Cunning linguists

So a convention of linguists gets together to vote on the best new words of the year, and they come to the category of most creative, where they have trouble deciding between two:

In a runoff for the most creative word, "whale tail," the appearance of a thong above the waistband, beat out "muffin top," the bulge of flesh hanging over the top of low-riding jeans.

Is it just me, or does it seem like the top two competitors have essentially the same theme? Isn't that a bit odd? I wonder where these linguists' minds are?