Bunny boiler
Bunny boiler is a pejorative term for an obsessive and dangerous person, referring to a former lover who stalks the person who spurned them. The term is normally used for a woman who stalks a former male lover or his new female partner.
Etymology
The term derives from a scene in the 1987 film Fatal Attraction where a scorned woman (played by Glenn Close), seeking revenge on her ex-lover (Michael Douglas), kills his daughter's beloved pet rabbit, named Whitey, and places the deceased animal in a pot of boiling water when he is away from home. The scene concludes with the family returning to the house with the daughter in the garden searching for her rabbit, and the mother (Anne Archer) taking the lid off a boiling over pot to reveal her deceased pet (parts of the scene were cut from syndicated broadcasts.)
Its first known appearance in print was on December 6, 1990, when The Dallas Morning News reported on a Ladies' Home Journal interview with Close, referring to her erstwhile character as a "bunny-boiler". The phrase appeared in print with increasing frequency beginning in 1994.
Uses in popular culture
- In the British detective TV series The Last Detective (season 1, episode 3, "Tricia"), the obsessive supposed-victim, Tricia Lloyd, is referred to as a "bunny boiler."
- 'Bunny Boiler' is also the name of one of the characters on the UK television show Balls of Steel, played by Thaila Zucchi.
- The scene from Fatal Attraction where Glenn Close boils the rabbit was parodied in the last episode of the second series of the UK television show Spaced, in which the collectible Fisher Price Freddy Teddy bear played the role of the bunny.
- In the South Park episode "Chef Aid", Mr. Garrison finds Mr. Twig in a pot being boiled, in the same way as the bunny in Fatal Attraction. The act was done by the recently returned Mr. Hat. The scene was later used in the episode 1%.
- In the Smallville season four episode "Pariah," Lois Lane says the police are interested in Alicia in a "bunny-boiler" sort of way.
- The Only Fools & Horses Christmas special episode "Fatal Extraction" is a parody of the film, including a direct take-off of the bunny boiling scene. Instead of a rabbit, however, Del Boy discovers that Uncle Albert is 'boiling his pants again'.
- In UK TV series Skins, season 2, the character Sketch is referred to as a "bunny boiler".
- An episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, where Will has to deal with a controlling woman, says "I tell you man, if we owned a rabbit, the dude would be on the stove by now."
- A 1988 issue of MAD Magazine had a Mort Drucker spoof of Fatal Attraction, showing a cartoonized Anne Archer shocked over a dead Bugs Bunny on the stove and a dog thinking "What's this dame (Glenn Close) got against rabbits? The first one she killed was during her pregnancy test!"
- In Emily Giffin's novel "Something Borrowed[1]," Rachel tells Ethan about an argument she had with her lover Dex (who is engaged to her best friend Darcy), after she finds out Dex had sex with Darcy earlier in the day. Ethan responds, "Aah. The bunny-in-the-pot-routine."
- In NCIS episode "Frame-Up", whilst going through suspects who would frame agent Anthony DiNozzo for murder, McGee brings up a woman who posted his picture on a herpes alert website. Abby states, "She so went Fatal Attraction on you," to which Tony replies: "Boiled the bunny."
- In Paul Howard's novels about the South Dublin elite, the main character Ross O'Carroll-Kelly frequently refers to any woman that is not gone by breakfast after a one night stand, as being a bunny boiler.[2]
- In an episode of River City,[3] "Ruth" was called it by the daughter of the man she was supposed to have the boiling towards.
- The Norwegian rap group Klovner i Kamp has a song called "Kaninkoker" which translates to bunny boiler.
- In a 2010 episode of the American soap opera General Hospital, the jealous ex-girlfriend Dr. Lisa Niles leaves a child's stuffed rabbit boiling in a Bunsen burner for the child's mother to find.
- In an episode of the British soap opera Coronation Street, broadcast on the 15th October 2010, Fiz Brown talks about Julie Carp as a bunny boiler.
- The Coronation Street character Charlotte Hoyle is considered a bunny boiler.
- In episode 3 of series 1 of Green Wing, Martin says that Guy places dead rats around his house to get rid of bunny boilers.
- In Friends Phoebe makes fun of Ross's girlfriend by asking, "How are things going with Crazy? She cooked your rabbit yet?"
- In the television show Necessary Roughness when TK returns home to find his stalker in his bathroom he calls the team's head of security and yells into the phone, "She came to boil my bunny!"
See also
References
External links