on the origin of n0s0ap

I get a lot of questions about the meaning of my user name “n0s0ap” and the zero symbol(ø) I use. Well, I thought I’d set the record straight.

n0s0ap means nothing. Literally it means “nothing”. I’ll explain.

It started back when I was in community college studying “multimedia.” I would see stickers all over the place drawn by various artists with a graffitiesque feel to them. They all had sweet “tags” and I was like “I want to make cool art and have a cool tag.”

So I was thinking about what my sweet tag would be while I sat down to watch All Through the Night, an incredible Humphrey Bogart movie in which he basically spoofs himself and the movies he’s known for. In the movie Bogie’s character sets off to get revenge when someone kills the baker of his favorite cheesecake. Yeah, he’s motivated by cheesecake. It turns out to be some dirty nazis that did it and it all ends in blazing pistols and good old American mobsters taking out the crazy misled Germans. Anyway, all through the movie Bogie’s men say “no soap” a lot. They go to check the warehouse for thugs, none there, “no soap boss”. I heard it so many times in this movie that I latched onto it. Switch the o’s to zeros to add a little 1337 flare and I’m all set.

Now, I operated under this tag for a bit and started to create accounts online using it as a username and I discovered something. “n0s0ap” is a pretty unique term and by golly, I was the only one using it. To this day I am still attached to every Google search result for “n0s0ap.” I really dig that so I latched on.

But wait, I’ve got more. After getting questioned several times I thought I’d dig deeper. The term “no soap” actually started with No Soap Radio. “No soap radio” is a traditional punchline for a practical joke originating in the 1940’s. From Wikipedia:

The punch line is known for its use as a basic sociological and psychological experiment, specifically relating to mob mentality and the pressure to conform. The basic setup is similar to the Asch conformity experiments, in which people’s proclivity to agree with a group despite their own judgments is tested.

So basically a group of people would get together and say “let’s play a prank on Bill”. So they get together with Bill and say some stupid joke, typically “Two polar bears are sitting in a bathtub. The first one says, ‘Pass the soap’. The second one says…’No soap radio!’” and the whole group busts up laughing, much to the befuddlement of Bill who doesn’t get the joke at all and wonders if he should laugh anyway.

So there is the origin origin, “no soap” is a meaningless punchline to a practical joke.

I couldn’t stop there, I had to have more meaning if I was going to make it my identity. So I continued searching. I found it while I was reading Monkey: A Journey to the West, one of many translations and re-tellings of a Chinese legend. In the beginning of the story Monkey is struggling to learn new skills and become more than a monkey. At one point his teacher asks him to do an insurmountable task. “Sounds difficult” Monkey said. The teacher replied:

Nothing in this world is difficult, but thinking makes it seem so. Where there is true will, there is always a way.

This rang true with me and has become my philosophy in work and in life. Many obstacles we encounter are the results of over-thinking and self-defeat. If we truly try and go at hurdles as if we can jump them, we can soar high above them. So I apply this philosophy to my little term “n0s0ap”.

n0s0ap = “Nothing is difficult.”

The end.

If you’re all the way down here reading, I’m amazed. Thanks for listening to my story. I award you +4,000 points of Awesome.

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