Why Are They Called "Punk" Frogs?
 

Probably to go with the fact that Shredder used to employ a gang of punks to do his dirty work. The name was supposed to be for one episode and it stuck.

That was the ‘88 show.

1987: Miniseries
1988: Syndicated show
1990: CBS SATAM series

My guess would be because it was the 80s and punk rock music was popular amongst teenagers who became adults before that time period was over.

I think back then 'punk' was considered evil or bad, which is why you usually see gangsters dressing up in punk clothes and hairstyles and you very rarely if ever see good guys rock out to punk music unless it's a disguise or something. So calling them Punk Frogs was I guess making sure kids knew that they were bad guys for a while anyway

I'm guessing they're called Punk Frogs because Playmates had a certain portrayal of them in mind that the Fred Wolf writers just ignored. You look at what most characters were like in either Mirage or Archie and the Fred Wolf incarnation is almost nothing like them.

The IDW book recently introduced them and just made them into various rockers... the metalhead frog, the punk frog, the grunge frog, the glam frog... the problem tho is... a metalhead is an identity, a punk rocker is/was an identity, in the 70's being a glam rocker was an identity... all of these types came with a tribe, style of dress and certain lifetsyle... in the 90's grunge was a musical style with a style of dress... flannel... but grunge rockers were not really an identity that was a way of life or anything. the 90's had no real movements... they should have made the grunge frog into a goth! that would have made more sense, me thinks!

Not really... you forgot the Genghis Frog action figure already looked dressed in Florida type clothes. Nothing about him said 'punk'.

Because "Genocidal Warlord" Frogs would terrify the mommies.

If the Punk Frogs show up in the IDW comics. I hope they make them literal punks turned mutant frogs.

read my post! they already did.

The Frogs certainly never had punk-like demeanors, not in the classic toon at least, that's for sure. I really loved their naive and very endearing personalities. Kind of interesting the way they hated pizza at first, then later on didn't, guess since their befriending of the turtles, they decided to try new things and had a change of heart.

They were from the Florida Everglades and had those southern accents too.

Punk Rock Frogs
 

The home videotape even calls them the Punk Rock Frogs

http://www.thetechnodrome.com/images/vhs/iotprf.jpg

It's a good question. My hunch is they just wanted them to have a sort of title, to present them as anti-ninja turtles. They might have thrown around a few ideas like Kung Fu Frogs, Karate Frogs, Surf Frogs doesn't roll off the tongue, might have ruled out Battle Toads early on. I feel like the punk rock scene wasn't the primary thing. More likely they were leaning for the degenerate thug connotation.