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Horrendous Space Kablooie
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The Horrendous Space Kablooie is an alternate term for the Big Bang, coined by Bill Watterson in his comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. Origin The phrase originates from the Sunday, 21 June 1992 strip in which the main characters, Calvin and Hobbes, are out for a walk: Calvin: I've been reading about the beginning of the universe. They call it 'The Big Bang'. Isn't it weird how scientists can imagine all the matter of the universe exploding out of a dot smaller than the head of a pin, but they can't come up with a more evocative name for it than 'the Big Bang'? That's the whole problem with science. You've got a bunch of empiricists trying to describe things of unimaginable wonder. Hobbes then asks, "What would you call the creation of the universe?", to which Calvin replies, "The Horrendous Space Kablooie!" Hobbes goes on to agree that does sound better. Cultural references "Horrendous Space Kablooie" enjoyed a brief popularity in the scientific community and was widely used in informal communications, often abbreviated to simply "the HSK". The term has also been incorporated into university courses; Michael Strauss, associate professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University, uses "Horrendous Space Kablooie" and the associated Calvin and Hobbes comic strips in his astronomy lectures. It also frequently appears in conjunction with discussions about the Big Bang theory, including references in the New York Times and the Daily Telegraph. USA Today used it as part of an article examining the origins of astronomical terms, while the book Creation, Evolution, and Modern Science uses the term to introduce a chapter on evolution. 
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