Welcome to a magical mystery ride down the tube and into the anus: a special three-part report on boofing. Parts I and II can be found here and here.
“Judge, have you boofed yet?”
That phrase is written in Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s 1983 Georgetown Prep yearbook. It apparently corresponds to “Bart, have you boofed yet?,” which appears on Kavanaugh’s longtime friend (and yearbook editor) Mark Judge’s page as well. It fits in with the numerous references to heavy drinking and sex throughout the yearbook: “100 kegs or bust,” “Devil’s Triangle,” etc.
Boofing, as you probably know by now, generally refers to consuming booze or drugs through the ass. A little too spicy for the Supreme Court? Maybe — Kavanaugh, however, insists boofing was just a fart joke way back then, and the phrase meant “Judge, have you farted yet?”
Skeptical? You’re not alone. Even Kavanaugh’s classmates dispute his claim.
Because real eyes realize real lies, we dug into the long history of boofing and all its past definitions and misconceptions. The verdict? There’s a strong chance Kavanaugh was lying about it meaning “fart.” But he probably didn’t mean “butt chug” either.
Read on, boofers.
Boof = Butt Sex
When we interviewed a guy who boofs ecstasy (that is, he inserts the psychedelic in his ass), he understood boofing as a derivative of a derivative — from “buttfuck,” to “bufu,” to “boof.” This theory has legs to boof on.
There are a few instances of 1980s pop culture — the era when Brett was in high school — that argue in favor of “boof” referring to butt sex. In the 1985 movie Teen Wolf, for example, Michael J. Fox refers to one of his girlfriends as “Boof.”
According to a Teen Wolf message board about the meaning of this nickname, one user points out that being on the East Coast in the early 1980s, he knew the term as a “derivative of bufu,” referring to anal sex. In addition, some over on etymology forum English.StackExchange.com float the theory that Howard Stern would often use the term in reference to a grab bag of sexual things on his radio show.
The etymology forum also notes a few headlines and quotes pulled from universities in the 1980s that use “boofed” as a cleaner stand-in for “buttfucked.” For instance, from the Stanford Daily in 1983: “Well, there are too many problems with it, like returning residence priority. Either you’re really set for three years or you’re boofed.”
Jonathon Green’s Slang Dictionary, published in 2008, also lists a “boofer” as being a “buttfucker,” which, he says, first appeared in the 1970s.
Boof = Butt Smuggling
Green’s Slang Dictionary also says “boof” took on the meaning of “contraband hidden in the rectum” around the year 2000, specifically relating to prison. This is also referenced in Gary L. Heyward’s Corruption Officer: From Jail Guard to Perpetrator Inside Rikers Island.
As the term spread among prisons and teens, it took on the butt-chugging synonym we know and love today. If we’re judging from the innumerable entries on Reddit, Urban Dictionary and more, the current definition of the term is clearly “shoving a funnel full of beer or drugs into your butthole.” The current definition is most likely a recent change that’s evolved from the prison “boof,” which makes it more likely Kavanaugh and Judge were referring to butt sex, not butt chugging.
Boof = Bad Weed
In some rap lyrics, “boof” refers to a particularly bad strain of weed:
Boof = Boof Bonser
Bonser is a professional baseball player who legally changed his name to Boof in 2001. Boof was a nickname given to him by his mother, though he never asked the origin, according to the New York Times. Google Search trends saw a spike for “boof” in Minnesota in August 2006, likely because Boof was brought up from the minors that year to the Minnesota Twins.
Boof = Kayak Stuff
White-water rafting aficionados know the term “boof” well: It refers to the act of keeping the tip of the kayak from going underwater after flying over a cliff in the river. It’s named for the noise the kayak makes as it bounces over a wave and hits the water below. See Alex DePue’s “The Complete Guide to Boofing,” for more on kayak boofing.
Boof = Puff
Some etymology sources list “boof” as something “puffing up,” like “her hairdo was boofed up.”
Boof = Wet Fart
An Urban Dictionary definition for boof as a “wet fart” first appeared in 2006, but it’s currently ranked near the bottom of other definitions. On Google Trends, “Boof fart” doesn’t appear until 2008, while the other definitions appear well before then:
So technically there’s a chance Kavanaugh meant boof as a fart when he added it to his yearbook.
Technically.
Quinn Myers
Quinn Myers is a staff writer at MEL. He reports on internet culture, technology, health, masculinity and the communities that flourish within.
