Death, X of

Death, X of


   [common] A construction used to imbue the subject with campy menace,
   usually with intent to ridicule. The ancestor of this term is a famous
   Far Side cartoon from the 1980s in which a balloon with a fierce face
   painted on it is passed off as the "Floating Head of Death". Hackers
   and SF fans have been using the suffix "of Death" ever since to label
   things which appear to be vastly threatening but will actually pop
   like a balloon if you prick them. Such constructions are properly
   spoken in a tone of over-exagerrated portentiousness: "Behold! The
   Spinning - Pizza - of - Death!" See {Blue Screen of Death}, {Ping O'
   Death}, {Spinning Pizza of Death}, {click of death}. Compare {Doom, X
   of}.