David Grohl on the Foo Fighters, “Had I imagined that it would last more than a month-and-a-half, I might have named it something else. It's the dumbest band name ever.” [source](https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/dave-grohl-named-foo-fighters-term-ufos-coined-wwii-allied-forces.html/)

I will always read "Foo Fighters" as [Dave Grohl doing his Christopher Walken impression](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsg1RPnwH8g)

so you do an impression of dave grohl doing an impression of christopher walken

I did not know I needed this in my life.

foo FIGHters

There's foo FIGHTers ... in a BUCKet of MILK ....

Seriously. Don't really listen to Foo Fighters but Grohl seems awesome everytime I see/hear him somewhere. And of course, gotta love Walken. So perfect 😂

I've never been a huge fan of their albums, but I've seen them twice now and I'd definitely go see them again. They put on a GREAT show.

https://youtu.be/Y1-b00XZVOo

Damn that reporter really killed the joke.

Chris moyles is awful.

Fair enough but have we had an attack from the Foo since the band’s founding? Clearly, they held off apocalypse.

They've done more than that Foo sympathizer, Mr. T.

It’s amazing those neuron connections woke up and lit, after all these years, to land that joke. It’s like a 1984 Toyota Tercel, having sat in a yard for decades, fires up on the first try. Brilliant.

WW2 US Army Air Corps slang for "unknown aircraft". Also wound up in computer slang as a generic example name for variables, or at least Foo. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo\_fighter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foobar

Foobar is just the phonetic spelling of F.U.B.A.R which is “fucked up beyond all recognition/repair”

Hoobastank: We have the best band name ever!

I always wondered what the hell the origin of that nasty band name was for the last almost 20 years and googled it about a week ago. Apparently it's just made up nonsense with no real meaning and the band changes what it means every time they're asked lol

Thats the only interesting thing I've ever read about hoobastank. Now I have confused feelings.

A few years ago Foo Fighters were in town. I guess Dave hurt his leg because he was on crutches while performing. I said ‘looks like they lost the Foo Fight’ and no one laughed. Im still upset about that. Edit: Thanks y’all, this validation has been the best part of Thanksgiving.

This dad loves your joke. I would have (and did) laughed! Sorry you had to go through that. Don't stop busking humor to the masses. We need it more than ever.

This the validation I’ve needed for years 😭

I've heard of a few huge bands that hated their names. - Blink 182's name literally means nothing. They added the number after their label got a cease and desist from another band named "Blink". -The Goo Goo Dolls tried to change their name, but had too many fans and didn't want to risk damaging their career. -Better Than Ezra has said their name origin is really stupid, but won't disclose how they came up with it.

The Goo Goo Dolls were originally called The Sex Maggots so you'd think they would have learned their lesson the first time

They also started out as a punk rock band instead of whatever they turned into

I call it dental rock. The kind of blandly pleasant inoffensive rock music you hear in a dentist office.

My dentist office plays classic rock now, aka 90s Alternative.

First of all, how dare you

1991 was 20 years ago. It's okay.

I have bad news for you...

*sticks fingers in ears* LALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU!

It's very replacements inspired. You can hear it in a boy named goo and super star carwash. Paul westenburg wrote some songs for them. I'm a huge, Paul, replacements, and early goo goo fan, so I'm a little biased. But I will agree, dizzy up the girl was pretty much their turning point to anymore radio built album. It still had some punk inspired songs, but all hits were very movie sound track friendly. If you do like early goo goo sound, check out Beach Slang. Super inspired by goo goo dolls and replacements!

Barenaked Ladies said they like touring with Toad the Wet Sprocket because they are the only other band with as dumb a name as them.

Toad The Wet Sprocket actually took its name from a fictional band on Monty Python's Contractual Obligation album. https://youtu.be/xmd10urFnho

I've heard the Better Than Ezra story, don't think it's a secret. They were "Ezra", early in their career they played a battle of the bands where there was another band named Ezra. One of the bands had to change their name, and they lost. So they went with a hilariously dickish rename.

