Origin and history of Spam

proprietary name registered by Geo. A. Hormel & Co. in U.S., 1937; probably a conflation of spiced ham. Soon extended to other kinds of canned meat.

Figurative of what is bland or unexciting by 1959. In the sense of "internet junk mail" it was coined by Usenet users some time after March 31, 1993, when Usenet administrator Richard Depew inadvertently posted the same message 200 times to a discussion group.

The term had been used in online text games, and ultimately it is from a 1970 sketch on the British TV show "Monty Python's Flying Circus" wherein a reading of a restaurant's menu devolves into endless repetitions of "spam" accompanied by an incongruous chorus of vikings.