Did you know that the National Review’s blog on environmental issues is called “Planet Gore“? For me, that clinches it, the best one sentence summary of modern conservatism is (from commenter cleek):
Today’s conservatism is the opposite of what liberals want today: updated daily.
Also too, I’d like to ask: why do conservatives like to call Al Gore “algore”? Is there an obvious pun that I’m missing?
Redshirt
Because he’s fat? Algore. Also, Lockbox, too.
It’s really because they’re socially retarded, and this is what happens with circular reinforcement.
PaulW
Conservatives call Al Gore Algore because they keep forgetting to hit the SPACE key.
BR
That’s why I thought the best way to get the public option passed is for us to have argued that what we libruls reeeeeeeally wanted in the HCR bill was free lickable toads for everyone or something. Then we’d be seeing GOPers on TV talking about “toads, the silent granny killers”. Meanwhile, we slip the public option in and nobody is the wiser.
David in NY
“circular reinforcement”
What I call “adolescent male bonding” — better the less sense it makes because no adult will copy it and it insures the insularity of the group.
ADD: I think there are lots of these. Maybe we need a definitive collection. For a starter, we could look to the occasional trolls wandering through, who drop them like rabbit pellets.
cleek
me FTW!
i’m gonna buy myself a cupcake.
zmulls
No, “algore” is a Rush-ism. Rush Limbaugh likes to say the name real fast, like it was one two-syllable word, emphasis on the first syllable. Not just “al” or “gore” but “ALgore”
It’s like saying “the Democrat party” — it’s a verbal tic that was first done to annoy, and now is part of the conservative vocabulary.
Athenae
@BR: This would have been less stupid than what actually happened, which pretty much makes me want to go back to bed and stay there until people are no longer so dumb and crazy.
A.
Jamie McCarthy
“Algore” is how Rush Limbaugh has pronounced his name for years. Limbaugh seems to enjoy mispronouncing words with an affected sneer. It’s just mockery, it’s what children do at recess. It doesn’t have to make any sense.
Other conservatives have presumably adopted this to show deference and respect to their movement’s intellectual leader.
Jon
as zmulls said, yup it’s a Rush-ism.
I always took it to be a play on “Igor” for some reason.
DougJ
@zmulls:
But why especially with Al Gore? Why not barackobama or joebiden? It still doesn’t make sense to me.
Ken
The “algore” thing started with series of “funny” commercial breaks Rush Limbaugh created in the mid 90’s loosely based on old horror films. They had Bill Clinton with a Bela Lugosi voice ordering around his minion “algore” to increase the taxes and make the democrats in congress cause terror upon the people.
What’s interesting to me is how many wingnuts simply parrot it out loud without actually knowing what it means or where it comes from. They use it because they’ve seen other wingnuts use it in an insulting or dismissive way, so they just join the chorus.
Apparently, reinforcing the Ingroup bonds is mouch more important than actually understanding why your insults are supposedly funny. It’s like gang colors for douchebags
Joshua Norton
It’s just the wingnutz trying to get libs back for really good insults that actually mean something. When Dole was running he was known as “Bobdole” because that’s how he always said his name. So they’re desperately trying to find a way to say it back about someone on our side.
Kind of like the way whole Clinton hatchet job was a reflex against the justified sting of being the party of Nixon.
thingsbreak
DougJ,
As best I can understand it, 6 is basically correct. This Limbaugh meme apparently comes from Gore creating the website “www.algore.com”.
Porco Rosso
I think “Rush” used Algore as one word to make the Igor association. Veep as mindless henchman. That sorta thing.
Kryptik
@DougJ:
Because Al Gore is probably the only Democratic figure that they’ve managed to shame into defeat that actually successfully reinvented himself to become more important after his defeat than before. Sure, Bill Clinton weathered his storm and was made out better than before, but he never shook the dogged annoyances of the scandals that they kept generating to take him down.
Al Gore managed to come back from a shame that they figure should immediately disqualify anyone from being taken seriously anymore, and that infuriates them more than anything.
Scott H
I remember going to a training class for a PC-based FEA program called “algor” way back before algore was even a VP.
J.W. Hamner
Because they have a very poor sense of humor? I mean, I’m still confused by trolls who call Obama “Obambi”? Really? Is that all they’ve got?
mistermix
@J.W. Hamner: Didn’t MoDo coin “Obambi”? Which, I realize, proves your point about a poor sense of humor.
El Cid
I thought Rush did it because of “algorithm” but that’s obviously some sort of hallucination on my part.
In the meantime, Big Government has finally proven that Obama’s ACORN forces are carrying out a Khmer Rouge style slaughter of Real, White Americans.
There can be no doubt that this was the policy of Barack Obama in order to take white farmers’ lands and give them to Zimbabwean immigrants. In no way could this Sherrod lady come up with such plans on her own.
Obama should resign immediately and co-author a letter of apology with famed nonracist Tea Party Express leader Mark Miller.
Everyone knows that the USDA has always unfairly favored black farmers.
mistermix
@cleek: You deserve it, because that description nailed it.
mellowjohn
i pronounce it “eye-gore.”
J.W. Hamner
@mistermix:
Yeah, now that you say that I think I recall the column…. but it seems to come out whenever they want to push they incompetent meme… in between pushing the incongruous brutal Chicago thug meme.
Little Dreamer
@El Cid:
You beat me to it on the “algorithm” LOL Although I was going to say “the Al Gore Rhythm”. ;)
superking
As David Letterman pointed out in 2000, Al Gore’s name sounds somewhat like albacore.
Of course, David Letterman is an absurdist comedian. While the NRO is absurdist, they are not comedians.
Paris
Does the Al-Gore epithet predate Al Quaeda? I always thought that was what they were referring to.
