Derp

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Melanie from Reno, Nevada.

Hey, Melanie, welcome to the show from Reno, Nevada.

How can we help you?

I have a question about the word derp.

My child and the neighborhood kids have been running around saying this word constantly.

I’ve looked it up, tried to figure out what it is and what it means.

I have a pretty good idea, but when I ask them what it means, they say, oh, it’s complicated.

Yes, it must be.

So I felt that I had to go to the experts.

Sounds like they’re the experts.

Seriously.

So how do they use the word derp, and how are you spelling it?

Well, I would have spelled it D-U-R-P, but apparently they spell it D-E-R-P.

I mean, that’s the spelling that I found online.

So the way they use it is sort of as commentary, but there’s many variations.

So if somebody does something that you might consider a fail or is not exactly stupid, I mean, it has a different meaning.

Like if they slip and fall, for example, or they mess up somehow, they’ll just go derp or derpy derp derp or snurp a derp.

Snurp a derp.

That would be the really tragic fail.

And my daughter has used it with me, which was surprising.

Hey, Mom, you just derped away.

And what does that mean?

Well, that means apparently that I’m not, I just kind of, she said something to me and I just spaced out and turned away as if I wasn’t paying attention.

So not paying attention has something to do with this.

Sounds like lots of awkwardness involved with being derpy.

Derped away.

I looked at this word derp in 2011 and when somebody had suggested to me that it came from the movie Basketball, which was made by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of the South Park.

Yeah.

I was like, yeah, right.

And you turn the movie on and it’s like within the first couple minutes of the show, these two dudes are doing something really embarrassing.

They’re going through a woman’s underwear drawer.

And then when she chases them out of the room, for some reason, as the scene cuts to another scene, you hear derp, like kind of a non sequitur.

And I’m like, what?

I don’t get it.

Maybe one of the I couldn’t tell if the actors were saying because you couldn’t see their faces, really.

But Know Your Meme has done a pretty good job of tracking down every time that derp has been used in South Park episodes, the show created by the same guys who created the movie Basketball.

And so I would speculate that these two men, if they’re not the originators of the term, are very definitely the popularizers of derp.

And it has been pervasive ever since.

On Reddit, people use it like crazy.

It’s involved with a wide variety of memes and different characters.

You see it now popping up in slinky descriptions of other people and yourself.

It’s thoroughly enmeshed into American English slang at this point.

So, Melanie, I guess my question would be, are you allowed to use it, or do your kids roll her eyes when you say it?

I’m certainly allowed to use it.

Oh, you are? Okay.

Yeah.

It’s not derpy of you not to use it.

It’s not derpy.

Okay.

I’ve got to say, Melanie, this was a great question.

We know we have a lot of parents and grandparents out there who probably have never heard this term, and their kids and grandkids are all like, of course, yeah.

Duh.

We totally use that.

Duh.

Duh.

Duh.

Thanks for calling today.

Thanks, Millie.

Thank you so much.

I really appreciate it.

Sure, take care now.

It’s been very informative.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

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Email words@waywordradio.org.