“Honey, can you pass the blipper?”

All of us have grown up watching TV and it’s only natural that we start to develop some unique names to call our TV remote control.

For some, the “zapper” is their go-to name for the device that changes their channels. While others refer to it fondly by giving it a proper name like Dave or Fred.

Whatever you call it, as long as everyone around you knows what you mean, you can sit comfortably with your favorite TV snack food in hand and enjoy a night of fun TV entertainment.

Kitchen Table Lingo

The names people use to refer to their TV remote won’t be found in any formal dictionary.

In fact, these terms are what we call, “kitchen table lingo.” These are words you use within your family or with other friends and colleagues, but don’t appear in any dictionary.

The English Project actually headed the Kitchen Table Lingo project and gathered an enormous list of unusual words people use with each other – 57 of these slang words are terms people use for their remote control.

So, just because you say, “the mote,” at your house, doesn’t mean your friend or cousin uses that term.

What Did Your Parents and Grandparents Call Their TV Remote?

Slang has evolved over the years, and what your parents or grandparents used to call the remote can seem bizarre and weird when you hear it today.

The TV remote wasn’t really known until the 1950s when Zenith made the first official TV remote.

So, for your grandparents or your parents, this was something new and exciting and the term, TV remote control, just wasn’t cutting it for a name.

Some popular names back when your parents and grandparents were younger were:

• Lazy Bones
• Clicker
• Zapper
• Space Commander

Common TV Remote Control Names

Around the world, people use TV remotes every day and over time we have agreed on some common names.

These include:

• Channel changer
• The remote
• The flipper
• The thingy
• The switcher
• The mote
• The troll
• The infer
• The changer
• The wand

The Unusual, Bizarre, and Downright Nonsensical

For some of us, we have pet names for our TV channel changer. They’re unusual because you wouldn’t usually associate these names with the TV remote, but many people use these terms and think nothing of it.

Here is a short list of unusual names people use in place of the remote control:

• Doflicky
• The whatchamacallit
• The thingamajiggy
• The hopper
• The dangle
• The do-dad
• Doofangle

Still, some people just have bizarre and nonsensical names for their favorite TV remote. Here are a few:

• Yeti
• Hoofer-doofer
• Trevor
• The plonker
• Melly
• Blabber
• The didge

The TV Remote is Changing

While you might still refer to the TV remote as the one and only, “wand,” the future of TV remotes is changing.

With infrared technology becoming more of a staple on mobile phones, the possibility of your smartphone controlling your in-home appliances is becoming a reality.

Our SURE universal remote is currently at the cutting edge of innovative and tech gadgets for consumers.

The SURE app, which is available on Android, can be used in place of your remote to control your TV easily with your smartphone.

So, if you have our SURE app, what do you call your TV remote now? Let us know in the comments.