An idiotic trend that shows no signs of stopping

Watergate - ok

It seems ubiquitous at this point. You turn on the TV or pick up a newspaper and see a headline referring to the latest scandal:

"Mitt Romney's Newest Mini-Headache: 'Cookiegate'" (Link)


Give me a break. The guy made a bad joke about cookies (incidentally from a bakery in my home town - the cookies are ok, but come on)

It seems that any time there is any kind of wrong-doing, a title is attached to it, and more often than not, it's a word with "-gate" after it.

Fistbumpgate - Not ok.

This is both lazy and idiotic.

It stems from the Watergate scandal, which refers to the Nixon administration's break-in at the Watergate complex in Washington DC, to spy on the Democratic National Committee. The scandal lead to Nixon's eventual resignation in 1974. Clearly this was a major political event, but it set off a chain of lunacy that still exists today.  It had nothing to do with "water"; it was literally the name of the place where the break in occurred. This apparently has given people free-reign to apply "-gate" to anything and have it be known that it indicates some sort of transgression. The list of scandals with the suffix "-gate" from the last 40 years is too long for me to list, but lucky for you, Wikipedia did it (here).

Simply adding "-gate" to a word needs to stop. But in the mean time, at least there are some ones that are so bad, that you just have to laugh. For your consideration, "Terrorist Fist Bump Gate"

Which scandal names do you find ridiculous/amusing?

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