My phone rang. I glanced at my Caller I.D. It was nobody I knew. At least I was reasonably certain I didn’t know anyone currently residing in Bokoshe or Bugtussle. As if to erase all doubt, “Spam Risk” appeared on the screen.
Spam. SPiced hAM. How did a perfectly good meat product get such a bad name? Back in the day, I enjoyed Spam, the salty processed canned pork product marketed by the Hormel Company. A recent episode of the History Channel’s Food That Made America dealt with the development of Spam in the 1930s. Now knowing the why’s, I gained considerable respect for Spam’s place in American food and social history. A positive place, not a negative place.
Spam is pre-cooked and convenient, requiring minimal preparation and easily incorporated with other foods. It has too much sodium and too much fat to be considered health food, it is frequently blended with various vegetables. Perhaps not in the health food category, it is not complete junk either.
Again, how did Spam, a sustainable canned meat that made its way into the belly of many a grateful GI, become spam, the scourge of email and telephone? It will never again not be associated with unsolicited solicitations, junk, fraud and universal irritation.
Examination disclosed that a 1970s Monty Python sketch which made fun of Spam may be to blame. The sketch was set in a diner which served Spam in most every dish. “Spam, Bacon and cheese”, “Spam, bacon and Spam” and so on. As the waitress is reciting the menu to a customer, a table of Vikings begins to chant, “Spam, Spam, Spam” to the irritation of the customer. Now with the Viking chant growing increasingly loud and grating, the exasperated customer left the diner.
Who knew? Oh. So, repetitive, irritating, uncontrollable. Rather seems that way to me. I’m tired of spam. How do these irritating, bothersome “Telephone Vikings” know my dinner time? How can they be sure I’m home? Oh, Billie has broadcast far and wide that I never miss a meal. Okay.
Thinking about it, this Monty Python outfit enjoyed using the word spam. When Eric Idle decided to write a musical based on the movie, Monty Python and The Holy Grail, he named it Spamalot. It seems there was a line in the movie saying, “I eat ham and jam and Spam a lot.”
Spam, Spam, Spam.
In some cases, I quite like irritating people who need to be irritated. – Robert Smith
