Have you ever wondered why the word “spam” is used to describe unwanted email or other unethical behavior online?

According to Wikipedia, in 1970, Monty Python aired a sketch that featured some pretty funny characters over using the word “spam.” Check out the original sketch below, which I later explain had a major role in the usage of the word “spam” to mean “stupid pointless annoying messages.”

Evidentially, in the early days of chat rooms, people used to quote this sketch or simply write the word SPAM a huge number of times in order to frustrate other chatters. One funny example on Wikipedia sites Star Wars and Star Trek fans sabotaging each others’ chat room with quotes from the Monty Python spam sketch. Remember, Internet connections were much slower in the early 1980s so overloading a chat room with a large amount of text caused major problems for the participants in the chat room.

I had previously believed that spam was used to describe unwanted email based on the visual of someone throwing canned SPAM meat into a fast turning metal fan blade. The fan would chop up the SPAM and throw it all over the place, which I thought was a brilliant metaphor that captures the grossness of the spamming activity. Wikipedia claims this is not the actual origin of the word.

Hormel, the maker of the canned meat SPAM, has sued several companies over the misuse of their trademark. However, due to the massive common use of the word spam in the English vernacular, Hormel has had to accept that one of their prize products will forever be associated with unethical Internet behavior. Spam is evenly commonly defined by reputable dictionaries as both the canned meat and also unwanted email. Hormel has settled with encouraging people to reserve the all capital version of the word SPAM to mean the canned meat (again according to Wikipedia).

On a final note, keep in mind that spam isn’t restricted to just unwanted email. Unethical behavior such as invading instant messaging services is a form of spam commonly called “spim.” Unfortunately, spam also reaches search engines, news rooms, mobile phones via text messages, wiki entries, and website guest books. Most annoyingly, spam also enters into blog comments, but the savvy blogger employs technology to clean up the spam.