John Q. Public
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"Joe Public" redirects here. For other uses, see Joe Public (disambiguation).
John Q. Public is a generic name in the United States to denote a hypothetical member of society deemed a "common man." He is presumed to have no strong political or social biases relevant to whatever topic is at hand, and to represent the randomly selected "man on the street." The equivalent terms are John Q. Citizen and John Q. Taxpayer. Female equivalents include Jane Q. Public, Jane Q. Citizen, Jane Q. Taxpayer.
Similar terms for the common family can be Mr. & Mrs. John Q. Public, Mr. & Mrs. John Q. Citizen, or Mr. & Mrs. John Q. Taxpayer
Roughly equivalent, but more depreciative, are Joe Six-pack, Joe Blow, and Joe Schmoe, implying a lower-class citizen (from the Yiddish schmo: simpleton, or possibly Hebrew sh'mo: (what's)-his-name). Jane Winecooler also falls within this category.
The equivalent in the United Kingdom is Joe (or Jane) Public, Joe Bloggs, or Tommy Atkins. The historical and legal equivalent is The man on the Clapham omnibus, although this is a generic description rather than a generic name.
Another generic description is the blue-singlet-wearing Aussie (Australian)—the singlet being a kind of shirt known to Americans as a "tank top".
In Internet culture, the generic name of choice is "J. Random ______", where the surname is used to refer to a job or role, as in J. Random Hacker. This formation is thought to be taken from the name of J. Presper Eckert, builder of one of the first digital computers.
[edit] See also
- John Doe
- Joe Bloggs (British variant)
- John Q (film)
- The Joe Schmo Show
- Kadigan
- Ola Nordmann (Norwegian variant)
