GERG Thread #2: The GERG Nickname

Submitted by MAgoBLUE on

I've been wondering for a while now how it came to be that people started calling Greg Robinson "GERG".  I asked this question in the other GERG thread and didn't get a satisfactory answer.  The Google has not helped me either.  This doesn't appear to be unique to the Michigan fan base which makes me think it started during one of his previous coaching gigs.  Can someone help shed some light on this please?

BlueDragon

March 31st, 2011 at 1:02 PM ^

It was one of those Internet typos that becomes notorious.  Someone transposed the E and the R in his name and the name stuck.  Similar to Blizzard accidentally replacing the o in owned with a p, creating pwned (this was long before WoW, for all you high-schoolers out there).

mikoyan

March 31st, 2011 at 2:46 PM ^

And I here I thought it had its origins in one of the earlier shooters where you could play other players online or networked.   Basically, it was shorthand for pistol owned.  It was for someone who got cocky and took other players out with a pistol.  I want to say it was Doom but I could be wrong.

jmblue

March 31st, 2011 at 1:10 PM ^

Orson Swindle at Every Day Should Be Saturday mistyped "Greg," then decided that the name "Gerg"  worked well for him.  I think the use of caps was an MGoBoard innovation.

MAgoBLUE

March 31st, 2011 at 1:15 PM ^

When I was doing my research I found the post on EDSBS you are talking about:

http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/2008/09/04/greg-robinson-pain-i…

But I didn't make the connection that Orson was the first one to mistype the name and then keep using it.  From the use of "we" in this quote it becomes somewhat clearer:

"In addition to finding sudden joy in mistyping Gerg Robinson's name, since "Gerg" seems like such a better nickname than any other we can make up, the long, painful, fat-man-tumbling-downhill decline of Syracuse is made all the more interesting for us as teams now seemingly out of league are now licking their chops at the prospect of playing the Orangemen."

BlueDragon

March 31st, 2011 at 1:52 PM ^

Those poor Mediterranean cultures can't seem to catch a break, can they? :-)

I took a page out of your book and passed on physics lecture in favor of MGoBlogging and actually doing the pre-lab for my next class.  It's amazing how much busywork can be manufactured in the name of the scientific method with these legit college science lab courses.

justingoblue

March 31st, 2011 at 1:51 PM ^

Hey, it could have been Mike Tyson. I remember the thread though; the guy said it was his phone, but profit was having too much of a laugh and started repeating it all over the place and it spread.

I wish I knew what thread that was, I would love to go back and read it.

Sommy

March 31st, 2011 at 8:31 PM ^

Really?  That's where the oblivion/Bolivian bit came from?

I'm going to start replacing the word "a" with "Byzantine," since I had a friend who complained years ago that his T9 automatically filled in "Byzantine" anytime he typed in the letter "a."

michgoblue

March 31st, 2011 at 1:31 PM ^

MaGOBlue, I applaud your follow through.  In the other GERG thread, you threatened to start your own thread on the topic if someone didn't provide the answer, and by gosh you did it, you crazy bastard.  Well played.