Question – What do homeless people call a dumpster? Answer – a Bed and Breakfast.
I heard a sports commentator the other day describe a certain NFL owner’s legacy as being that of a “real dumpster fire” and knew immediately what he meant.
However, it did make me wonder just where and how did that expression originate. Here then for you is more info than you ever needed, nor probably wanted to know, on the subject of dumpsters. Note that if you don’t want to “waste” (get it?) your time on this quick “dumpster dive,” move on and come back tomorrow when I will “recycle” some other useless info for you. (Note the three bad puns in one sentence – try doing that sometime when you are not taking out your trash.)
From Wiki I learned that dumpster is actually a brand name that became a generic reference like Kleenex, Coke and Xerox (click here.) The original trash bin was initially referred to as Dempster Dumpster named after its inventor George Dempster:
The expression “dumpster fire” then originated around 2003 when a movie critic wrote that the movie Texas Chain Saw Massacre was “the cinematic equivalent of a dumpster fire – stinky but insignificant” (click here.)
From being used as a movie descriptor, the term then became very popular and used to describe everything from people to historical events. “Dumpster fire” achieved its claim to reference fame in our 2016 Presidential election when it became so well used that it earned its very own emoji 🗑️🔥.
However, like all fads that come and go, “dumpster fire” eventually has landed on the scrap heap of once-popular sayings. It joins former popular catch phrases such as “Sock it to me,” “Where’s the beef,” and “Shaking like a dog shitting peach pits.” (OK, so I just threw that last one in there to see if you were still paying attention. Fact is, I only heard that one said in Buzzy’s Country Store just the other day and couldn’t wait to use it somewhere.)
But speaking of classics and trash, one of the more famous episodes of The Simpsons was titled Trash of the Titans. Homer ran for Sanitation Commissioner and won defeating the current Commissioner Ray Patterson who was voiced by Steve Martin. U2 also made an appearance. Here is a clip from the show. (Prime Video has all the old Simpson episodes if you want to try and catch any of them. This one ran in Season 9 Episode 22.)