Newspaper publishes inadvertently lulzy Libya headline

Jessica Stephens snapped the pic of the newspaper headline, above, and asks, "Seriously? Nobody at the Washington fucking Post saw a problem with this headline?"

(via @rstevens)

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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http://twitter.com/theelkmechanic Mike Ketchen

Could be worse, they could have said, “Libya Washes Off Gadhafi’s Taint.”
- t3kna2007
  
  Or even worse: “Libya Sniffs Out Gadhafi’s Taint.”
  
  #lawlthatsgross
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=749833892 Florian Braun

I think that half the trick to writing a good headline is seeing how much innuendo you can slip by the editors.
- jerwin
  
  The Washington Post headline writers used to delight in puns, especially in the “Style section” until the ombudsman got involved. Sad, really
- MDwebguy
  
  I think that half the trick to writing a good headline is seeing how much innuendo you can slip by the editors.
  
  That was the standard when I was a copy editor. LOL
- mneptok
  
  Isn’t “innuendo” a brand of Italian suppositories?
  - bjimba
    
    As Groucho Marx once said, “Love flies out the door when money comes innuendo.”
http://www.facebook.com/agustr Ágúst Rafnsson

I dont get it. English is not my native language.
- Guido
  
  I am in the same situation.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Janine-Minor/100000453854660 Janine Minor
  
  “Taint” is defined as meaning “A trace of a bad or undesirable quality or substance”, however it has another meaning in American slang. In slang it refers to the area between the scrotum and the anus. This is what makes it funny.
- Guest
  
  ‘Taint your asshole and ‘taint your balls! XD
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/5OQFBZ26C3VQ5ONGZGDBDY4BUU Mark A

It could be a kid’s cut and paste project.
“Ferrets Out Gadhafi’s Libya Taint”
“Gadhafi’s Taint Outs Ferret”
Matthew Elmslie

I wonder just how many Libya ferrets there were.
http://twitter.com/ACVTweets A.C. Valdez

To be fair, this is the Express, not the WaPo, which is the half-sheet they have dudes trying to foist on you as you enter the Metro.
http://www.jimdraws.com Thorzdad

Heh. It makes one wonder if the text isn’t set via speech recognition. Around my neck of the woods, that’s exactly how people pronounce tent.
mguffin

OK, just hold on while I get the popcorn and then someone start explaining ‘taint’ to Agust and Guido…
wastrel

Some people learned English before “taint” became a puerile slang term. The word does have a real meaning not related to human anatomy.
- Guest
  
  Wow, thanks for ‘explaining’ that to all us ign’ant Boinb Boingers. /s
Bastiaan van der Peet

As a non native speaker I didn’t get it either, so I looked it up.

Turns out that taint is a slang term for perineum.
- jerwin
  
  Urban dictionary is an excellent resource for learning rude colloquialisms.
  - Bastiaan van der Peet
    
    I know.
    
    That’s where I looked it up :)
- Guest
  
  (gasps) XD
Michael Leddy

An inadvertent headline of my acquaintance: “Questions remain on what to do with removed members.”
http://twitter.com/racerabbit Fred Swetland, IV

For the non-native english speakers, it comes from the joke, “It t’aint yer arse, and it it t’aint yer balls”.
- Guido
  
  Thanks! In Spanish we have actually the same joke, but it’s called the Nié. “Ni’ e culo ni’ e las bolas”
Mister44

Ferrets and Taints? Some people would call that a good time.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Q35X6HG6S6BQWFN5KIHXIHKZOU The Mayor of Awesometown

apparently they used financing cuts to the upper 10% of households in Lybia to fund the ferreting. This will forever be know as the “upper-cut to the taint”.
Arthur McGiven

Had me baffled too – another case of the British and Americans being two peoples separated by the same language
http://www.kmoser.com kmoser

The non-slang usage of “taint” has been around a lot longer than the slang usage, which to me means the non-slang interpretation wins out in a headline. That means while those of us in the know might bust a gut upon seeing a headline that reads, say, “Santorum Shocker!” the rest of the world will simply shrug and go about their business.
HikingStick

I’m a native English speaker in the Unites States, and I only knew the dictionary definition of “taint”. Even accepting that it is now peurile, phallic slang, I still don’t see the humor.
- mguffin
  
  No. You get it. The humour is puerile. Humour doesn’t always have to be sophisticated…
hostile_17

Never heard of taint. Don’t get it. And I am an English, native English speaker!
http://twitter.com/Threedonia Threedonia

Gadhafi… smells like fish… runs and hides like chicken.
http://twitter.com/Threedonia Threedonia

Accidental double post…
Roy Trumbull

In some Spanish speaking countries you can no longer call papaya by its name because it has become a vulgarism for vulva. Instead you say “la fruita bomba” – the fruit that is shaped like a bomb. For as long as I can remember in the American south the chicken breast has been called the white meat. In my lifetime “up tight” has gone from meaning the dude in the 3 piece suit with the attache case who votes Republican to meaning someone who is cool and on top of things.
In headlines the double meaning has been the norm going back a long way.
- http://twitter.com/dargaud Guillaume Dargaud
  
  “In some Spanish speaking countries you can no longer call papaya by its name because it has become a vulgarism for vulva”
  Same thing in italian with ‘fica’. Now for the fig fruit they had to change it to ‘fico’.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  In some Spanish speaking countries you can no longer call papaya by its name because it has become a vulgarism for vulva.
  
