Nobody says it anymore

Teachers in 2023: “NOOO you can’t end your sentences with ‘fr fr nocap skibidi’ those aren’t even real words!”

2033:

2033: "Why would you say any of that corny old shit? You sloopy old frond!"
- 2035: We flippin' grunts out here or what?
- Seriously. The "Fr fr no cap" is closer to our generations "Swag yolo". Or the past generations "Tubular"
- Do we have a RemindMe bot for Lemmy yet? I want to re-read this prophecy in 10 years
Is it a reference to this https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skibidi_Toilet? Is it used as punctuation like "lol"?

When I was a waiter, there was no shortage of boomers getting genuinely upset with me saying "No problem" as a reply to "thanks".

I prefer to say no problem over you're welcome cuz it always (to me) sounds sarcastic/disingenuous when I say you're welcome
- It's like this:
  You have a boss. A wrinkled plus-sized brown business jacket of a man whose idea of "cutting costs" is turning the air conditioner off. If he caught on fire, you wouldn't piss on him to put him out. How do you address him? "Good morning Mr. Perkins, how are you doing today?"
  You've got a war buddy. You met at boot camp, you served in the same company, he splinted your leg in the field, you're his kids' godfather. You'd kill and die for this man. How do you address him? "Ah god not this fucking asshole again."
  Official formal polite language like "Thank you" and "You're welcome" is the pair of nitrile gloves I put on to handle the really noxious shit that comes my way. "w'thanks man" and "no problem" means I'm willing to handle you with my bare skin.
- "No problem" also carries the implication that the favor was taken and done without ill will, where "you're welcome" carries one of superiority
Ugggggh I went through this with my (boomer) boss for years until she finally accepted it lmao. Then it was, "WORRIES, CaptFeather! WORRIES!" as a joke every time I said it lol
I had no idea that it's considered improper. Online gaming is like
thx
np
- Thx must have been too many letters because all I see now is "ty"
- It's a stretch for kids to write anything completely online. We call it Kid Pidgin.
- Nobody expects online gaming to be a bastion of proper grammar.
  People type in abbreviations when gaming mainly due to lack of time though... Much better to focus on the game than typing more than necessary to convey a simple message in those cases.
- I only ever did that when typing via controller. If I had a keyboard I used full sentences but quickly. Sometimes the speed meant lack of proofreading though and weird things have been said.
Lol did they specifically want "you're welcome?"
- Absolutely. I could understand it if it was a formal dining place I suppose. But it was a fucking Applebee's in a 20k population town with one other restaurant lmao
As an Aussie I don't understand how people get confused by 'no worries' .
- Inmates lost all manners smh
- I'm an American and I say that all the time. I'm not sure how I picked it up.
- "No problem" takes "You're welcome" and implies that it was of no inconvenience to you either. But I understand that older generations find it important that service workers be most humbly at their service, and adhere to a strict social etiquette just short of "Yes, m'lord" and "Shall I suck upon your dick, sir?"
  "You're welcome" is more appropriate in a professional setting, but if you're getting your jimmies in a rustle over someone saying "No problem" to you instead, you're a bit of an assfuck.
- And why do people need to pander to you specifically? Cant people be themselves?
  Those are narcissistic traits.
- There is a difference, but it's not one of inherent meaning, it's more or less a generational culture difference.
  I'll place this here and pre-emptively say that assisting your understanding was... no problem https://youtu.be/eGnH0KAXhCw?si=sVBI__SCJ3mQkkWo
- Not an important difference, no.
Imagine repying "danke", which is thanks in German

It was "yo" for me. Any time I used it some old shit would complain. My mom called it n-word speak. Me and my mom don't talk.

I use it daily, mostly out of spite.

She wasn't ok with yo but the n word was ok? Hahaha wtf old people be crazy
- My mom was about 35 when she said that. Went to services every weekend.
In the '90s I had a snap back that I decorated with stick on jewels (beadazzled) and on the back I wrote "YO!" in sparkly silver puffy paint. I thought I was so cool in that hat.
- It was the 90s, so you were. These days, not so much.
I say yo, but only to feel cool
- I say yo but only bcoz its a call in Japanese

I'm glad that the attitude that if you don't speak "correctly," then you are not worth engaging with is dying out.

Well, on the grammar front, anyway.

