Tea-Bagging (Concept)

Tea-Bagging

CONCEPT

Also known as corpse-humping, tea-bagging is a slang term in video games when after a player has slain another player or NPC, they move their character over the dead character's body and crouch up and down repeatedly, adding a humiliating, and often humorous, factor to the character's death.

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Note: It is a behavior which even appears outside of multiplayer and shooting games, as crouching is a common mechanic. Don't add every game!

Overview

Teabagging is a behavior popularized by multiplayer shooters like Counter-Strike (Franchise) and Halo (Franchise) along with their communities of players, where a player crouches multiple times on the corpse of a defeated player while the loser's camera is panning over their body before respawning.

With a name derived from a sexual act by the same name, which itself references the real-life act of dipping a tea bag while preparing tea. This connection has led to some references like Homefront's Steam exclusive "Tea Party" achievement.

Similar to taunting, but nigh-universal due to crouching being a common mechanic, players may do this to humiliate and provoke the downed opponent (mind games), simply out of sport (fun) or to celebrate a hard-earned win in an encounter.

In comparison with the ragdoll physics and lack of kill-cam in earlier Halo games (Combat Evolved till Reach), this was a common trend for players to express themselves whether or not voice chat was on or people were playing locally with LAN play.

In games which feature a kill-cam, the victor will likely just tea-bag the ground from where they are standing instead of actually moving over the other player's dead body. This is commonly seen in Red Faction: Guerrilla but also fighting games where it is often done while an enemy is stunned, perhaps as taunts cannot be cancelled early enough and don't convey the ideal message. It also occurs in fighting games without being near to a foe due to limited post game movement and as the collision boxes of models prevents the shooting game's version.

That said, it is rather common for players in the Smash community to crouch repetitively at the beginning of a match as a sign of respect and understanding. This is also done, due to how online in Smash 4 limits the use of taunts.

Controversy

Tea-bagging has been a cause for some controversy due to being perceived as unsportsmanlike conduct and sexual implications from the behavior's name. The former led to a temporary ban of the action in the Killer Instinct World Cup, prior to high-level players and a game designer for the title discouraging the ban.

In Pop Culture

In 2007, Shadowrun (Game) was released and featured a hidden Achievement called "Shadowrun Fever". This was rewarded to a player if they tea-bagged any player (allies included!) who already had it and functioned as a viral achievement.

A 2009 episode of The Simpsons (Franchise) television show (Season 20, Episode 19) depicts Homer and Marge tea-bagging a corpse in a game which strongly resembles Halo 2 (Game) with the user interface.

2015's Mortal Kombat X (Game) has an achievement called "Trolling" for crouching 30 times during the Fatality (Concept) window. This is an unusual case as a typical Fatality from the series is many magnitudes more violent or erotic than rapidly crouching in the vicinity of standing but immobilized foes.

The Female Counterpart

A common name used for the female counterpart to this action is "Clam Slamming", but there are others.

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