  Don’t get me started on the Year of the Rooster.
Geoduck

I’m another life-long American/English speaker who had never heard the slang definition. I do lead a sheltered life..
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1144272476 Adam Goetz

maybe you know it by grundle? urban dictionary explains: The prime piece of real estate located conveniently between Scrotumburg and Anusville.
- dculberson
  
  Now *that* is some prime real estate!
- Guest
  
  ‘Prime’? Are you sure about that? XD
taintofevil

I don’t get it.
alaws67

wow. How do you NOT notice this?
jerwin

Given that the taint is established not to be a hole, the slang interpretation doesn’t make that much sense, and we can reinterpret “taint” in the conventional, standard manner,
public bizmail

Ms. Stephens is over-reaching. Slang moves fast, especially sexual slang,

Show the headline editor also avoid using “trim” in a headline? Because trim once had a similar meaning and was almost unusable in polite company. How about the truly hurtful words like “Maroon” and “ger” ( both were racist pejoratives that thankfully have been repurposed to more benign uses.).

Slang moves faster than standard usage. By standard usage, that headline is reasonable, if over-word. Bully for the headline editor if s/he increased interest in the article by sneaking an au courant double entendre past the chief editor.
Chentzilla

By the way, Wikipedia article on Quaddafi has a hilarious scheme at the end showing different spellings: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muammar_Gaddafi#Transliteration_of_his_Arabic_name
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  You’d think that the fact that he comes from a tribe called Qadhadhfa would simplify things.
John Napsterista

More like “No one at the Washington fucking Post was enough of a killjoy to deny the copy editors their fun that evening.”
Chris Scott

On the subject of obscure body regions: Are there crude names for the back of your knee? The bit under your nose? Do Ladies have a perineum?
- Guest
  
  Whay did you capitalize ‘ladies’? That’s odd.
  
  I’m a woman, and speaking for myself only, I’d say I have a taint. ‘Taint my asshole and ‘taint my vulva! XD /runs away
Bucket

They’ve really got him by the balls and are going to rip him a new one.
goinoutwest

Everything I learned about taint, I learned from Mr. Show:
(NSFW)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tjq8KsGrlL4&feature=player_detailpage#t=173s
bjimba

I’m a native-born American, lifetime English speaker, and never heard of “taint” being slang for anything. I guess I’m never going to be able to listen to the song “Tainted Love” again.
GlenBlank

If you think that headline is ‘lulzy’ you should try doing a Google Books search for ‘taint’. The resulting titles should leave you rolling in the aisles. :-)
travtastic

It’s funny, yeah. Until someone realizes that Rule 34 has yet to be properly applied here, and we get some interesting cosplay videos to watch.
Antinous / Moderator

BBC was reporting yesterday that they found a secret suite under the university in Tripoli that had a luxury bedroom and bath with jacuzzi and an operating room with a pelvic table. Apparently, searching for Gaddafi’s taint has been going on for quite some time.
Roy Trumbull

When it comes to sexual slang, English will never catch up with Chicano. It’s very inventive laugh out loud kind of stuff. I picked up a book on Chicano slang in a bookstore and it was truly funny. Too much of English sex related slang is just smut devoid of fun. Snicker Snicker – Yes; Hah Hah- No.
cdh1971

If we find Qaddafi’s Happy Trail, we will have found Qaddafi…!
summertimecowboy

No one saw that Weeds episode? taint or runway?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwIxkzQxppg
purple-stater

I’m American-born and also had no clue what was supposedly so offensive about the headline until reading the comments here. Now that I do know, I can only roll my eyes at those that find juvenile humor in significant world news.

I find terms like “lulzy” to be infinitely more offensive to the English language.
http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Hart/607879634 David Hart

anyone who doesn’t find this funny just needs to grow up and embrace their inner adolescent. “gooch” is my favorite term for perineum though. just sounds so much dirtier.
- cdh1971
  
  There’s a county in Virginia called ‘Goochland’.
John Desselle

Noun: A trace of a bad or undesirable quality or substance: “the taint of corruption”.
http://www.spellingmistakescostlives.com darrrrrrn

I always preferred “biffon” over taint – it’s the part your balls biff-on during sex.
rudehaggis

Probably intentional. DC readers pick up the WP Express because of headlines like this.
bigyaz

This is not the “Washington fucking Post.” The Post owns it, but it’s produced by, and aimed at, all you young hipsters.
http://www.facebook.com/dkweatherlywilliams Dawna Weatherly-Williams

Aloha,
I always understood tainted…to mean something rotten/horribly smelly ( IE skunk/ death/rotting flesh/ rotten sperm/ a really rotten/ funky V-jaja).
To leave a taint is as if a slime trail of unimaginable funk has been left behind. Of course…some smells are an acquired taste type of thing, and are used to attract sexual partners…some groups of homo sapiens have ancient love for some very stinky foods…such as HAM HA or BUGA ONG….Too much? Am I wrong?