I'm glad the "not worth engaging with" attitude is dying out, but I do still think it's important to push for people to communicate accurately and effectively, which includes understanding and following grammatical rules when needed.
Language and vocabulary are essential to how we think and collectively problem-solve.
- There's got to be movement on both sides to a common understanding. If one side won't budge, then fuck 'em.
- The point of language is to communicate information.
  If the information was successfully relayed, the language exchange was successful.
  If the person knows you MEAN "hello, I would like two of these items here, thank you good sir. hands cash and cashier says thank you You're welcome. Have a pleasant day, sir" when you SAY "Sup, two please. Thanks man. No problem have a good one." then you have successfully languaged.
  So when my wife with a plethora of issues involving word recall says some insane thing because she can't remember the right words, as long as I understand what she means, her language did it's job.
It should of died out long ago and on the side of academic linguistics did, but on the internet sadly not so much
- should of
  Why do you want to hurt us so?
- There's descriptive and there's prescriptive linguistics. The first is the scientific endeavor of finding out and explaining how a language works. The second is the realm of anal politicians from the colonialist era who used language as an oppression tool to suppress local cultures and force the hegemonic culture upon indigenous people to make it easier to dominate, eradicate and subjugate them. Currently regarded as one of the defining elements of Genocides. For examples see, Spanish, French, English, Russian, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin … well you get the idea.
I think they are finding that they will be lonely if they want to continue to follow that path.
People using they/them pronouns:
- Does it really create a stumbling block though? In a lot of the threads I see it being pointed out in, everyone does understand the OP. The people pointing out the grammar seem to be more derailing to the conversation than anything.
  Plus I can't say I agree with whatever you mean by "getting their work more widely read or published". A lot of famous books that you're expected to read in school are already past modern English.
I think it’s all about context. Sometimes things are formal, sometimes things are informal. The ability to participate in either situation is important.

"Hej," pronounced "hey" is Swedish for "hello." Also "Hej hej" these days if you want to be more casual. It seemed weird to me at first, like "Hej mormor," for "Hello, grandmother," seemed informal, but if I said, "God afton," (good afternoon) my cousins said I sounded like a government issued language tape.

Probably not a super accurate representation of Swedish language, but it always brings a smile to my face to hear Brigitte's "hej hej" and other voicelines in Overwatch
- From what I remember Brigitte's voice is quite good, maybe a slight Disney princess tint to the voice, that I find a bit misfiting, but that's about it. Her Swedish however isn't bad at all.

- someone on reddit got pissed at me for not writing a 'coherent' comment, ie because i didn't use enough capital letters. so anachronistic, don't you know the style now old man?
None of what we speak today is "proper English." Languages are constantly evolving.
Also, the kids they were telling off in the early nineties are pushing fifty now and won't take any shit from an octogenarian.
- "Fuck off Dad, or I'll take you back to the home!"

In the nineties, i had an old guy respond "'Hey' is the first stage of horse shit.". I still use it to this day.

that's so much better. I'm 100% incorporating that into my daily phrases

Both, really. Some people enjoyed it, some people wanted it to stop.
It could also have been just that - an old joke that everyone liked responding with when they had the chance.
- That is how I always perceived it. I can't even imagine someone saying that with a straight face as a correcting rebuke.
It was what passed for a meme back in the 1950s. There was a comic alphabet that was performed as a turn in the music halls. It started off with "A for horses, B for Mutton, C for miles" and so on.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockney_Alphabet
- Your link says 1936.
I still say it. I thought it was funny. Now I am nervous people thought me rude.
Same, and I still say it to little kids because it's silly and confuses them for a second. "Hay is for horses. Aren't you glad you're a dog?"

My grandfather used to say that, but it was more of in a dad joke way rather than a 'you shouldn't say that' way.

I say it to my kids all the time.

"Hay is for horses" is such a dope saying. I loved it, horses are dope.

Exactly. I thought it was just a silly joke to open up conversation.
In Germany we have something similar. Our word for Hey, "Hai" actually has two meanings. Obviously it means "Hey" but also "Shark"
So it was common to respond with either "Where" or the more famous "Fish"
If you went for Fish it turned into a silly game of trying to compound the word as much as possible in responses to each other. Usually going like "Hey" "Fish" "Fin" "Soup". Sharkfish fin soup
Horses agree:
(tap to view animation)

I remember my mom getting uptight over the word "sucks", as in "that sucks" or "it really sucked". Literally everyone was saying it, there was no way I could help it lol

Core memory unlocked.
Mom used to get angry about me saying something sucks. She explained why it made her angry, and how it referenced a terrible and no-good sex act. I was about 16 at the time, and had already experienced this horrible, no good thing that nobody should do and just felt sorry for dad.
Tell her to sit on it. And rotate.
- Sit and swivel was phase where I grew up. Nobody says it anymore that I know of.
- You sit and spin man!
Sucks for her
- No, she does it
Go suck an egg, man
- A mayon-egg?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWNh5EjHsYA
Vacuum. It sucks too.

I think someone took a dad joke too seriously.

A few years ago a very boomer gen-xer tried this on me and got very enraged when I would say "hey" instead of "hello {his name}". At one point even threatened me.

