The word foo became very popular in the 1930s, and also appeared in other cartoons including the Looney Tunes cartoons of Bob Clampett such as The Daffy Doc and Porky in Wackyland (both 1938, with Daffy Duck and Porky Pig), and in other comic strips such as Pogo.
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The name BarCamp is a playful allusion to the event's origins, with reference to the programmer slang term, foobar: BarCamp arose as an open-to-the-public alternative to Foo Camp, which is an annual invitation-only participant-driven conference hosted by Tim O'Reilly.