Desert Bus Lexicon

This page is a list of terms that were created or popularized during Desert Bus for Hope.

Desert Bus for Hope

"For the Children!"

An oft-uttered phrase that provides justification for the crazy things done on Desert Bus. Frequently invoked someone is about to do something embarrassing or unpleasant, in the manner of "Well, it's for the children," or to guilt/encourage others to donate, as with, "Come on! It's for the children." The official DB4 "crest" t-shirt design features the latin motto "Bardus Pro Liberi", which translates as "stupidity for the children".

"Dear Doctor X"

To amuse himself during his shifts in Desert Bus 1, Morgan solicited advice column-style questions from the chat, in a segment called "Ask Doctor Morgan." Soon, this evolved such that anyone in the room became an honorary doctor when someone asked them a question (sometimes used as "Dear Dr. Kathleen", "Dear Dr. LRR" or "Dear Dr. Anyone").

In later Desert Bus events this evolved further to assigning the DB crew random honorifics such as "Supreme Overlord", "Rear-Admiral" or "Rocket Surgeon".

Taking a Dive

Intentionally crashing the bus in exchange for a donation. The first was when Eddie Gorodetsky, co-designer of the game, called in and offered the crew $500 to crash the bus. As they were only 30 minutes into the run, the crew took him up on this offer. Since Desert Bus 2, these have not been accepted.

Upside-Down Girls

Originally occurred when two female guests were challenged to drive while upside-down in the drivers chair, in exchange for a donation. Various iterations of this have recurred (upside-down girl, upside-down James, etc)

“Is it Safe?”

A reference to the movie "Marathon Man," no one is quite sure how this started being asked during the first Desert Bus, but the chat would frequently ask the crew if "it" was safe. Jer was a big fan of this meme early on and really helped push it along.

Desert Bus for Hope 2

Roscoe P. Jangles IV

Plush mallard owned by Jer, named by auction during Desert Bus 2. Has become the unofficial mascot of Desert Bus.

"Boo-Ray"

A combination of "boo" and "hooray", that feeling the drivers feel when a donation increases the amount of time they'll have to spend driving – at first, sadness that it's not over yet, but then realization that this means more money for the childrens, and thus is a good thing.

"Swear"

Used in place of more offensive words, since DB is a family-friendly stream. Has been supplanted (usually) by "Bus." (See Desert Bus 3)

Bill's Mom

The mother of Bill Watt, who visits and tells embarrassing stories about Bill or reveals secret information about him in exchange for donations.

Send Matt to Twilight

Desert Bus 2 occurred while the first Twilight movie was in theaters. Donations came in to force Matt to see the movie... repeatedly. This tradition of raising money by forcing Matt to watch the terrible Twilight movies continued in subsequent years, at one point involving embarrassing vampire costumes.

Desert Bus for Hope 3

Space Bid

Inspired by the Space Jump video/meme, to "space bid" is to place a bid in an auction (usually a live auction) when you're already the highest bidder.

OctoPimp

One of the earliest “big bidders” on auction items, also did a large amount of bid sniping, capturing people’s imaginations. Though his participation has waned in recent years, he has become an oft-invoked figure.

"Madness"

In reference to the 2006 film "300" and the accompanying meme ("Madness? This! Is! SPARTA!"), Madness became Desert Bus code for the number 300. If an auction went over $300, it was deemed Madness, and given a Madness level for each multiple of $300 the bids reached (an auction ending at $1000 would be Triple Madness). Coined by Graham, after DB3's auctions reached unprecedented levels.

Craft-Along

Fans began to make and donate crafted items to auction off. Some items go for thousands of dollars.

Value Added (e.g. Ken “Value Added” Steacy)

Visitor/guest who brings their considerable talents to bear in producing items to be auctioned for absurd amounts of money

Caramelldansen

A song (full name: "Caramelldansen (SpeedyCake Remix)") along with a distinctive, repetitive dance. Oft-requested, Kathleen has danced this dance many, many times. The first time this occured can be seen here: [1]

Gay Bar

Matt put on a sparkly shirt and sang “Gay Bar” by Electric Six, complete with erotic choreography. Now, people often request to be taken to the "gay bar." By Matt.

"Bus" (e.g. "Bussing," "Mother Bussing," etc.)

Catch-all swear censor. Supplanted "swear."

"Appoint" (e.g. "I am appoint")

The opposite of disappoint. Coined by a sleepy Morgan in response to what he perceived to be the negativity of the English language.

Desert Bus for Hope 4

"Clubbing," "Getting clubbed," "Can you step," "Come at me bro," etc.

See Clubbing. Later incorporated into Bros Clubbing Bros.

Minecraft Splash Screen

"Play Minecraft, Watch Top Gear, Get Pig"

From a phone interview with Elizabeth Grunewald, briefly a feature writer for the Escapist. She was taking notes on things the crew told her to check out, and she said, "I’ve been making a list. I’ve got 'Play Minecraft, Watch Top Gear, Get Flag'" ...the flag being an Eddie Izzard reference on colonization. She needed one to reclaim her desk at work. Then, because pigs were a meme that year, it became pig. Subsequently, Notch offered to auction off a Minecraft splash text, and the winner chose this phrase to be included. The phrase now appears (randomly) on the Minecraft splash. According to Graham, Chris Whitman was a big pusher for "get Pig" the day this occurred.

