Actually I looked it prior to my post and it stated it also stood for Before The Christian Era, what else can you expect from a bunch of atheist nimrods. I fully expect them to somehow work muzzies in. Hey if I misread this then Mea Culpa...........OH!
BCE is the abbreviation for Before the Common/Current/Christian Era (an alternative to Before Christ, abbreviated BC).
The comic strip, per FReeper lore, that led to ZOT beiing canonized in the FR lexicon was titled by artist Johnny Hart as
BC, as it rightly should have been, and not the ultra-PC
BCE. There were numerous instances of ZOT featured in the lifetime of the classic comic strip, here's but one of many:
