#59: The story of Jimmy Eat World
He was so fat he could eat the world.
As we’ve discussed in previous editions of Band Name Bureau, the longer a band exists, the less weird their name sounds. My go-to examples are Ned’s Atomic Dustbin and Screeching Weasel, two bands whose patently ridiculous names I stopped noticing decades ago.
Jimmy Eat World—who heads out on tour this month—is another one. Back in the mid-’90s, my favorite local band in Houston was called Blueprint. (A hopelessly generic and overused moniker, to be sure.) In fact, they were the first band I ever interviewed, which MaximumRocknRoll published and fulfilled my punk-rock dreams at the tender age of 18.
The summer of 1996, Blueprint released a split 7-inch with an Arizona band I’d never heard of called Jimmy Eat World. The name was undoubtedly silly, but I don’t remember giving it a second thought, as any issue of MaximumRocknRoll in those days contained a couple dozen that were more ludicrous (such as Your Folks Throwing Up on My Folks).
By 1996, Jimmy Eat World was already on their first reinvention. Two years prior, the teenagers had released a self-titled full-length that bore only a slight resemblance to the band on the Blueprint split (and an even slighter resemblance to the one that would release Static Prevails later in 1996).
Yet Jimmy Eat World’s name and music were never more in sync than on that 1994 album and their first demo, which had this thuddingly literal cover.
That’s because 1994 Jimmy Eat World played pop-punk—not the ultra-dopey variety of Blink-182’s Buddha, released around the same time—but it was definitely… different. (I’d argue Jimmy Eat World is far more nuanced and thoughtful than most debut albums disowned by the bands that released them.)
And being a kinda dopey pop-punk band, the members of Jimmy Eat World gave little thought to their name. Back in 2018, drummer Zach Lind posted a Twitter thread explaining how it happened.
The short version: Guitarist Tom Linton and future bassist Rick Burch played in a band that changed its name for every show. For one performance, they chose Jimmy Eat World, based on an angry drawing Linton’s little brother made. Here’s how Linton explained it in 1999:
My brother Jim beat up my younger brother Ed, and Jim ran into his room and locked his door, and Ed drew this picture that said “Jimmy Eat World,” and it was a picture of him eating the world. My brother Jim is kind of a big guy. A stupid name.
No one’s arguing that. Frontman Jim Adkins—no relation to the “Jimmy” in Jimmy Eat World—elaborated in another interview:
[Ed] wrote the caption “jimmy eat world” to insult him, saying he was so fat he could eat the world.
Ah, siblings. As Lind summarized in that thread:
Because, who knows, maybe you’ll someday want to make merch, and you’ll always have to spell out your awkward name because abbreviating it would say “JEW.”
Naturally some people have wondered if that was intentional. Something called rulefortytwo.com asked Lind about it on behalf of a friend who had probably “just smoked himself retarded.” I’m guessing Lind sighed heavily before responding, “None of us are Jewish, and the name has nothing to do with any religious or social positioning. It’s totally coincidental.”
Another theory holds that Tiny Toon Adventures inspired the name, because one episode featured the phrase “Dizzy Eat World”:
As this theory notes, Tiny Toon Adventures aired 1990-1992, and Jimmy Eat World formed in 1993. Could Ed Linton have been inspired by a beloved cartoon series?
And is it a coincidence that the user who posited that theory on resetera.com has since been banned? MAYBE FOR GETTING TOO CLOSE TO THE TRUTH?!
Doubtful. Digging around the internet for hot takes on Jimmy Eat World’s name naturally led me to Urban Dictionary, which was reliably worthless:
the name was given to the band by the son of one of the members:of Jimmy slicing up and eating the world like a cake.
Oddly, Urban Dictionary has a bounty of entries about Jimmy Eat World posted in 2005, not long after the release of the band’s 2004 album, Futures. They’re full of comically dated phrases, such as one describing Jimmy Eat World as “a surprisingly iPod-worthy.”
Amazingly, I had to scroll and scroll before finding anything sexual, but user “Big Boobs” delivered on April 20, 2005:
Really cute music made by really ghastly dudes.
“I want to have sex these guys because the music is so good, but alas, they suffer from Jimmy Eat World Syndrome.”
I know beauty’s in the eye of the beholder, but “ghastly”? I expected more from you, Big Boobs, especially on the holy day of 4/20.
That said, “Jimmy Eat World Syndrome” qualifies as a good name for the phenomenon of impulsively choosing a band name when you’re a dumb kid and then being stuck with it forever.
POST-SCRIPTS
Twenty-six years later, that Blueprint/Jimmy Eat World split remains one of my favorite 7-inches ever, and “Christmas Card” one of my favorite Jimmy Eat World songs.
As I put it in an old story for The A.V. Club, Jimmy Eat World has done their best keeping that 1994 self-titled album buried. It’s not available on Discogs or eBay. Even before “The Middle” blew up, copies of Jimmy Eat World went for more than $100 on eBay.
A reunited Blueprint played a show during SXSW one year, and it was by far the thing I was most excited about seeing—and probably my personal highlight of that year?
I went digging around for proof of existence for Your Folks Throwing Up on My Folks, and I landed on this 2xCDR comp with some absolute gems. Bands with names like Working Man’s Don Knotts, Vulva 13, Penile Display, Flotsam & Ketchup, Peanutbutter Beef, Diarrhea Pearlman, Baloney Bong, MC Dipshit & the Funky Fetus, and Especially Like Sloth! And what song titles: “I Hate Myself Because I’m from Space,” “Steal Your Face, What?,” “Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things,” “My Life is Piping Hot Pile of Cum,” and “My Butt is the Ancient Birthplace of Good Times.” What a treasure trove!