Defenestration

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For the heavy metal band, see Defenestration (band).

Defenestration is the act of throwing someone or something out of a window. The word comes from the Latin de ("from; out of") and fenestra ("window"). Merriam-Webster's dictionary users named it as one of their favorite words of the year in 2004. [1]

Defenestration is often fatal.

Contents 1 Defenestration throughout history 2 Defenestration in popular culture 2.1 Film 2.2 Television 2.3 Video Games 2.4 Comics 2.5 Music 3 An alternative modern usage of the word 4 External links

[edit] Defenestration throughout history

Historically, the word defenestration was used to refer to an act of political dissent. Notably, the Defenestrations of Prague in 1419 and 1618 helped to trigger prolonged conflict within Bohemia and beyond. Catholics ascribed the survival of those defenestrated at Prague Castle in 1618 to divine intervention, while Protestants claimed that it was due to their landing in a large pile of manure.

Other notable events in Prague's history include the defenestration of the Old-Town portreeve along with the bodies of seven murdered New-Town aldermen in 1483, and the death in 1948 of politician Jan Masaryk, whose body was found in the courtyard of the Foreign Ministry, below his bathroom window. A 2004 police investigation into his death concluded that, contrary to the initial ruling, he did not commit suicide, but was defenestrated by his opponents.

• In the Bible, there is an account in 2 Kings 9:30-33 of Queen Jezebel's defenestration as part of the overthrow of Ahab's tyrannical reign.

• It has been suggested by several chronicles (notably the Annals of Westhide Abbey) that King John killed his nephew, Arthur of Brittany, by throwing him from a window in the castle at Rouen, France, in 1203.

• In 1383, Bishop Dom Martinho was defenestrated by the citizens of Lisbon, having been suspected of conspiring with the enemy when Lisbon was besieged by the Castilians.

• On April 26, 1478, after the failure of the "Pazzi conspiracy" to murder the ruler of Florence, Lorenzo de' Medici, Jacopo de' Pazzi was defenestrated.

• In 1572, French King Charles IX's friend, the Huguenot leader Gaspard de Coligny was killed in accordance with the wishes of Charles' mother, Catherine de Medici. Charles had allegedly said "then kill them all that no man be left to reproach me." Thousands of Protestants were killed in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre after soldiers attacked Coligny in his house, stabbed him, and threw him out the window.

• On the morning of December 1, 1640, a group of noblemen who wanted to restore full independence to Portugal started a revolution, immediately supported by the people. They found Miguel de Vasconcelos, the hated Secretary of State, hidden in a closet, killed him and defenestrated him. His corpse was left to the public outrage.

• The Revolutions of 1848 in France led to a period of unrest in Germany. When an agitated crowd forced their way into the town hall in Cologne on March 3, two city councillors panicked and jumped out of the window; one of them broke both his legs. The event went down in the city’s history as the "Cologne Defenestration".

• In 1941, mafia informant Abe "Kid Twist" Reles fell to his death from a window on the sixth floor of the Half Moon Hotel on Coney Island, on the eve of his scheduled testimony. The angle of trajectory suggests that he was defenestrated rather than trying to flee.

[edit] Defenestration in popular culture

[edit] Film

• In Cinderella, (1950), Bruno the dog defenestrates Lucifer the cat.
• In Rear Window (1954), Lars Thorwald defenestrates L.B. Jeffries.
• In Diamonds Are Forever (1971), henchmen working for Ernst Stavro Blofeld defenestrate Plenty O'Toole.
• In The Exorcist (1973), the devil defenestrates Burke Dennings, and Father Karras defenestrates the devil/himself.
• In The Eagle Has Landed (1976), the patrons of a pub defenestrate Liam Devlin.
• In The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), Oliver Farnsworth, played by Buck Henry, is defenestrated - at the second attempt.
• In The Omen (1976), Mrs. Baylock, the nanny, defenestrates Katherine Thorn.
• In The Pumaman (1980), Vadinho defenestrates Tony Farms in order to find out if Tony is the legendary "Pumaman".
• In Beverly Hills Cop (1984), Eddie Murphy's character, Axel Foley, is thrown through a first-story window.
• In Die Hard (1988), John McClane attracts the attention of Sgt. Al Powell by defenestrating Marco, and later defenestrates Hans Gruber, the leader of the robbers.
• In Child's Play (1988), the first victim of the movie, Maggie (the babysitter) is defenestrated on Chicago's Lincoln Park, from the apartment's windowed tower.
• In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), Indiana Jones defenestrates a Nazi officer from a Zeppelin.
• In Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), Friar Tuck defenestrates a Bishop, after accusing him of corruption.
• In Batman Returns (1992), Max Schreck pushes Selina Kyle (later to become Catwoman) out of a window in his penthouse office, in an attempt at homicide.
• In Braveheart (1995), Longshanks (King Edward I) defenestrates his son's High Councillor, Philip.
• In Toy Story (1995), Sheriff Woody accidentally defenestrates Buzz Lightyear.
• In The Emperor's New Groove (2000), Emperor Kuzco has an old man defenestrated for "throwing off his groove." Cartoonishly, the man survives and later receives an apology.
• In Hannibal (2001), Hannibal Lecter defenestrates Rinaldo Pazzi.
• In Around the World in 80 Days (2004) a group of chancellors throw Inspector Fix out the window.
• In The Punisher (2004), Frank Castle defenestrates several characters during the movie.
• In Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005), Chancellor Palpatine defenestrates Mace Windu from his office using Force lightning.
• In The Departed (2006), Captain Queenan is defenestrated by members of Costello's gang.

