Difference between revisions of "shit sandwich"

Latest revision as of 23:06, 4 February 2012

Shit sandwich or crap sandwich is a metaphor for an unpleasant situation that one is forced to endure. The normal usage is in the phrase "eating a shit sandwich". The metaphor follows from the idea that eating a sandwich composed of feces would be highly unpleasant.

Shit Sandwich: This term is actually referring to a way to criticize someone without putting them off. The 'shit' is the critique, and you 'feed' this shit to them with a positive comment both before and afterwards. That is how the 'shit' becomes accepted by the recipient.

An expansion on this saying is "The less bread you have, the more shit you have to taste", where bread is a metaphor for money; the saying means that those with less money will have more unpleasant experiences. It is also reversed, with the meaning similarly reversed.

The expression has found some degree of favor within the US Armed Forces, along with several other "off-color" phrases. It is not uncommon in United States slang in some parts of the country.

Another use is when you have to deliver bad news to someone you put it between compliments. i.e compliment, bad news (shit), compliment.

In fiction[edit]

The term is used in the movie Full Metal Jacket

The term was also once used as the complete, two-word review of the album "Shark Sandwich" by the fictional heavy metal rock band Spinal Tap.

Along with a giant douche, a turd sandwich completed the candidates for South Park Elementary School mascot in the Election 2004 parody episode Douche and Turd.

In a "review" of the movie Forrest Gump, for the Mystery Science Theater 3000 "Little Golden Statute preview show," Crow T. Robot retorts to Gump's famous saying that "life is like a box of chocolates" by saying, "Life is like a crap sandwich! The more bread you have, the less crap you have to take!"

See also: SNAFU

Offensive Remark[edit]

Sometimes this term can be use in junction with an offensive verbal attack on someone. More commonly known phrase which suggests physical threat is the term Knuckle sandwich. A verbal abuse in which one tells another "go and eat a knuckle sandwich", it implies that the user wishes the other person to suffer via a punch to the mouth. The term however does not mean the person in question is putting fecal matter between two slices of bread and consuming it by mouth.

Examples of Usage[edit]

1 An example of eating a 'shit sandwich' in the world of coprophagia Australian television.

This conversation was recounted by Mark Llewellyn in a court affidavit regarding changes being made against the Nine Network.

Browne said: "We've got big plans for you at the network and Eddie and I think you are one of the real talents at Nine. This is therefore a difficult chat, because there is a shit sandwich you're going to be asked to swallow. We want to cut your pay to $400,000 and we want you to consider taking on one of two new positions."

I said: "That's some shit sandwich."

2 Used in regards to the prospect of an unpleasant Australian Football League television broadcasting arrangement between the Seven and Ten Network.

...

As one market source put it: "The big question is - who's going to have to eat the biggest s... sandwich?"[1]

External links[edit]

• Definition from the Urban Dictionary site