Biffo is an insulting Irish acronym:
Big Ignorant Fucker From Offaly
Offaly being a
county in the Irish
midlands, and as such pretty
nondescript. As this is a pretty
specific insult, it is not really that commonly used. It is widely used, however, to refer to
Brian Cowen, the current
Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Irish
government. Mr Cowen is one of Ireland's most senior
politicians, who can be seen strutting the
world stage in company with the likes of
George W. Bush,
Tony Blair, and
Romano Prodi, so you might expect that the Irish people would afford him the
respect due to such an
eminent personage. Mr Cowen, however, is saddled with the
appearance and speech of a
corpulent unschooled individual from the deepest midlands, and as such the
appellation "Biffo" has stuck to him.
A related acronym is Buffalo: Big Ugly Fucker From Around Laois/Offaly. This is even more rarely used, despite its potential application to the denizens of more than one midlands county.