Awesome zombie slang and derogatory terms

[Brian Manning]

I figure after a while the players are probably going to come up with some creative ways of referring to the walking dead, so I was curious what you guys have come up with so far. Even though my brother hates it, I loved when Wesley Snipes refers to vampires as "suck-heads" in the trailer for the first Blade movie (although I think they changed it for the actual movie when he says it's "open season on all vampires"), and in keeping with the cheese factor, I want to know what awesomely bad nick-names you guys have come up with for zombies.

I for the life of me can't seem to come up with anything at the moment (I usually run the All Flesh Must be Eaten games, so I'm guessing I'd have to run most if not all Dead Reign games for my group too, so I rarely have the chance to spout out some spur of the moment one-lines while dispatching zombies).

I know, this is a cheesy topic, but I'm sure someone else has been thinking about this too, right?

[Pepsi Jedi]

Slang for Zombies?

"Zack"
"Z heads"
"Deadheads"
"Deadboys"
"The Swarm"
"Stinko's"
"Rots"
"Rotters"
"Gut jumpers"
"Deads"
"Deaders"
(water ones)) Slimy's
(Frozen ones) "Death-cicles"
(tunnel ones) "Rats"
(For humans that have gone nuts and act like Zombies) "Quislings" or "Wanna-be-Z"s
"The Horde"
"The Hive"
"Mega swarm" (( for a bunch coming out of NYC or something.))
"Shamblers" (( for the slow ones))
"Sprinters" (( for the fast ones))
"OH **** I"M DEAD" (( For the thinkers.))


That can get ya started.

[Nxla666]

Stench
gutburster
fanboy
veg
ACs (ambulatory corpse)
Jennys (comes from a game where a PC described a group of zombies feeding as "Like a bunch of Jenny Craigs at an all you can eat buffet")


And I'm sure when DR comes out I'll have more

[DtMK]

Z-boys and Z-girls
Fuglies
Pohos(because they moan like being loved by extremely cheap ladies of the night)
Nommers
Stankys
I was thinking of nicknaming the Runners 'Quickies', but would anyone really want to get that term confused with anything else? Didn't think so.
MJR's, as in Michael Jackson Rejects. Not ONE of these critters I've seen can dance!

[Brian Manning]

LOL, these are great. Man you guys really deliver.

[Nightbreed]

Well, i plan on having my texan NPC refer to them as "Them dead fellers" (with a hard country accent )

[GreenGhost]

Im definetly going to call them Democrats Yep thats right i went there!

Texans...

[velcRomanceR]

"ZEDs"


..as in, "Zed's dead, baby, Zed's dead."

[Brian Manning]

Machines
Rotting Dudes and dudettes
and my fav "Them"

Wow this one really sings to me. I think it's nice and simple and brings up classic 50's sci-fi style "us vs them" images.

Also while I like MJRs (Michael Jackson Rejects) I think I'll try to get "Thriller rejects" or "Thriller extras" (clearly inspired by MJR) circulating through the group. I was listening to Howard Stern today and they were talking about a failed effort to have the largest public performance of the Thriller dance, so I was thinking a lot more about some funny terms to use for zombies.

I don't know why, but the term "employees" seemed to just stick in my head as a fitting term for the slow moving ones. Probably because of the opening scenes from Shawn of the Dead.

[Nxla666]

My son gave me an alternate definition for "veg", Its written as "VeGs" and is short for "Valley Girls".

[Tricky]

In a short story that I wrote, the mostly blue collar survivors called their zombies "scab heads", partially because of their bloody, scab covered nature, also do the the traditional union dislike of "scabs" (non union workers).

[batlchip]

hmmm...maybe undies.
They are undead after all.

[Shotgun Jolly]

We have referred to them as "Brainers" several times..

And we also used "Uncle Fester" for hordes or Packs of them Ie: Those surviors were doing pretty well till Uncle Fester showed up..

[Kagashi]

Im definetly going to call them Democrats Yep thats right i went there!

Texans...

HEY! At least us Texans will be armed when the Zombie Apocalypses comes a knockin'...unlike you guys in Colorado

[Kagashi]

I figure after a while the players are probably going to come up with some creative ways of referring to the walking dead, so I was curious what you guys have come up with so far. Even though my brother hates it, I loved when Wesley Snipes refers to vampires as "suck-heads" in the trailer for the first Blade movie (although I think they changed it for the actual movie when he says it's "open season on all vampires"), and in keeping with the cheese factor, I want to know what awesomely bad nick-names you guys have come up with for zombies.

I for the life of me can't seem to come up with anything at the moment (I usually run the All Flesh Must be Eaten games, so I'm guessing I'd have to run most if not all Dead Reign games for my group too, so I rarely have the chance to spout out some spur of the moment one-lines while dispatching zombies).

