Just to be clear, I'd never found the word spaz to be offensive before, and I've used it plenty. I don't think the show's use was meant offensively and I'm not adamant that it not be used if the context is verbified or whatever. Also there's a lot of (non-buffista) folks who'd find a thread named Spike's Bitches offensive. It's all about the context, baby.

I don't find the press announcements tedious or absolutely necessary. So I agree with everyone.

ION, I'd really like to see the Spoilage Lite thread recreated if there's a lot of interest. Otherwise, no biggie.

Not that I care, but spaz is really quite incredibly offensive in the UK. As offensive as cripple, or more so.

Jim, how did the UK handle "Band Candy"? That's the ep where Snyder had the line that started it all.

I'm trying to think of a way to keep the word without upsetting UKistas (and I note that you disclaimed upset). Maybe, "Quotable 3: Summers, You Drive Like a Spaz"? Use the full original quote?

I would think that "Delicious Babies and Istanbul got Spazzed" is less-potentially-offensive than "You Drive Like a Spaz", but I don't mind either.

Willow also used the word, to Oz -- though in an ironic, teasing way -- in "New Moon Rising." He says how in Tibet the things he learned in order to not wolf out were all about keeping your inner cool. And then Willow says, "Good, because you were such a spaz before."

I would think that "Delicious Babies and Istanbul got Spazzed" is less-potentially-offensive than "You Drive Like a Spaz", but I don't mind either.

My gut says just the opposite --- You Drive reads to me very specifically as the Snyder quote. The other is divorced from that context, and so much more uncomfortable for me.

OTOH, I'm not in the thread and doubt I will be, so I'm'a butt out from the rest of the naming discussion.

Mother teaches disabled children and I had NO IDEA spaz was as offensive as it seems to be.

Learn something new everyday.

I think it's a given that spaz derives from spastic, but they're certainly not interchangeable in American usage. (The lines would never have been "drive like a spastic" or "such a spastic before".) Is it the case that both words are offensive in British English usage?

The other is divorced from that context, and so much more uncomfortable for me.

In my head, since "spazzed" isn't a real verb, and has never (to my knowledge) been used to mean anything related to "spastic", it shouldn't be offensive. It's a word we made up whose derivatrion comes from the word "spaz", but not from the meaning of "spaz", if that makes any sense.

It's a word we made up whose derivatrion comes from the word "spaz", but not from the meaning of "spaz", if that makes any sense.

It does. Spazzed is not context free if you're a Deathmatcher (but not everyone is) and it has a very specific meaning having nothing to do with a derogatory use of the word spaz. Istanbul was robbed. Istanbul got the shaft.

But I can see being uncomfortable if you don't know that (or even if you do, I guess), and the word spaz is offensive to you. I've been trying to come up with a comparison, because my USian brain doesn't recoil from it any more than it does from geek, nerd, freak or weirdo (although some USian brains do) ... I can see if I happened upon a thread with some version of retard in it (which I do find offensive), and I didn't know the sooper seekrit, thread-specific buffista meaning, then I'd do a double take. Of course, I'm not implying that retard is inoffensive anywhere, just that I think I have the same reaction to it as some do to spaz.

This is not helping me make up my mind, really. I guess I like Spazzed because I associate it with the Deathmatch meaning. But, you know, "Inner Moppet got Spanked" -- because it SO did -- would work form me, so I'm living in my own little World of Fun.

But if Spaz gets spazzed for thread title after having been coined because it got spazzed for OTQ? There's a certain bit funny in that.