[edit] Television

• In the second episode of the Firefly TV series, Malcom Reynolds is thrown through a holographic window, albeit fairly harmlessly.
• Dozens of episodes of the TV series Angel feature a character thrown through a window. In the final season, this occurs in nearly every episode.
• Angel is himself tossed through the front window of the Summers' home in the seventh episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Buffy, who erroneously thinks that he attacked her mother.
• In the "Art Attack" episode of Dark Angel, Mr. Develia orders one of his men to defenestrate a man who failed to deliver his Norman Rockwell painting.
• The two talk shows hosted by David Letterman have often included a gag where someone defenestrates objects such as televisions, watermelons etc.
• In the NCIS episode "Silver War", Special Agent Anthony "Tony" DiNozzo lists defenestration as an area in which he has investigating experience.
• In the Cowboy Bebop episode "Ballad of Fallen Angels", Vicious throws Spike through a church window.
• In the Comedy Central TV series Reno 911!, Carrottop throws a couch through a window.
• In Lost when Hurley discusses the numbers with his lawyer someone flies past the window, who was possibly defenestrated.
• In the Red Dwarf episode Backwards Lister is defenestrated during a bar room brawl, although, as time is running backwards, he is actually sucked up through the window into the hands of his defenestrators
• In One Tree Hill series 4 episode I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness, Peyton Sawyer's stalker is defenestrated by her half brother and Lucas Scott.

[edit] Video Games

• In the game Hitman: Blood Money, the player can throw targets out of windows and over balconies as methods of assassination.

• In the game Def Jam: Fight for NY, the final battle against Crow (voiced by Snoop Dogg) requires that the player throw him out of a window in order to win.

• In the game Final Fight, the last blow given on Belger knocks him off through a window right behind him, sending him to a very high fall.

• In the game Half-Life 2, the gravity gun allows you to defenestrate a multitude of objects, including televisions, tables, and occasionally zombies.

[edit] Comics

• "A Nauseous Nocturne", an illustrated Calvin and Hobbes poem, includes the couplet
  "The monster, in his consternation,
  Demonstrates defenestration". [2]
• In Hitman, a comic book by Garth Ennis, there is a character known as Defenestrator. His "power" consists of carrying around a plate glass window and throwing people through it.
• In Frank Miller's Sin City, defenestration is used as both an escape method, by Marv in The Hard Goodbye, and an offensive attack move, when Manute throws Dwight McCarthy out of a window in A Dame to Kill For; both are later blasted out of windows by Ava Lord. Wallace later throws Manute out of a window in Hell and Back.
• There is a running gag at PHWonline involving the Comic-maker Slick being thrown out a window, repeatedly. The joke was started by Lode (http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/milkdud/8/) and is carried on by many other comic-makers (http://boards.phwonline.com/showthread.php?t=25135&highlight=Killed+Clover), particularly Spaztique; see The Gmod Experience(http://boards.phwonline.com/showthread.php?t=20136) and The Gmod Experience 2 (http://boards.phwonline.com/showthread.php?t=22457).

[edit] Music

• In the mid 1970s, rock band Led Zeppelin would rent out entire floors of hotels, where they originated many of rock's most famous legends of drunken excess by allegedly trashing the rooms, motorcycling in the halls, and defenestrating television sets.
• The word defenestration is used in the Tom Tom Club song "Booming and Zooming" as a lyrical synonym for activating an ejection seat.
• "Defenestration" is the name of songs by Gundula Krause, Storyboard, and Cryptopsy.
• There is a "Free Jazz Circus Funk" band in Houston, Texas, called The Defenestration Unit.
• Defenstration (2001) is the second album of New Zealand based celtic band Jacky Tar.
• The popular children's song "Threw It Out the Window" inserts incongruous themes of defenestration into existing nursery rhymes [3].
• The Violent Femmes have a song called "Out the Window" in which several people (possibly metaphorically) are defenstrated.

[edit] An alternative modern usage of the word

• Defenestration has become popular as a term for switching from MS Windows to Linux or another operating system [4]. It is claimed that this usage originated in the University of Helsinki in the mid-1990s. Perhaps in reference to this, Microsoft uses the string "Defenestration can be hazardous" as sample text in its API documentation [5].
• Defenestration is also said, according to the Jargon File, to be the only proper punishment for incorrigible punsters. [6]

[edit] External links

• Defenestration - Humor-oriented literary magazine.
• defenestrate - dictionary.com's Word of the Day for Tuesday January 25, 2000
• Defenestration Building - a large art installation in San Francisco, California
• The Bohemian rebels inspired some Philadelphia anarchists to publish a newspaper: the defenestrator.