Sabadell, Spain's Transit System Introduces Their Very Unfortunately-Named New Mascot, 'Bussi'

If the PR team behind the transit system of Sabadell, Spain wasn't familiar with the LGBTQ slang term bussy before yesterday, they almost assuredly are now after social media caught wind of their transit system's new mascot, the very-unfortunately named "Bussi."

@petit_sabadell La Bussi és la nova mascota dels busos urbans de #Sabadell. Vol acostar els més petits al transport públic. #estictokat #peratu #parati ♬ sonido original – Petit_Sabadell

The mascot, seemingly designed by mixing Oogie Boogie, a Toy Story alien and a transit map, debuted in its bewildering glory yesterday, dancing and fraternizing with children. In Spain, Bussi is confounding citizens with its bizarre look. In English-speaking countries, its #1 issue with Bussi is that it is named "Bussi."

Today in “what the hell do you not employ a single gay person in your whole damn company?”

— Huw Lemmey (@huwlemmey) September 23, 2022

In recent years, "bussy" has picked up steam as a portmanteau slang term used to describe a male's anus ("boy" + "pussy") and inspired a host of memes centered around making portmanteaus that end in -ussy. Naturally, once Bussi made its way to American Twitter, folks were agog that Bussi was real and terrifying.

Who need they bussi service expanded https://t.co/fEkzwBpChw

— James Medlock (@jdcmedlock) September 23, 2022

haha, bussi, this will be a laugh, you think: and then bussi turns out to be like if you gave DALL-E a tube map and asked it to generate the rabbit from Donnie Darko, and now you'll never sleep again https://t.co/aoceDWEdjT

— Ben (@cinemashoebox) September 23, 2022

not a double cheeked up Bussi 😩 https://t.co/pseFvrkQR5

— sick public transit, gloria (@seungylee14) September 23, 2022

While one might think the TUS ("Transports Urbans de Sabadell") simply added a cute suffix on the word "bus" in the same way an English speaker might say "doggy," the name was linguistically calculated in order to get children into Bussi's loving embrace. The President of the TUS, Paco López, explained that the name is a portmanteau of Spanish words for "bus" and "yes" ("¡Bus, sí!"), which he believes will foster positive associations with public transport in Sabadell's children.