By Any Other Name
by Katherine Glover
The Rake
July 2003

A joke that starts off “a duck walks into a bar,” has good odds of being funny. Ducks are funny. A joke beginning “a water buffalo walks into a bar” just doesn’t have the same ring. But “a can of Spam walks into a bar” – now that’s hilarious. … So when a company that makes spam-blocking software tries to trademark the name “Spam Arrest,” and Hormel takes legal action, it’s funny.