This derogatory term recently exploded on the U.S. scene with its application to U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump. Its arrival is so recent the Urban Dictionary has only a recent definition and one that seems to me not to connote the true depths of the intended insult:
General insult….moron, idiot, Donald Trump in particular.
(Origin: Scotland)
We voted to remain, you incomprehensible shitgibbon!
Google Books Ngram Viewer gives zero hits. Perhaps some folks from Scotland and the rest of the U.K. could fill us in? It is such an inspired term that it seems to beg for a rich and diverse history and usage.
Best Answer
My Scottish perspective on Shitgibbon
There are a couple of threads to this particular insult.
In Scotland, and I am sure in other places, we love a good, complex, overblown insult. A proper insult should be entertaining for listeners as well as offensive to the target. This is apparently the tail end of the noble Scottish tradition of Flyting, which was similar in form and function to modern Rap Battles.
While this example can be seen as one-sided in that Trump is merely the object of the insult rather than a participant in an exchange, he is seen as a fair target due to:
He was mischaracterising events in Scotland at the time
He has a tendency to don Scottishness when he thinks it plays to his advantage while attempting to treat Scotland and its systems of planning and governance as his personal playthings
The other thread is the insult itself. ‘Shitgibbon’ references the storied practice of chimps of throwing their faeces around. The phrase is deployed in allusion to the perceived quality of Trump’s debating skills and political grace, though the reality of the ape-practice apparently undermines the image by being a sign of intelligence - opinions differ on whether Trump is a smart guy playing dumb or not. This blog perfectly captures the idea, while sadly being unaware of the term. https://musteryou.wordpress.com/2010/09/14/just-the-usual-apes-throwing-shit/
UPDATE: Well it turns out that the guy who wrote the tweet is not Scottish and perhaps had little of that in mind when he wrote it. I'm leaving it here though, because I think it still represents how it was understood by the Scottish-Indy-minded section of Twitter, of which I am a habitue, where it was widely circulated prior to going viral/global. I suspect that the retweet that set things off may have been someone like Wings Over Scotland