Snafu
Template:Ac-reason "SNAFU" is an acronym meaning things are in a mess - as normal. The most commonly accepted rendering is "Situation Normal: All Fucked Up". In modern usage, this rendering is commonly used, as is a "snafu" referring to an otherwise normal situation that suddenly went awry. The acronym is believed to have originated in the US Army during World War II, as it was the name of a cartoon U.S. Army training video as well as the main character in the video. SNAFU originated as Situation Normal, All Fouled Up and was changed later. There are a number of slang army acronyms that are similar to SNAFU. They include:
- SNAFU - Situation Normal: All Fucked Up.
- SUSFU - Situation Unchanged, Still Fucked Up.
- FUMTU - Fucked Up More Than Usual.
- FUBB - Fucked Up Beyond Belief.
- TARFU - Things Are Really Fucked Up.
- TOFU - Things Ordinary: Fucked Up.
- GFU - General Fuck Up.
- SAMFU - Self Adjusting Military Fuck Up.
- BOHICA - Bend over, here it comes again.
- TUIFU - The Ultimate In Fuck Ups.
- FUBAR - Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition/Repair/Reason/Redemption.
- FUGAZI - Fucked Up, Got Ambushed, Zipped In; Refers to out-of-control situation such as a chaotic jungle warfare combat environment
- JANFU - Joint Army/Navy Fuck-Up; apparently used by British troops in WWII.
- JAAFU - Joint Army-Air Force Fuck-Up; the use of JANFU combined with a radical increase in joint-forces operations since 1989, has led to the rare but increasing use of JAAFU.
- DILLIGAF/DILLIGAS - Do I Look Like I Give A Fuck/Shit? Interogative form of, "(It) don't mean nothing." Both often heard in Vietnam.
- TINS - This Is No Shit! Often seen in Vets' forums.
Note: In situations where 'fucked' is inappropriate, it is often replaced with 'fouled'
Electronics engineers say that SNAFU and FUBAR[1] were used before the war by repairmen sent out to repair phone booths. They had to report the situation at arrival to the scene, often on a very bad line, so they developed these acronyms to make themselves understood.
Snafu is also used in the Illuminatus trilogy and in the Private Snafu series of World War II animated cartoons.
Other uses
Snafu is the name given to a mutant gene in the genome of Drosophila melanogaster. Flies afflicted with this gene will start out completely normal in phenotype, but then will start to develop intensely grotesque mutations as they grow up.
Snafu [2] is also the name of a popular 1981 video game title published by Mattel Electronics for the Intellivision console.
Snafu Comics [3] is also the name of a web comic by David Stanworth.
Snafu is also a BMX bicycle company that manufactures numerous bike products including stems, cranks, pedals, grips, and many other parts for a 20" bike. They also sponsor numerous professional riders as well, including Morgan Wade, Dave Freimuth, Tom Haugen, just to name a few. The Snafu BMX webiste is at http://www.snafubmx.com.
SNAFU (with "fucked" replaced by "fouled") is the name of the villian group in The X's.