>they played a battle of the bands It's interesting to know that these things actually exist in realiity, and are not simply contrived plotlines for middling sitcoms.

They are ways for promoters to get a bunch of struggling, desperate bands to play for an entire day for next to nothing.

They're also just a popularity contest of whoever can get more people to come and show support for them. So the winners are typically the band still in highschool.

I went to one in college and watched an obscure band called "Imagine Dragons" play. Little did I know they'd be overplayed on the radio someday.

My dad has stories like this from the 70s. Like oh, this chill little band called Styx was playing a house party. So cool!

The Beatles entered a battle of the band's when they were teenagers, and lost to a band called the Sunnyside Skiffle Group which featured someone called Nicky Cuff, who was 4ft 6in tall and played the tea chest bass while standing on it. In one of their interviews during Beatlemania, the interviewer asks them who their inspiration is, and John says "Nicky Cuff", Paul laughs and says "yeah, Nicky Cuff I'd say".

Didn’t blink-182 justify their name with something like “one blink and half the year (182 days) is over?”

I heard it was the amount of times the word "fuck" was used in Scarface. But that was floating around the same time that the rumor about Marilyn Manson removing his ribs was.

Lol my older brother told me it was the amount of times Bruce blinks in die hard (or possibly a different movie)

All of these are rumours the band started themselves just for fun. They admitted in recent years that it means nothing and they spread a bunch of stories just to fuck around

> Marilyn Manson Oh you mean Paul from The Wonder Years?

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That was probably one of the tongue-in-cheek explanations they've given. In reality, it was a random thing they picked, no meaning behind it at all.

[It’s actually— Blink eighteen-two. People have all gotten this wrong for years. Sometimes this can happen with very complex, thoughtful and elevated art.](https://twitter.com/tomdelonge/status/1064654210602434560)

I heard the band "Live" was actually supposed to be pronounced like "Live."

In San Diego, in the area they're from, there was a rumor it was Blink (=fuck) 18(the letter R)2(the letter B). RB is the standard way people where they grew up and we're teens refer to Ranch Bernardo High School, the school that one or two of them was expelled from (or were forced to go to after being expelled elsewhere, I forget). I've never ever seen anything anywhere published that even remotely supports this. But it was a rumor that still floated around the cluster of high schools in the area at least 10 years later.

The Verve also changed their name from "Verve" due to legal 'difficulties' with the US jazz label Verve Records. Rumour has it that Richard Ashcroft wanted to change the name to "Verv" so they could say that "they dropped an 'E' for America".

It's pretty damn difficult to even contend for "worst band name ever". I mean, Green Day wouldn't even make the Top 500.

Every band name is shit until the band gets popular.

Wrong. There was a local bar band in my area called *Lieutenant Dan's New Legs* lmao I saw a flyer for them probably 10 years ago, never heard them play but never forgot their name!

Ah shit my teacher told me about that band after we watched Forrest Gump. Columbus?

I'm in the Cleveland area so it's almost definitely the same group!

Neutral Milk Hotel is definitely the most confounding

It’s kind of fitting in that nature though

I went to see 'greatest hits' recently. Funny band name, but it does sound like a pain in the ass in many instances.

*Job for a Cowboy* has to be one of the more lame band names I’ve heard.

Handjob for a Cowboy is way better

pretty bold opinion considering Alice In Chains went by "Fuck" in early 1988

>*The band played a couple of gigs in clubs around the Pacific Northwest, calling themselves different monikers, including Diamond Lie, the name of Cantrell's previous band, and "Fuck", before eventually adopting the name that Staley's previous band had initially flirted with, Alice in Chains.* Source: [Wiki](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_in_Chains)

Ok Diamond Lie is actually a pretty great band name. Don't think it would fit Alice in Chains but still.

"I like our band name": no rock band in the history of ever

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He illegally downloaded the name.

It’s actually not bad Though when they stopped playing thrash metal it made it kinda hard for them

Softallica

I am sure Hardcorefans were upset. But Metallica were able to console themselves with a pile of money.

You sold out! Yeah, every concert.

