Ratfucking
Ratfucking is an American
Origins
As a term, ratfucking was commonplace in Southern California and possibly other college slang from the late 1950s to at least the early 1960s, meaning a prank. Around that time, Tony Auth was the cartoonist for the Daily Bruin. One of his cartoons showed a large, inebriated rat suggesting to another rat, "Let's go PF-ing tonight!", a play on ratfucking or "RF-ing". The lead story in the January 6, 1961, California Tech, Caltech's student newspaper, was headlined, "Tech Scores First Televised RF". The article chronicled the Great Rose Bowl Hoax, which had just taken place. A political context was irrelevant to such usage. At the end of the article, an Editor's Note both explained and bowdlerized: "RF (for Royal Flush) is a contemporary college colloquialism for a clever prank."[1]
Woodward and Bernstein's account in All the President's Men reports that many Republican staffers—
Usage
The term received media attention in Australia after it was reported that Prime Minister
On May 23, 2019, scholar Svetlana Lokhova filed a claim in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia against Stefan Halper, claiming that "Stefan Halper is a ratfucker and a spy" with a footnote that "ratfucking" is a well-known political term.[12] After the results of the 2020 United States presidential election were called for Joe Biden and there were attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election as Trump refused to concede, John Oliver, host of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, said on one of his shows following the set up of the Trump voter fraud hotline that "a political term for election shenanigans is rat[s fucking]. So if you, say, happen to have any access to images of Pennsylvania-based rats fucking, it's frankly your patriotic duty to send them to the Trump campaign straight away." While saying this, Oliver displayed an image of rats engaged in sexual intercourse Stay Up Late and the online link to the voter fraud hotline's website.[13]
See also
References
- ^ "Tech Scores First Televised RF". California Tech. January 6, 1961. Retrieved September 8, 2022.
- ^ "Excerpts from American Twilight". The Green Institute. July 2005. Archived from the original on July 7, 2007. Retrieved July 13, 2007.
- ^ Taibbi, Matt (March 24, 2006). "Meet Mr. Republican: Jack Abramoff". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on April 22, 2006.
- ^ "University of Southern California Trustees (1979)". Namebase. Archived from the original on September 3, 2012. Retrieved May 9, 2016.
- ^ "From CIA to USC: Biography of a Trustee". Namebase. Retrieved May 9, 2016.
- ^ Marr, David (June 7, 2010). "Power Trip: The political journey of Kevin Rudd (extract)". Quarterly Essay. No. 38. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
- ^ "Rats from a sinking summit - Fully [sic]". Fully [sic]. June 9, 2010. Retrieved May 9, 2016.
- ^ Rhodan, Maya; Elliot, Phillip (March 25, 2016). "Ted Cruz Blames Donald Trump for 'Garbage' National Enquirer Story". Time. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
- ^ Davidson Sorkin, Amy (March 29, 2016). "Donald and Melania and Heidi and Ted". The New Yorker. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
- ^ Zimmer, Ben (January 25, 2019). "Roger Stone and 'Ratf—ing': A Short History". Politico. Retrieved March 6, 2024.
- ^ Wheeler, Marcy [@emptywheel] (August 2, 2017). "I honestly thought "ratfuck" was considered a technical political term, not a modification of "fuck."" (Tweet). Retrieved October 20, 2019 – via Twitter.
- ^ Gerstein, Josh (May 24, 2019). "Intelligence scholar sues Cambridge academic, U.S. news outlets over reports on Flynn links". Politico. Retrieved May 24, 2019.
- ^ "Election Results 2020". Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. HBO. Retrieved December 19, 2021 – via YouTube.