Origin: In the mid 90s, a set of outtakes from the voiceover recording sessions of the popular 80s cartoon
Thundercats appeared on
the Internet.
Among the very humorous moments in the outtakes is one where the voice actor for Panthro, (the, uh, "soulful" Thundercat) says the following line, "And keep your foot off that blasted Samophlange!" followed quickly by the outtake, "What the F*ck is a Samophlange?!"
Since then, Samophlange has come to be defined as any piece of sensitive technical equipment that may or may not actually exist.
While it is sometimes used in exasperation when a technical glitch can't be explained even by experts, it is more likely to be used as a geeky
inside joke at the expense of a newbie, of the same ilk as the ID10T or PEBKAC "errors."
But however you use it, just don't step on it.