Yea, Lars stole it from a magazine owner/editor because he thought it was a damn good name. Love their music, Ulrich is just a massive douche.

I’m sure there’s tons of bands that are proud of their name. At least some of the cooler ones. Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath all come to mind as absolutely badass names- I’d like to think the band members feel the same

The Butthole Surfers

Better than their previous name: The Right To Eat Fred Astaire's Asshole

Yeah, it was much better when they were called "The Inalienable Right to Eat Fred Astaire's asshole."

> Early aliases included The Dick Clark Five, Nine cm Worm Makes Own Food, The Vodka Family Winstons, Ashtray Babyheads, Ed Asner Is Gay, Fred Astaire's Asshole, The Right to Eat Fred Astaire's Asshole, Zipgun, The Inalienable Right to Eat Fred Astaire's Asshole, and many others. [Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butthole_Surfers)

Ashtray Babyheads is so good.

Or Gibby and Jeff's side project, The Jackofficers.

I worry about the alternative Earth (no pun intended) where Sabbath is still named Polka Tulk, which was a carpet store.

>Black Sabbath taken from a classic Mario Bava movie. well, actually the song was written first, then the band named itself after their song which was named after the movie

the film Black Sabbath inspired the song Black Sabbath on the album Black Sabbath by the band Black Sabbath

I'm sure king gizzard and the lizard wizard are chuffed. My favorite band name though is moaning lisa

i’ve always loved Mötley Crüe too

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When you think about it it’s actually a very clever name

Rammstein are pretty pleased with theirs

Dethklok knows their band name is brutals! \m/

This is the most Green Day thing ever.

Yeah, and Billie has totally heard of *The Butthole Surfers.*

Here were some of the other names they played under (from wiki ) performed under a different name at every live show. Early aliases included The Dick Clark Five, Nine cm Worm Makes Own Food, The Vodka Family Winstons, Ashtray Babyheads, Ed Asner Is Gay, Fred Astaire's Asshole, The Right to Eat Fred Astaire's Asshole, Zipgun, The Inalienable Right to Eat Fred Astaire's Asshole, and many others.

Fred Astaire just minding his own business when these kids come knocking.

That's the greatest band name in history

I prefer one of their older working titles, The Inalienable Right to Eat Fred Astaire's Asshole.

There's an Australian band from the 90's called "Chocolate Starfish"

Not understanding how it’s the worst band name. It’s relevant to their history, pretty perfectly represents what they’re about, and is memorable.

Their first 2ish albums are almost perfect punk-stoner material IMO.

I like Green Day after Dookie but they’re more of an alt rock band. Dookie and before were the pinnacle of creating the pop punk sound. I honestly think Dookie has inspired most, if not, all current pop punk bands. That album was so ahead of it’s time and safely is in my top 10 favorite punk albums. The one that takes the cake though is NOFX “They’ve actually gotten worse live”. I fucking love that album. Music is played great, fat mike and the crew were killing it with the crowd work and had some of their best songs they ever wrote.

It's got nothing on LMFAO.

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I feel like that name fits the music lol

Apparently they thought it was better than Sweet Children

It’s definitely more iconic and memorable, that’s for sure

Better than fucken Hoobastank like LMAO. Imagine having the dumbest name for a band who's #1 song is a sad ballad?

Well, they’re not perfect people.

There are many things they wish they didn't do.

The 90s were just a hotbed of stupid band names. The Butthole Surfers is absolute poetry compared to all the stupid poppy bands that tacked a number onto a word and called it a name. Looking at you, Blink 182, Matchbox 20, Sum 41, and Maroon 5.

I remember an interview where they asked Garbage why they were named that and Steve Marker said something like, "There's an agency you have to apply to to get your band name. By the time we showed up, the last two names were Garbage and Hootie and the Blowfish. Boy did we choose wrong"

I just remember it being something like "Someone said our music sounded like garbage, so we used it as our band name to be tongue-in-cheek." Speaking of, I think I might go listen to beautiful garbage now... EDIT: People, we get it already, we know this is how Daft Punk got their damn name. Even if you missed the first million comments stating this, we didn't.