"Sweeten the Pig" (sometimes "Sweden the Pig")

Referred to as "sweetening the pot" by "normal" people, but adjusted slightly by the pig themes of Desert Bus 4, this refers to adding more prizes to an auction-in-progress, to increase interest in the bidding. It may also be used as an incentive to increase the bid (eg "We will sweeten the pig if the bid goes over $1000").

Team Kroze vs Team Ashton

In the spirit of Team Edward vs Team Jacob from Twilight, Desert Bus participants were asked to choose to align themselves with either Kroze or Ashton. The rivalry was intense.

Temple of the Lava Bears

A Dungeons and Dragons campaign invented by Jer after it was referenced in a CommodoreHUSTLE 11 - Showdown, and played during Desert Bus 4 by the Warriors of Darkness. 1, 2, 3, 4

Aristotle

The name of Kate's cat. Naming rights were auctioned off to the Desert Bus chat.

Bothan spies (e.g. "May Bothans Died to bring us X")

A reference to Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and the Bothan Spynet, whose members would often give their lives to deliver information. In the context of Desert Bus, a certain amount of money donated ($3000) equaled a Bothan spy had died to deliver such a quantity of money. According to Graham, this came up between Alex and an unknown member either during the start of Desert Bus 4 or during the tech run.

Wharrgarbl!

Reference to a demotivator with a dog getting blasted in the face with a water jet. The image broke Kathleen. See also Desert Bus 5's WHARR GAR BAL.

Magic Pocket

A particularly embarassing Bill’s Mom’s Story. See also Desert Bus 2. The story will not be repeated here. (you can watch it here)

"I need an adult"

A phrase uttered when the user is feeling particularly uncomfortable, usually due to inappropriate behavior or adult material in their presence. Originally coined and oft-used by Kroze.

"Crabcore"

The song "Stick Stickly" by the band "Attack Attack!", widely panned as one of the worst songs ever written, had its music video parodied by Alex. The performers in the video scuttle about like crabs, and the band performs metalcore; hence, "crabcore."

Desert Bus for Hope 5

Well Dong

Corruption of "Well done." Originally from the game Titus the Fox.

Whale Dong

See Well Dong

Wub (sometimes "Wub wub wub")

A reference to dubstep, which had become absurdly popular around the time of Desert Bus 5.

Dengler and Butts

A buddy-cop fanfiction written about Steve Dengler and Steve Butts after someone mentioned in chat that their names sounded like a cop drama, and Graham asked for people to submit their stories.

AFRICAAA!

Lyrical interjection. Developed during a donation performance for Toto's song "Africa," during which Ashley realized many others were singing poorly and did not know the actual lyrics and were just chiming in badly on the chorus, and dramatized it by shouting "AFRICAAA!" during said chorus.

Slash fiction (i.e. Slashfic)

A genre of fan fiction that focuses on the depiction of interpersonal attraction and/or sexual relationships between characters of the same sex. Bad fanfiction reading and Jer/Duck slashfics are known to have existed as early as Desert Bus 2, but terrible, comical slashfic of various DB participants abounded at remarkably high levels during Desert Bus 5, for some reason.

"I AM an adult," "I need a DIFFERENT adult"

Various responses to "I need an adult." Mostly stemming from various fan-submitted slash fictions involving Kroze and Ashton (e.g. "Krashton Slashton").

"What is your stance on erotic Star Trek fanfiction?"

Became a must-ask question for call-in guests, after it was submitted as a question in one of the blog posts asking for interview questions.

"Work with daddy on this," "Put your pants back on."

Must be spoken in a brogue. Phrases to soothe troublesome individuals. Originally from a story Kathleen told about a man and his daughter. Graham did the voices. The video can be found here: [?]

"Four O’QWOP in the Morning," "QWOPing Balls"

A reference to Graham learning about the game QWOP and seeing the popular "going to the store" youtube video at around 4 A.M. and breaking uncontrollably. See here: [2] and here: [3]

"Myth Busted!"

After the Mythbusters interview, this was proclaimed for every auction that went over $1000.

Harry the Giant Creepy doll

Created by Tally and used in several videos. He accompanied the team for the duration of Desert Bus 5, and could almost invariably be seen cuddling, dancing with, stroking, or being generally creepy around the crew. He was initially up for auction (along with the Creepy Doll puppet used in the illustrative pictures on the Desert Bus Craft-Along blog entries), but the winner gave Harry back to the LRR crew, accepting only the Creepy Doll puppet.

BidBot

Automated bid-tracking robot introduced to the Desert Bus Chat during Desert Bus 5. Suffered several catastrophic meltdown deaths due to the number of bidders. Subsequently anthropomorphized in several iterations. Now indispensable.

Skullcam

The camera in the corner of the room with a skull (named Fred) on top of it. According to Graham, this name originated as a tech run joke. See also: Fred the Skull

The Kroze Nest and the Krashton Cam

The Checkpoint desk (which housed in-house chat moderators including Kroze) and the camera pointing at said desk, respectively.

Matt Breaks Things

During the run, every time something happened with the streaming, Matt was blamed... even when he was at home, asleep.

WHARR GAR BAL

Said in the style of a dragon shout from the game Skyrim, which came out during Desert Bus 5 (so none of the crew could play it). See also Wharrgarbl from Desert Bus 4.

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