech Air Force MiG-21 fighter jet from a seller in the United States for $24,730. The seller, “inkgirle”, refused to ship it. It is not known whether he was refunded.

New species

• In 2004 a listing for a sea urchin turned out to be a new species, later given the name Coelopleurus exquisitus.

• In August 2008, Dr Richard Harrington, Vice President of the UK Royal Entomological Society, announced that a fossilized aphid he bought for £20 from a seller in Lithuania was a previously unknown species. It has been named Mindarus harringtoni after Dr Harrington. He had wanted to name it Mindarus ebayi, but this name was disallowed as being too flippant. The 45-million-year-old aphid, preserved in a piece of Baltic amber, is now housed in the Natural History Museum in London.

Food and drink

• Water that was said to have been left in a cup Elvis Presley once drank from was sold for $455. The few tablespoons came from a plastic cup Presley sipped at a concert in North Carolina in 1977.

• Coventry University student Bill Bennett got £1.20 for a single cornflake.

• An Australian newspaper reported in December 2004 that a single piece of the Kellogg’s breakfast cereal Nutri-Grain sold on eBay for A$1,035 because it happened to bear a slight resemblance to the character E.T. from the Steven Spielberg movie. Apparently the seller went on to make even more money in relation to the sale for his appearance on a nationally televised current affairs program.

• In 2004, a partially eaten, 10-year-old grilled cheese sandwich said to bear the image of the Virgin Mary sold on eBay for $28,000.

• In December 2005, a brussels sprout cooked on Christmas Day was listed by “crazypavingpreacher” (Andrew Henderson of Darlington, England). It sold for £99.50 on January 4, 2006. The sprout had been frozen and was sent by first class post in insulated packaging to the buyer, “5077phil”. The listing was reported in the Daily Star, making the front page (and was followed by a series of “copycat” listings of various vegetables). The proceeds of the sale were donated to Tearfund, a major Christian relief and development agency working in the Third World. This sprout was the first cooked brussels sprout to be sold on eBay.

• In January 2006, a British man sold an unwanted brussels sprout left over from his Christmas dinner for £1550 in aid of cancer research.

People

• In April 2005, American entrepreneur Matt Rouse sold the right to choose a new middle name for him. After receiving an $8,000 “Buy It Now” bid, the Utah courts refused to allow the name change. He currently still has his original middle name “Jean”.

• A group of four men from Australia auctioned themselves to spend the weekend with the promise of “beers, snacks, good conversation and a hell of a lot of laughs” for A$1,300.

• In February 2007, after Britney Spears shaved all of her hair off in a Los Angeles salon, it was listed on eBay for US$1M before the listing was taken down.

• In May 2008, Paul Osborn of the UK listed his wife Sharon for sale on eBay, alleging that she had an affair with a coworker.

• In June 2008, Ian Usher put up his “entire life” on auction. The auction included his house in Perth, belongings, introduction to his friends, and a trial at his job. When bidding closed, his “life” sold for $384,000.

• In August 2009, a mother of six from South Arkansas auctioned off the legal rights to name her unborn child.

Other

• One of the tunnel boring machines involved in the construction of the Channel Tunnel was auctioned on eBay in 2004.

• The German Language Association sold the German language to call attention to the growing influence of English in modern Germany.

• In January 2008, four golf balls were auctioned on eBay after being surgically removed from the carpet python that had inadvertently swallowed them whilst raiding eggs in a chicken enclosure. The story attracted considerable international attention and the balls eventually sold for more than A$1,400. The python recovered and was released.

• In November 2008, a Swedish man put a digitally hand-drawn picture of a 7-legged spider onto eBay. The picture stemmed from an article on the site 27bslash6.com wherein David Thorne claims to have attempted to pay a chiropractor’s bill with a picture of a 7-legged spider, which he valued at $233.95. On eBay, the bidding price started at $233.95, with bidding ended at a sale price of US$10,000.[36] Both the e-mail exchange and the picture have become internet hits.

• In July 2009 Dornoch Capital Advisors placed England’s Coca Cola League One Side Tranmere Rovers F.C. on eBay without permission from owner and chairman Peter Johnson. This led to Johnson issuing a statement on the team’s website saying that the team was not for sale and that he had contacted eBay to have the listing removed.

• In December 2009, a woman auctioned the copyright for a never before seen four-minute home video of Marilyn Monroe smoking a joint.

• In September 2010, a 23-year-old Stockton-on-Tees man named Michael Fawcett tried to raise money for Cancer Research by selling a ghost. The auction caught the attention of a local newspaper. However, after day 6 of the auction, eBay removed the item stating it was against their policy to sell ‘intangible items or items whose existence cannot be verified on receipt of them, such as ghosts, souls, or spirits’.

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41,