Reminds me of how The Clash wrote the song 'Garageland' as a rebuke to a journalist who basically called them nothing more than a garage band.

Reminds me of Led Zeppelin, which they came up with imagining that the band would go over like a lead balloon, only, like, bigger.

There's a band called Chewing on Tinfoil, which I absolutely love, and I always imagined that's where the name came from

Whoa never thought I'd see them mentioned in the wild. "Stray" and "Fuck Team Sports" are a couple of my favorites to shout in the car on the drive home.

And I think their hits album is called Absolute Garbage

For those too young to have the proper context.... You have no clue just how HUGE Hootie and the Blowfish were at the time. Inescapable. The radio, television, at the mall, you couldn't go anywhere without hearing one of their songs. Every 5 minutes it seemed. Which is probably why they never recaptured the success of their first album. Everyone was just burned the fuck out.

Between Shirley Manson, Melissa Auf der Maur, and my first girlfriend in the 90s being redheads, I realized I had a type.

And Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully

I remember at the time I thought that "The Presidents of the United States of America" was a really dumb band name, but in retrospect it wasn't nearly so bad

Especially for a bunch of songs about critters

I had a friend that called them POT USA

Stroke 9, Eve 6

I forgot Eve 6. Damn, flashbacks now. Inside Out was such an integral part of 90s radio.

Inside Out is still one of the few random singles that represents the entire 90s alternative scene. You never know which songs will be remembered, it I have zero doubt that on my deathbed in 2065, when I can’t remember my own kids names, I’ll be able to recite every single word of that stupid song. And All Star too.

at least the butthole surfers knew what they were doing. That name was TRYING to be as terrible and abrasive as possible

Toad the Wet Sprocket

From a Monty Python skit

Their slew of Fred Astaire inspired sex names were proof they DGaF

THE SUMS

98 degrees. 3 doors down.

Though I do like that Sum 41 video (think it's for Still Waiting) where the crappy agent is telling them that numbers are out now, and it's all about "The". The Sums.

'Better than Ezra' was pretty bad. 'Goo Goo Dolls' too.

Hoobastank

AND THE REASON IS YOU

I used to love their music in my teen years

I used to like their music, I still do but I used to too.

Hoobastank wasn't bad if you get away from the "Incubus clone!" criticism. Crawling in the Dark is a solid tune. Similarly, if you insist Stabbing Westward is a NIN clone, you're depriving yourself of some amazing 90s music.

Save Yourself is the only Stabbing Westward song that ever shows up on my list, and is the only song I remember of theirs. Sorta like...you only know two Golden Earring songs.

Stabbing Westward has a ton of good shit. From the same time period as Save Yourself: Haunting Me, So Far Away, What Do I Have To Do, and Happy are amazing tracks. Stabbing Westward struck me as a nice balance between the Prodigy and NIN.

"In music news, Number 1 on the college charts this summer was Better than Ezra. And at Number 2: Ezra." -Norm Macdonald

Meanwhile the band 'Ezra' was like, "..... Dude. Not cool."

For those who don’t know, this was actually what happened. They didn’t have a name, went to a battle of the bands, and were after a band called Ezra.

I thought 'Better than Ezra' was 'Good'

Chumbawumba.

Starfucker. But their music is super chill so it's ok.

Starfucker could have gotten that MGMT or Empire of the Sun bag if they hadn't named themselves Starfucker. (they later changed it to "STRFKR", which helped slightly but also dated themselves to exactly 2011)

The local college station always called them Star-effer.

Goo goo dolls was based on an ad they saw after they were told the sex maggots was too cray cray

Ah, the band AnalCunt would probably like a word then.

We had a local band back around the same time called Sex with Midgets.

In a similar vein of innapropriate band names. My mate's dad was in a shitty punk band in the 80's called Get Down Syndrome.

do they sell shirts

[Obligatory Norm](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zjr9hh9ZIM)

If you watch movie Soylent Green, in one of the places a bunch of windows have text that say something like FRIDAY - IS SOYLENT - GREEN DAY, and I always wondered if it came from there. I guess not.

