University no longer sells mug with hidden expletive

Users on picture-sharing website Imgur argued back and forth about whether the curse word on the coffee mug had been a purposeful act by the university.

A University of Texas spokeswoman confirmed Friday that the mug’s potentially offensive design — it had the acronym UNT with the coffee mug handle make a C — was completely unintentional.

“It was an unfortunate design mistake,” said Leslie Minton, spokeswoman for UNT.

The mug has now been taken off a store’s website. Previous screenshots of the website showed the offending mug for sale, but Minton said she wasn’t sure how recent those were.

An Imgur user posted the picture of the mug last week with the caption, “Not sure the University of North Texas thought that through.”

Another user added that the UNT Art Building sign had a C added to the UNT and an F added to the Art.

Minton said the mug is not on sale anywhere anymore and was originally produced for an event about a year and a half ago. She said they weren’t aware of the insult caused by the handle until the image went viral last week, but that they had gotten barely any negative backlash.

“Mostly it seems people are getting a good laugh,” Minton said.

Some posts on social media assert the joke is a well-known one at UNT.

“The University of North Texas knows about this joke. They’ve been making it for years,” one Facebook user wrote. “That’s what happens when a bunch of PhD students get together in one place. Smart people can see a joke as a joke and realize it’s not aimed at anyone.”

Many on social media mentioned plans to purposely buy the mug with the expletive (even some who didn’t attend the university), while others expressed offense.

For those who do want to buy the mug, it doesn’t seem to be available anymore. However, you can buy a similar mug off Amazon that appears to be made specifically to express the not-so-subtle expletive.

Minton said the black-lettered mug had no affiliation with the university.

This story was originally published July 15, 2016 at 9:13 AM with the headline "University no longer sells mug with hidden expletive."