When The NY Times Was Victim Of "The Great Grunge Hoax of 1992"

Jen Carlson

Published Oct 19, 2012

Modified Nov 19, 2018

FacebookTwitterRedditEmail

Never miss a story

Email address

By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .

Jen Carlson

Published Oct 19, 2012

Modified Nov 19, 2018

FacebookTwitterRedditEmail

We rely on your support to make local news available to all

Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

Do you remember The Great Grunge Hoax of 1992?

When grunge was hitting the mainstream, the NY Times offered up this lexicon of "grunge-speak" from a 25-year-old employee of Sub Pop Records (though the paper mistakenly said she worked for Caroline Records). After they printed the list it was revealed to be a hoax by a publication called The Baffler.

"When the Times asked for an explanation, The Baffler replied, 'We at The Baffler don’t really care about the legitimacy of this or that fad, but when the Newspaper of Record goes searching for the Next Big Thing and the Next Big Thing piddles on its leg, we think that’s funny.'"

The story was picked up by other outlets, eventually landing in the NY Observer, where the receptionist, Megan Jasper, said, "I would feel pretty shitty if someone lost their job over a stupid prank."

You can still read the article right here—it begins: "When did grunge become grunge? How did a five-letter word meaning dirt, filth, trash become synonymous with a musical genre, a fashion statement, a pop phenomenon?" The newspaper has never released a correction about the number of letters in grunge.

Below, we have paired up (most of) the words included with some iconic imagery from the time...