Decoder Ring Mailbag: Drug Names, Cow Abductions, and the “Ass-Intensifier”

Podcast: Slow Burn (Decoder Ring)
Host: Willa Paskin (Slate Podcasts)
Date: July 16, 2025

Overview

In this engaging mailbag episode, Willa Paskin and expert guests address three listener questions that unravel quirky corners of language and pop culture:

• The origins and spread of the “ass intensifier” (as in “grown-ass man”)
• The persistent cultural image of aliens abducting cows
• Why modern pharmaceutical drug names sound so strange (“zavpret,” “Skyrizi,” etc.)

The tone is curious, playful, and smart, blending linguistics, history, semiotics, and pop culture analysis.

Key Segment 1: The “Ass-Intensifier” (00:05–12:07)

What Is It and Why Do We Use It?

• Listener Eric Scheuer noticed phrases like “grown ass man” and wondered about the odd choice of “ass” as an intensifier.
• Willa and guests rapidly riff through examples:
  • “Big ass knife,” “stupid ass face,” “nice ass shirt”
  • “There seems to be no adjective you can't make funnier or more forceful just by dropping an ass on it.” (Willa, 01:46)
• Eric: “It just seems like the word ass intensifies. It’s like, it’s a slightly more risque way of saying ‘very.’” (02:00)

Scholarly Dive

• Dr. Nicole Holliday (UC Berkeley linguist):
  • Confirms the term “ass intensifier” is used in linguistics; she also mentions “anal emphatic.” (03:51)
  • “An intensifier is any word or phrase that emphasizes another word. So, like, ‘she’s a grown ass woman’ means ‘she’s very grown.’” (04:16)

Origins & Spread

• Usage traced back to 1942 with U.S. Marines in WWII (“big-assed Marine”); spoken forms likely predate this. (05:15)
• Possible roots in African American English, possibly spread to wider American dialects via the military. (06:02)

Proliferation & Cultural Shifts

• Relaxation of social norms (less formality, more profanity) has made ass-intensifier usage more common. (06:51)
• Formal, Latinate adjectives (“significant-ass”) don’t work as well; the construction prefers short, informal words. (10:13)

Similar Phenomena in Other Languages & Expressions

• Other English intensifiers: “dead ass” (very, seriously), “butt-ass,” “butt-ugly.”
  • “I was thinking a lot about dead.” (09:10)
• Danish has equivalent (using “rov”); intensifier usage is a cross-linguistic feature. (10:49)

Language Change, Creativity, and Youth

• Children and teenagers reshape language, innovating creatively—even when older generations resist. (11:07)
• “One mandate that children and teenagers have is to change the language...and they’ll do it...in dramatic ways and in subtle ways.” (Nicole, 11:07)

Memorable Quote

• “Because we’re creative and it’s fun.” (Nicole, 04:55)

Key Segment 2: Why Do Aliens Abduct Cows? (12:07–27:06)

Listener Question Origin

• Stacen Goldman tells the story of solving a video game puzzle by giving a cow to an alien—her son is baffled, but she “just knows” aliens abduct cows. (12:33)

Cultural Omnipresence

• Referenced examples:
  • South Park (aliens deem cows most intelligent)
  • Mars Attacks (Martians set cattle ablaze)
  • Got Milk? alien ads
  • Video games galore

Historical Roots

• Dr. Greg E. Gigian (Penn State, UFO historian):
  • Traces the trope to 1897: Kansas farmer Alexander Hamilton claimed an “airship” stole his cow—later exposed as part of a “Liars Club” contest. (15:06)
  • Despite being debunked, the story stuck and resurfaced in the mid-20th century as flying saucers gained pop-culture traction.
  • “Hamilton’s tall tale lived on for decades,” despite his confession. (17:26)

Modern Myth-Making: The Cattle Mutilation Wave

• 1960s–70s: Thousands of mutilated cattle found in Western states.
  • “Usually an ear, an eye, a tongue, sex organs, udders, rectums.” (18:53, Mike Goleman, historian)
  • Explanations: Scavengers, natural causes, rarely aliens.
  • Ranchers, suffering from economic hardship (“the wreck”), suspected the federal government—shots even fired at BLM helicopters. (21:03–22:17)

From Bureaucratic Blame to Alien Intrigue

• Linda Moulton Howe’s 1980 documentary “A Strange Harvest” connects mutilations to extraterrestrials, embedding the idea in UFO lore. (23:19)
  • Howe: “What...if the mutilations go from animals to human beings?” (23:33)
• Pop culture amplifies the trope: X-Files, merchandise (T-shirts, lamps, mugs), jokes.

Analysis: Why Does It Stick?

• The belief remains fairly fringe even among ufologists.
• Dr. Gigian:
  • “The likeliest explanation is because it’s kind of funny, this image of a cow being sucked up by a beam of light...It’s goofy and silly.” (26:38)
• For cattle owners, the myth has financial and emotional resonance.

