Stoopid Ass Etymological Question of the Day

Why do they call the front passenger seat of a car "shotgun?" If anything, it should be called "semi-automatic" for the 9mm stashed in the glove compartment. But maybe that's just my 90's rap roots talking. As we all know shotguns aren't really the preferred firearm of choice in the urban environment. You can't exactly tuck a shotgun into your draws and call it 'concealed.' Therefore, "shotgun" has gotta be a term from Hicksville, Alabama (a real place I shit you not...I don't think I could literally shit you anyway; you're far to big to emerge from my anal cavity). And that's some crazy shit too 'cuz you can't even hide a shotgun in the front seat of a car and/or pickup truck. And tractor trailers don't even have passenger seats. They're like the unicycle of the farm vehicle world. But anyway, the shotgun, it's just out in the open in that passenger seat like "Hey, everybody, look at me and my shotgun driving around the farmer's market. We are badass people. Don't front on our giant tomatoes or we will shoot you in the red neck!"

In the 1920's I bet they called the front passenger seat "tommy gun." "I call tommy!" Joseph 'Babyface' Mulroney would exclaim as he and his fellow gangsters rushed to the getaway car. And in the 1020's it was probably called the "sword and scabbard," and it referred to the stool right next to the wooden-leg captain Robert the Scurvy Scourge of the Seven Seas. "No backseat sailing or else I'm turning this galleon right back around to Antigua! Argghhh!!"

And in prehistoric times they called it the "rock to the face." But instead of a passenger seat, it was the spot in front of two people walking behind you and one person walking to your left. That's how they traveled back then. I know this. I'm a certified historian/time traveler. You punkass, don't doubt me.

So anyway, do "shotgun weddings" have more to do with the front seat of a car or with the barrel of Elmer Fudd's gun? "Shhh, be vewy vewy qwuiet...I'm hunting for wifeys."



Also seems appropriate that McCain's choice of Palin is referred to as a "shotgun wedding." She's definitely riding shotgun, holding a shotgun, and aiming at anything with antlers, community organizing experience, or a press pass.