What did pilots jokingly call carrier landings?

It wasn't what anyone would call a soft landing: it was more often described as a controlled crash with a very fast stop, because the hook caught one of the wires and brought the plane to an abrupt halt.

Among the aircraft that made that maneuver famous is the Vought F4U Corsair, nicknamed the "Ensign Eliminator" for the difficulty many new pilots — usually holding the rank of ensign — had landing it on a carrier. The nickname wasn't unearned. Early Navy pilots also called it the "hog," "hosenose," or "bent-wing Widow Maker." One of those nicknames, "The Hose Nose," came from the poor visibility over its long nose, a factor that, along with others, made landing a Corsair a difficult task.

Its low-speed handling was tricky because the left wing stalled before the right one. That tendency to lose lift first on the left wing caused a violent, deadly snap roll. The other problem was a landing gear that was too stiff, which made the Corsair prone to bouncing on the deck and then slamming its nose into it. Pilots had to come in perfectly lined up so that, when they cut power, the plane would touch down before stalling and trying to roll over. The Corsair wasn't considered fit for carrier use until the wing-stall and deck-bounce problems were fixed.