«

»

Jan 14 2006

In Which the Author Crabs About Internet Slang Dragging Us All Down

Categories:

Patriarchy, my patriarchy

by Twisty

All right, what gives with this word teh, and why is it suddenly being used to modify innocent young adjectives?

As in “he is teh gay.”

Or, “Twisty is teh awesome.”

?

?

Computer-generated list of quasi-related posts:

  1. In Which the Author Crabs About Patriarchal Control of Female Feet The natural order has been restored; there are now 200 miles between me and Dallas....
  2. Spinster aunt takes stab at tiresome trope Before I take a whack at the essay I’ve been wanting to write on Coping...
  3. Heads Roll In Saudi Arabia Here’s a news brief that stirs up from deep within the Twisty essence some troubling...
  4. Author of Annoying Sports Theme: Icky Perv Gary Glitter, convicted child porn enthusiast, pays $4000 to families of abused 11-year-old girls in...
  5. Spinster aunt rips off dudely comedy-joke from Internet [From PunditKitchen via jobsanger.]...

17 comments

1 ping

  1. tigtog

    January 14, 2006 at 5:18 am (UTC -6)

    Not everyone on the interweb thingy can be as typologically exalted as spinster aunts from Austin.

    Seriously, I think it’s a post-post modern emoticon.

  2. tigtog

    January 14, 2006 at 5:20 am (UTC -6)

    And you forgot to tell us about teh metroplex hair.

  3. Kim KakaMak

    January 14, 2006 at 5:49 am (UTC -6)

    “Teh”: I’d just blame the patriarchy if I were you.

    Here’s my love letter to you, Twisty:

    Loathe to take up space on your Comments with my babble, suffice to say the past year as been a rough one, ultimately leaving me with the former strangers known as Anxiety, Stress and Their Bullshit Self-Erasing Friends.

    Finding your site this past week has done me an amazing world of good. Reminded me who I am, quite literally.

    Your humor, in particular, is brillant.

    Thank you.

  4. kactus

    January 14, 2006 at 7:43 am (UTC -6)

    Dear Twisty,

    I will direct you to the wikipedia entry about such:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teh

    “The widespread popularity of purposefully using Teh on Internet forums and other forms of communication most likely stemmed from the fictitious character JeffK, of the humour website Something Awful, who often misspelled words on his homepage in a parody of a certain stereotype of Internet user.”

    Hope that helps. The whole article is interesting, too.

  5. mordo

    January 14, 2006 at 8:56 am (UTC -6)

    Suddenly? You must not frequent slasher circles, which have been extolling the virtues of “teh gay pr0n” for years, now.

  6. Twisty

    January 14, 2006 at 9:55 am (UTC -6)

    You are correct, mordo. I do not frequent slasher circles. But I believe the devolution of “teh” from definite article to adverb is somewhat recent a phenomenon. No?

  7. Lauren

    January 14, 2006 at 10:55 am (UTC -6)

    I blame teh patriarchy.

  8. MadMadam

    January 14, 2006 at 11:09 am (UTC -6)

    “teh” is from video games. It’s been popular jargon for awhile, must just be getting more mainstream. It’s similar to “pwn” in origin I believe. As in, “I pwn you”.

  9. Jane Dark

    January 14, 2006 at 11:19 am (UTC -6)

    I thought it was people being witty with the fact that “the” is often mistyped…but I just assumed that, I admit.

  10. Charlie

    January 14, 2006 at 11:27 am (UTC -6)

    It’s an ironic expression that I picked up playing online videogames. It’s ironic two ways: one, because it is glorifying a typo, and two, because it is making fun of people who speak leet.

  11. thebewilderness

    January 14, 2006 at 2:37 pm (UTC -6)

    Dear Twisty,
    It has been a difficult few days for all of us.
    Please consider a laptop investment for the sake of our sanity and good humor. I’m sure we would all be happy to kick in a few nickles to serve our need.
    I never doubted you would survive the megamultiplex excursion. It is the patriarchy blamers left behind I feared for. We have suffered, Twisty, we have suffered.

  12. Lauren

    January 14, 2006 at 2:53 pm (UTC -6)

    P.S. Can I fix your banner? Email me.

  13. Burrow

    January 14, 2006 at 5:14 pm (UTC -6)

    I really really thought it was because people can’t type the properly. I know I don’t all the time.

  14. Jackie

    January 14, 2006 at 7:46 pm (UTC -6)

    No, no, no.

    “Teh” nowadays is an adjective, not an article. You wouldn’t say “I went to teh store”, unless it was just a typo. You certainly could, however, say “Wal-Mart is teh awesome”, especially if you were a moron.

  15. Christopher

    January 14, 2006 at 8:25 pm (UTC -6)

    I think that time that the TV programming block “Adult Swim” showed a letter that said, “a nime is teh suck” helped catapult it into the mainstream. Geeks watch Adult Swim quite a bit, and AS used that phrase for a long time.

  16. Nebris

    January 16, 2006 at 3:26 am (UTC -6)

    And that would be ‘ghey’.

    ~M~

  17. urban chick

    January 16, 2006 at 6:11 am (UTC -6)

    indeed

    waht you said: waht teh &*%$?

  1. Feministe » War on Education

    January 14, 2006 at 2:31 pm (UTC -6)

    [...] * Eye-poppingly is now a word, says I, the recent graduate from the School of American Public School Edumacation. We welcome as many made up words as possible on this blog, even if we confuse others. [...]

Comments have been disabled.