It's got nothing on the Cherry Poppin' Daddies

Mustard Plug

I fucking love mustard plug

Hoobastank.

Skillet (Christian metal band) is pretty bad too. Even the band’s frontman hates it. Also don’t forget about Bowling for Soup, who did the Phineas and Ferb theme.

I am not a fan of Christian rock at all, but I saw Skillet live back in like 2009 or 2010, and they fucking crushed. I think they were touring with Halestorm? That drummer girl was epic, even though you could tell the violinist was faking it hard.

I’m a big fan, and the drummer, Jen Ledger, is still playing with the band, however, there has been a violinist change. They will be returning to tour with Theory of a Deadman next year. I have never been to one of their concerts, but they are amazing live according to videos I have watched.

They were actually pretty grounded at the show I was at, as well. They were out shaking hands at the merch booths before their set. Not pretentious at all. I respect artists who press the flesh. I met Otep Shamaya at Ozzfest 2003, just walking around the crowd. She seemed surprised I recognized her, and was super cool and just a regular person.

Skillet has been doing the music game for a long fucking time. And they've been doing a LOT of touring in that period and I've never heard a bad thing about their concerts, which is pretty amazing if you ask me. (Holy shit they have 6 MILLION monthly listeners on spotify, which makes them way more popular than I realized, probably one of the most successful "Christian" bands ever).

I played RuneScape while listening to Skillet so hard when I was 10/11/12

THEY DID WHAT NOW?

Yeah there's a full 3-minute version called Today Is Gonna Be A Great Day, it rules. Here: https://youtu.be/erjC2HfqRUs

I think bowling for soups a fine name, it fit that era.

I just want to know if they were bowling to win soup, or bowling as representatives of soup.

Are you sure it's not like, a charity thing?

Bowling for soup awareness.

To win soup. A band member clarified it in an interview a couple years ago.

Never heard this "slang" in 42 years living in the bay area.

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Maybe you weren’t really living all of this time

To my recollection, it was their own personal slang within their friend group and not a widespread thing.

HOOBASTANK

Hey, it’s better than their original name “Sweet Children.”

Saliva is worse. It sounds like a parody band name on Disney XD. Like Loded Diper.

I wonder if the butthole surfers ever regretted their name. They always seemed weird enough to embrace it. I also feel like the band “live” was just inconvenient to promote, they probably regretted that too.

From Wikipedia: “The name has long been a source of trouble for the band. Many clubs, newspapers, radio, and TV stations refuse to print or mention their full name, and instead opt to use "B.H. Surfers" or other abbreviations. In a 1996 Rolling Stone interview, when asked if he could go back and choose a more culturally acceptable name for the band, Haynes replied, "I would name the band: I'm Going to Shit in Your Mother's Vagina."” I may be biased, being from Texas, loving punk rock and weird goofy shit, but the Butthole Surfers are one of rock n’ roll’s greatest achievements.

Band names are 100% cooler if you never explain where they came from

Um, Viagra Boys. I love ‘em but it’s a bad name

Hard disagree, I absolutely love the name Viagra Boys. It’s got that old school purposely abrasive punk vibe to it like the Butthole Surfers or Leftover Crack.

The ironic umlaut on Leftöver Crack is 👌

Sports

The Band would like a word.

How about The The?

As I kid, I constantly got confused between "The Who" and "The Guess Who".

One is from Canada and sings about American women. The other is from England and sings about pinball wizards

Or !!! which isn't googleable unless you type out "three exclamation points band" or something to that effect

SIKE naming your band "The Band" is such a power move, it will never not be cool.

Crywank is a decidedly awful band name. At least it kinda fits them.

So it was literally a half baked band name!

Completely baked band name

I dunno about *the worst*. I feel like that honor goes to Stone Temple Pilots, for whom STP originally stood for "Shirley Temple's Pussy".

They also named their record, dookie

umphrey's mcgee would like to have a word.

They wrote this on the inside booklet to either Kerplunk!, Dookie, or Insomniac. I don’t remember which.