QuaintIrene
The same way they think it’s oh-so-witty to call Al Franken ‘Stuart Smalley.’
thingsbreak
@24 Paris
They started doing the Al qaeda/Al-gore thing well after the original “algore” dittohead meme, which is apparently based on Gore’s website.
I know the former first hand, the latter was explained to me by a devoted Limbaugh listener, so take it for what it’s worth.
El Cid
@QuaintIrene: They thought it was a lot funnier, though, before Franken was a Senator.
LGRooney
algore – It actually comes from Pinky and the Brain! There was an episode of that classic series in which they did a parody of Winnie the Pooh (called “Brainie the Pooh”). In it was a donkey, full of hot air that wouldn’t stop talking in an extreme monotone named Algore, i.e., from Eeyore the donkey.
Dr. Squid
@El Cid: That is a hallucination. Rush won’t use words that big – it’s a liberal word that confuzzles his listeners.
Ryan
RE: algore: Because Rush does it.
Also, too.
NonyNony
This. My whole family listened to Rush back in the day and I remember him doing this “comedy” bit at various times. Igor/Algore was probably the outermost limit of Rush’s humor even back when he was actually trying to be funny.
As for why other people do it – because Rush does it. They don’t call these people “dittoheads” for no reason, you know. If Rush does it they want to do it too. He is the leader of the conservative movement these days after all.
Redshirt
Anyone know the term to describe this phenomena? For example, I can guarantee within 98% confidence anytime you hear a Wingnut start lamenting all the crimes of the Clinton presidency, he will mention that Clinton “was handed Osama Bin Laden on a silver platter”.
The phrase “silver platter” is always included. Like with algore, I’ve always assumed this was a piece of the wingnut vocab, and they repeat it out of habit and commitment to the Tribe.
There are many more phrases, concepts, etc, that fall under this heading – “Liberal Media”, “Tax n’ Spend”, etc.
Like mnemonic devices to activate the Wingnuts sleeper programs, maybe?
Danton
For conservatives and other morons, “algore” is thought to be a “funny” abbreviation for a longer word those folks can neither pronounce nor write: “algorhythm.” See, they think Al Gore claimed to have invented the internet.”
Bill Murray
@Scott H: like Rush Limbaugh would know about any sort of analysis, let alone finite element analysis
PeakVT
@Redshirt: Dog whistles? Though that term is generally applied to words or phrases that have a racist or religious meaning.
Soul On Ice
Anyone else remember when Rush thought it hilarious to call Tom Daschle “Puff Daschle”? You know, because his last name sorta, kinda sounds like “Daddy”?
Republicans are to comedy what Manny Ramirez is to decent left field play.
joeyess
“algore” is Limbaugh referring to Al Gore as vice-president under that evil, socialistic experimenting Bill Clinton (Dr. Frankenstein). So, in other words, he is/was Clinton’s toady and/or faithful servant.
It’s all very puerile and was begun the day Clinton was elected and continued ever since.
You see, Limbaugh’s jokes are so bad that he has to explain the punchline over and over and over again for his audience. Or, his audience is comprised of idiots and he has to explain his jokes over and over again. Or, it could be a little of both.
But, nevertheless, that is the true meaning behind “algore”
He’s Igor. Get it?
jeff
I think it’s a play on igor (or eyegore).
Josh
Don Quixote: “The word albogue is Morisco, as are all those in our Spanish tongue that begin with al; for example, almohaza, almorzar, alhombra, alguacil, alhucema, almacen, alcancia, and others of the same sort, of which there are not many more; our language has only three that are Morisco and end in i, which are borcegui, zaquizami, and maravedi. Alheli and alfaqui are seen to be Arabic, as well by the al at the beginning as by the i they end with. I mention this incidentally, the chance allusion to albogues having reminded me of it”
No really, my best guess prior to learning about the Rush reference was that they were calling Algore a Moor. Thanks for the clarification, balloonjuicers.
Greg
Don’t forget, these are the same people who think it’s still hilarious to call a known liberal city “The People’s Republic of….”, a joke that used to be just lame but is now both horribly outdated and lamer.
Little Dreamer
@NonyNony:
I thought the torch had been passed from Limbaugh to Beck, no?
bryanD
Al Gore was Clinton’s Igor. Thus Algore.
goatchowder
The title of this post is a pastiche of a couple wingnut in-joke insults.
The “fat” thing came from Michael Moore, IIRC. Back in 2003, wingnuts were insulting Moore because he is fat. And because he was right about the Iraq war. And about racism and violence and intolerance and greed in America. Stuff like that.
Algore is a Rush-ism. Didn’t know it came from a radio skit, thanks for sharing that.
SiubhanDuinne
@LGRooney:
That PatB episode first aired March 15, 1998. I have a feeling Rush was using “algore” well before that, pretty much throughout the Clinton administration. Could be wrong.
LGRooney
@SiubhanDuinne: Perhaps. I am proud to say that I have never, once, listened to Rush Limbaugh on the radio (nor have I purposely watched him on the TV), so I wouldn’t know. However, my first introduction to it was through Brainie the Pooh (brilliant way to waste time in grad school) and, therefore, I will happily positively affirm that my experience is the correct one. ;-)
bago
Conservatism: Standing athwart history (learning, science, data, anything threatening white rich guys in charge) and shouting “STOP”!
Dude meant it.
j1mmy
its more of an allegory than a pun
gVOR08
I get it the other way around. I’m an engineering manager. We use a software package for structural analysis called ALGOR. I can’t mention it in a meeting or phone call without having to listen to some stupid joke about Al Gore.
mds
I’m surprised that no one has yet mentioned that the term comes from Rush Limbaugh comparing Al Gore to Igor, Dr. Frankenstein’s minion.