I know, this is a cheesy topic, but I'm sure someone else has been thinking about this too, right?

Ive always liked...."Zombies"

[Beatmeclever]

Im definetly going to call them Democrats Yep thats right i went there!

Texans...

HEY! At least us Texans will be armed when the Zombie Apocalypses comes a knockin'...unlike you guys in Colorado

Who says we won't be armed? Not only are we armed, we have the Rocky Mountains in which to build sanctuaries and we are surrounded by military bases that we can raid for even more gear when the Z-Day comes. As well, a good portion of our civilian population is former military, so we have a better chance of successfully fortifying a location and sending out salvage and reclamation teams.

But on to the reason for this thread. My group call the Zombies several things:
Zed is the most common (thanks to Pulp Fiction)
Deadites (thanks to Army of Darkness)
Chow Hounds
Eaters
Zoms
DMWs ("Dead Man Walking"s -- This came about after one of my players yelled it out to warn the rest of the group of the approach of a Zed.)
Draggers (for the ones who are dragging themselves around)
Scramblers (for the fast ones who run along on the edges of a group of humans and pick off the weak)
Vermin
Deadwave (much the same as "Uncle Fester" above, "We were doing quite well until we got hit by a deadwave.")
and lastly, The Food and Drug Administration (The FDA -- a little tongue in cheek about how the govenment has failed to be of any assistance)

[Roscoe Del'Tane]

Kill'ems
Death Groupies
Weaklings (as is they were too weak to hack it in the new world)
Double You, Tee, Eff's
Head Cases
Brainiac
Walking, Masticating Death, or WMD's
Skeletors
Boneboys
Crawlers/Draggers (those who've had spine/leg injuries)
Morticians Worst Nightmare, or Morties for short
Gollums (annoying little pieces of sh!t that are just begging to be killed)
Walking Dead
Middle Management
Chicago Voters
Therapy
Bounty Heads
Target Practice
Jimmy Hoffa
Devils Rejects

Can't think of anything else at the moment, will try and get some more later.

[Beatmeclever]

OK, last night we had a zombie that the character called a "Hell-Sucking Sh!tbag," so for the rest of the night we were "shooting the Sh!t."

[Brian Manning]

I really like "Head Cases" (thanks Roscoe), it has a nice ring to it. After reading through Dead Reign (and Rifter 40) and re reading World War Z there a quite a few that already work as well. I like Slouchers, Crawlers, and "Gs", but there are also alot of awesome ones you guys provided as well. I think I'll have more than enough flavor names for my NPCs to use when I start running this game.

I'm going to use others as well like Ghouls (because that's what they were called in Night of the Living Dead), Goons and Slackers (I watched Back to the Future yesterday).

[Traska]

I can't believe I'm the first to say this.

Dead Boys.

Others, though:

Norwegian Blues
Deadnecks
Deadites (seconding that one)
Om Zom Zom Zom
Worm Chow
Empties (empty stomach, empty head, empty soul)
Gravers
Chicago Voters (or CVs)

[Nightbreed]

So used to Dead Boys being referred to the Coalition in Rifts i guess i never thought about applying it to the walking corpses.

[Greyaxe]

Meat Bags

Dont know if that has been used yet or not but i love it.

[dark brandon]

Zombie terms:

Dead boys (Truska got to it first, but I had the same line of thinking) (DB's for short)
Cannibal corpses (Or CC's for short)
Friends and family (or FF's for short)
Sleepers/Dreamers (Inactive zombies)


Corpse Grinder-- Chain saw
Mower--any vehicle with blades on it
dead zone--any area not safe.
Dream Land--An area filled with inactive zombies. All Dream lands are dead zones, but not all dead zones are dream lands.
Walking dead man--degritory term used to insult a person. Suggests the person has poor survival skills and abilities.
"Arn't you living the lifestyle of the rich and famous"--A degritory term for someone who hordes supplies

[Nxla666]

Flesh eating zombies: Nibblers
Mock Zombies: Politician or Rep/Dem
Crawler: Ankle biter
Sloucher: Waiter
Fast attack zombie: Jessie Owens
Thinker: Dilbert

[Nightbreed]

Chum buckets if they are near the ocean

Just when you thought it was safe to go in the water eh?

