Republican Butt Plugs: Data as Sex Toys: Grand Old Party, Indeed

GOP Butt Plug Project

According to, NYU grad student Matthew Epler, "'Grand Old Party' is a data visualization project. It is also a set of butt plugs."

For those that don't look at as many spreadsheets and graphs as we do, this means that Epler took the approval ratings for the 2012 Republican primary candidates and turned their resulting graphs into 3D objects... objects meant for... how do we put this delicately... anal insertion.

The Santorum and the Gingrich look really dangerous. The Grand Old Party sex toys also come in Romney, Paul, Bachmann, and Perry. No Jon Huntsman or Herman Cain butt-plugs. Sorry.

In case you were wondering, yes, the Michele Bachmann (which Epler misspells in his diagram) and Rick Perry butt plugs are less expensive, since they're smaller. Shorter campaign means shorter graph.

Since "Republican Butt Plugs" makes such a punchy headline, Matthew Epler's little project hit sites such as Daily What and Gizmodo. However, why stop with Republicans?

Epler (or someone else; the horse has fled the barn) could create a butt plug for Facebook's IPO performance.