I’m really angry. And because this is the Internet, I’ll tell you why. First off, what is this thing called?
A spatula, rigth? That’s correct, as clearly indicated by both common knowledge and the retail industry. So that’s a given.
Well, what is this called?
There are a few camps here. Firstly, there are those of you who immediately said “spatula” and didn’t think twice about it. Then there are those of you who said “spatula” and thought, “oh weird, those two things have the same name even though they’re used for completely different purposes.” Then there are some of you, who, much like me, said, “oh, that’s a bowl scrapper.”
This is why I’m angry. My girlfriend and I were having an argument in the kitchen earlier about which thing was the actual spatula. She had grown up calling the second picture a spatula, whilst I was taught by my mom (who is a wedding cake baker and decorator) that those are ‘rubber bowl-scrapers’. That makes way more sense. Firstly, it obviously describes what the item does — think of Mitch Hedberg’s joke about just taking what the thing does and adding “er”. Refrigerator, crisper, blender, toaster, etc.
Take a look at these two links, which both show the same product, but have different names: Spatula & Bowl Scraper. So why is it named the same thing as the kitchen utensil used for flipping pancakes, cooking eggs, or turning burgers on the grill?
I suggest right here and right now that we boycot this bullshit! Imagine if other things had the same name in the kitchen? “Hey, Ricky, can you get me a fork?” Then Ricky comes back with a soup spoon that’s called a fork in this alternate universe because nobody ever bothered to realize they were different things!
Countless marriages will be saved, arguments avoided, catastrophes averted… all because one person took the initiative to say, “National Committee for the Naming of Kitchen Utensils and Appliances, let’s do this right. That way, we can all make brownies in peace.
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