[Tearstone]

Slimer
Rotgut
Meatman
Meatpopsickle (frozen ones)
Boomer - bloater, bloated body
Gas-bag - see above
Chatter-teeth
Moaner
Momma's Boy
Mummy - variation as above, may also apply to zombies in desert regions, especially if sun-baked
Stiff/Stiffy
Mailman/Mailmen
FedEx - single, or swarm, reference similar to FDA mentioned above

Forrest Gump - Fast zombie
Leroy Jenkins - Fast Zombie
Clifford - for ones that fall
Airmail - see clifford
Mini-thin - for ones that have been ran over, especially with a steam roller
Poptart - toasted or previously burnt zombie
match-stick man - zombie with head on fire, burnt head, or previously burnt
Kingsford - same deal
Roasted Marshmellow - fat burned zombie
Mobile Muncher - sloucher
Munchkin - they dont represent the lollipop guild
Bed bug - sleeper/dormant zombie
Linkin Park - crawler zombie (reference to the song "Crawling In My Skin")
Carpet muncher - crawler
Einstein - Thinker


Thats all that comes to mind off the top of my head. Maybe more later.

[Silveressa]

A few I've seen used by my players:

Maggot Motels
Necro dates
BO & BBQ reunion (referring to a convergence)
Elvis's Fan club
Meat Puppets
Carrion Cruise Liner fans(referring to a Caribbean cruise ship that was heavily infested)

[Anthar]

I like the nickname from The Walking Dead series, "Walkers". I also like Zeds, "the dead", and "short bus". The last is good for an NPC jerk or bad guy to use.

[Tearstone]

Drool-bucket
Special Olympics
Bullet Magnet
Ex-Wife
Fly-bait
Walmart Greeter
Devil's reject
Roving hobo
Pacman/Mrs. Pacman
Sir Moansalot
Carrion
Carrion Carnie
Carrion Clown


Meth-head - fast or particularly 'underfed' zombie
Crack-head - see above, or a zombie with a busted scall
Speedy Gonzales - fast hispanic zombie? or just fast zombie
Speed Demon - fast zombie
Sonic/Sonic the Hedgehog - fast zombie/ fast zombie pincushion
Pincushion - zombie with arrow(s), knives, or other missile weapons protruding from body
Porcupine - see Pincushion
Taz, the tazmanian devil - fast zombie, particularly nuts or unhinged
Jarhead - former marine or military, also zombie with head stuck in something, like a jar or jug, or bucket, or may be missing top portion of skull, brains may spill out. Could be derogatory term for a living person who is an idiot.
Cement head - zombie with a tough skull
Dark helmet - see cement head

Jock - fast zombie, or person that is tougher/faster/stronger than they are smart. Typically translates into "idiot".

Chess master - thinker
Steven Hawking - thinker
Bill Gates - thinker

Hollywood - any famous person now a zombie, or a look-alike, such as Bill Murray.

Car paint - zombie blood
Paint job - the act of splattering zombies with vehicles (usually a stupid move after a while)
Yosemite Sam - character that has a compulsion to shoot stuff. All balls and no brains, typically derogatory in nature
Tipping/Zombie Tipping - pushing zombies with vehicles, water cannons, firehoses, or other means off of cliffs and tall buildings
Zap Dance - similar to tap dance, but a combination of zombies and electrocution

A few more off the top of my head this evening. I wonder if I'll come up with any more.

[G]

+1 to all of the following:

Them - when you are aiming for horror
Shamblers
Wobblers
Deadites
Walking dead - as it describes everyone equally

Deadwave
Dead zone--any area not safe.
Dream Land--An area filled with inactive zombies. All Dream lands are dead zones, but not all dead zones are dream lands.

[GaredBattlespike]

Greetings!
I have a few:

1) Candles (because our group has a flamethrower from a Mil-Spec GI)

2) Prom Dates (Looky, my Prom Date is here! Gotta shoot an run!)

3) Cops (Sorry to all Real Law Enforcement types, but it IS mostly ther Zombies that make looting so hazardous!) "Could not get to the store, too many cops..."

4) Mush-Puppies (Kinda like "Slush-Puppies", but they devour US!)

Good Gaming, GaredBattlespike

[Tearstone]

Also...

Anonymous - may be referred to singularly or in a group
Anon - short for Anonymous, usually refers to a singular person, being, or... Zombie
Internet - a horde of zombies. "Oh look, the internet is here."

Johnny Walker - sloucher/shambler zombie, referring to a drunken-like state of movement.
Stench, or The Stench
Rank and File - zombie horde or crowd of zombies
Hungry Hobo
Z-Jaws


More to come soon, I think.

[asajosh]

According to somewhere on the interweb I read, a group of zombies is called a "vexing", which I for one think is perfect

[dhorn]

I've used the terms:
ghoul (obvious one)
zed
undead
shambler
biter
moaner
groaner
crazed
fatty (juggernaut)
filth
groper
cockroach

My favorite term, which members of the player group came up with, is "zit" - based on the way their heads pop when a well placed bullet, slug, or buckshot hits its mark.

[Tearstone]

Party Wagon: Open up cargo container or semi-truck trailer. Find zombies inside! What do?
Blender: Toss grenade into metal cargo container with zombies in it, slam doors, run like hell.