Hoser

Hoser is both a slang term and a stereotype, originating from and used primarily in Canada.

Like the very similar but less well-known term hosehead, it originally referred to farmers of the Canadian prairies, who would siphon gas from farming vehicles with a hose during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Today, the word hoser evokes – sometimes sympathetically, with gentle ribbing, and sometimes negatively – a stereotypical Canadian male, typically lower to middle class, white and English Canadian. He is especially concerned with drinking beer and watching ice hockey. The hoser is understood as a product more of rural, suburban or smaller city Canada than of the cosmopolitan larger cities. He's often imagined wearing heavy winter clothing, perhaps a flannel lumberjack shirt, or a tuque. He is generally a young adult to middle age, and may be somewhat aggressive given the beer and hockey, but may conversely be passive and amiable, given the beer. In musical culture, he is correlated with classic and mainstream rock music, and particularly with the earlier, rowdier works of The Tragically Hip.

Perhaps the iconic representations of this definition of hoser in Canadian culture are Bob & Doug McKenzie of SCTV and Strange Brew. This model also profoundly informs The Red Green Show and Trailer Park Boys.

Hoser may also refer more generically to a rude and unkempt person, similar to the more universal terms boor, slob, and lout. However, like other such terms (i.e. jerk) it can also be used in a much more general sense as an all-purpose mild insult.

See also

• eh