Memorable Quotes

• “He said, just trust me. That alien wants a cow.” (Stacen, 12:57)
• “Despite his confession, Hamilton’s tall tale lived on for decades.” (Willa, 17:26)
• “The likeliest explanation is because it’s kind of funny...To see them in the sky is already kind of goofy and silly.” (Greg, 26:38)

Key Segment 3: Why Drug Names Are So Bonkers (27:06–41:46)

Listener Question Origin

• Amy Goldfine: “Why are prescription drug names so bonkers? ...Looks like someone's cat just walked all over the keyboard.” (27:06)

The Art and Agony of Naming Drugs

• Laurel Sutton (co-founder, Catchword):
  • “Naming pharmaceuticals is a pain in the ass.” (28:39)
  • The process is exhaustive: legal checks, global databases, FDA and EU review, phone tests, unique spelling and sound requirements. (29:42)
  • “The return you get on the amount of work you put into it is sort of not worth it.” (Laurel, 29:42)

Brand vs. Generic Names

• Every drug has a “generic” name (assigned by medical bodies, carries a “stem” with medical info) & a “brand” name (for marketing, must be distinctive, hopefully alludes to drug’s benefits).
• Examples:
  • “Any name ending in ‘triptan’ will treat migraines.” (31:11)
  • “Lipitor” vs. “atorvastatin”
  • “Viagra” (sildenafil): Vibrant, energetic, masculine
  • “Lunesta”: Lulls to sleep, peaceful
  • Rogaine (in U.S.) vs. Regain (elsewhere)—FDA bans names that “overpromise” (34:01)

Creativity Battles Constraints

• “Sometimes there are drug names that actually kind of say what they do.”
  • Zostavax (shingles vaccine for Herpes Zoster)
  • Gardasil (“guards” against squamous intraepithelial lesions) (35:04)
• Name creation narrows as more words are taken—leads to increasingly odd combos:
  • “You gotta go for little used letters...the sequence ‘XELJ’ is very unusual...but it’s available, so it’s a good name.” (Laurel, 37:27)
  • Popular new weird names: “Ozempic” (weight loss drug): “Oz at the beginning is meant to connote...Land of Oz...opening things up.” (38:07)

Listener Favorites Analyzed

• Zavpret:
  • “Zav” = speed (sibilance in English); “pret” in French means “ready.” Ends with a strong ‘T’—impression: works fast, gets it done. (39:39)
• Skyrizi:
  • “Sky” evokes openness, clarity; “Riz”/“Rizi” adds energy and speed. “Lifts you up into the sky...has endless possibilities.” (40:24)

The Future: Are We Running Out of Names?

• Tightening trademark/digital requirements make name generation exponentially harder.
  • “I worry about this a lot...I don’t know where we’re going to end up.” (Laurel, 41:05)

Memorable Quotes

• “Naming pharmaceuticals is a pain in the ass.” (Laurel, 28:39)
• “It has gotten exponentially harder to come up with appropriate and available names since I started doing this.” (Laurel, 41:05)

Notable Timestamps & Quotes

• Ass-Intensifier Defined (03:51, Nicole Holliday):
  “We actually do call it ass intensifier in the scholarly literature.”
• Ass as Emphasis (02:00, Eric Scheuer):
  “It just seems like the word ass intensifies. It’s like, it’s a slightly more risque way of saying ‘very.’”
• Cow Abductions—Origin Story (15:06, Greg E. Gigian):
  “This idea that aliens like to abduct cows seems to have started in 1897 with a farmer from Kansas...”
• Pop Culture's Cow-UFO Allure (26:38, Greg E. Gigian):
  “The likeliest explanation is because it’s kind of funny, this image of a cow being sucked up by a beam of light...”
• Drug Names: The Struggle is Real (28:39, Laurel Sutton):
  “Naming pharmaceuticals is a pain in the ass.”
• Ozempic: A Productive Name (38:07, Laurel Sutton):
  “People say Ozempic when they mean one of the other drugs...it’s become a word that has produced other words and phrases built on top of it.”

Conclusion & Takeaways

• "Ass" as an intensifier is both formally studied and rooted in play, creativity, and informality, likely originating in African American English and popularized via the military.
• Aliens abducting cows persists as a humorous, widely-known pop culture reference, originating with a “Liars Club” prank and perpetuated by economic anxieties, conspiracy theory, media, and pure comic imagery.
• Weird pharmaceutical names result from stringent legal, safety, and market pressures squeezing naming possibilities to their strangest, least intuitive edges—though smart branding still manages occasional clarity and charm.

This episode wittily deconstructs the evolution, spread, and staying power of cultural ideas and language quirks, reminding listeners how creativity (and confusion) shape what we all find familiar.