I believe it. I have seen them melt down over the tinest thing. You can shorten my name, like pretty much every first name, and one of the old shits I used to work with would scream and yell about it.
“Greetings, sir!”
- What, no salutations? So rude!
I like to mix it up with a 'howdy' too. Kind of a throwback 'hey'.
- They’re saying the Gen X’er was acting like a Boomer. Which a lot of the older ones kind of are, from what I’ve noticed. They’re almost like “Boomer-lite” in their entitlement and other nasty attitudes.
- Being a boomer is an state of mind

Sup?

"Sup is for meal times!"

Bonus: sup means vulture in Czech. :-D

I still say this to my kids because they don’t understand why and it’s hilarious.

Dadbro, checking in. Hey will always be for horses.
- It’s better for cows.
  Piggies would eat it, but they don’t know how.
My 3 year old daughter has started saying "Hey!" Right before sharing a brilliant idea like "let's have ice cream for breakfast!" So I've started cutting her off with "Hay is for horses" and she just ignores me

In 2005 'Hello there - General Kenobi!' became the acceptable greeting amongst teenagers and old timers. Lets bring it back.

I fought in the hey/hay wars in my early childhood. Weost many good soldiers, but their sacrifice was not in vain.

My old man used to say (in a sing-song voice):

Hay is for horses

Sometimes cows

Chickens would eat it

But they don't know how

im old but you are most definitely older than i

They're gone now but moved on to inside our government

We all should have anticipated that after the "don't say gay" law, there will be a "don't say hey" law

Not once did someone say that to me in a corrective or condescending way. It was always a playful joke.

In elementary school we used to say "hay is for horses, and cows like you!".

We had "Hay is for horses, sometimes for cows, pigs don't eat it 'cause they don't know hows"
It was always "and cows say moo" for me.

My grandpa would do this to me when I was a kid, but it was never in like a rude way. It was just one of the funny ways we would mess with each other.

In my language, "Hi!" sounds like "Shark!", so sometimes I have to suppress the urge to say "is a fish", because Gen Xs I knew used to say it all the time.
- Germany? We have "Hai" "Fish" "Flosse" "Suppe" as a back and forth thing. Sharkfish fin soup.
  Always fun to find someone who knows the full game
- Haj

The calling parents "dude" wars are still raging, though.

I call my mom dude all the time.
My daughter is not allowed to call me 'dude' or 'bro.' I don't care if that's old fashioned or closed minded of me. I like being called Dad or Daddy, and shouldn't it be my choice what I'm called?
- maybe depends on how old the daughter is?
  if she's 6 then yes. if she's 20? umm get over yourself.

Remember Yo?

Hey

Hay is for horses.

Hey! Listen!

The proper response to someone saying hay, is straw.

African or European?

Image Transcription: Twitter Post

The Pumpkin Dipshit, @ParSpec

Remembering how common it was in like the early nineties for a kid to say "hey" and some old timer to respond "hay is for horses!" as part of some campaign to label "hey" as rude and force kids not to say it. They're gone now and we still say hey. You lost, old timers.

hAy is for horses, hEy means hello, they're literally different words.

So are read and read are the same word? How about lead and lead? 🤔
- Just like data and data :)

This reminds me of that old joke "what do gay horses eat? Hay hay haaaayyyyyy" that was told to us by a teacher in I dunno, middle school probably. Gotta love the 90s

Isn’t that just Swedish for “hello”, brought here by Swedish immigrants?

No, it's been in English since Old English, but is cognate with Swedish hej.
Hej is definitely Swedish for hello. Not sure about the etymology of hey in America but it certainly makes sense.
I think people were mostly bothered by it when used to get someone's attention... For example, as a substitute for "excuse me" or using a person's name.

I've heard it explained that "hey" used to be more of an urgent way to get someone's attention

Used to?! O_O

Still does, but depends on the emphasis
"Hey aulin!" = Hello
"Hey!/Hey, aulin!" = Getting your attention

Hej hej

Oh wow, so really we were giving them a mild heart attack, every time we were saying hi? I don't know if that really justified the grammar police (not using that other word casually, anymore) but also these are the people who created boomers, so they definitely had to have some issues they were never able to work through.

Same thing in Russian:

на "Эй!" зовут лошадей!

Y'all was different back then too. Now it's the most neutral greeting and that's really odd for my 90s brain.

I will die on the hill that "y'all" is a more concise way to convey the same information than any of the alternatives.
- I haven't gotten a chance to use it yet, but one day the construction "all y'all'd've" will be relevant in my life.
- Many languages have a plural second person pronoun, English can too y'all. It's a legitimately useful linguistic feature.
- Tell that to every kid in Texas, that the teacher ever made write "yall is not a word" on the blackboard 100 times.

Hay is for horses… and cows like it too! -Grandpa

Hay is for horses, sometimes cows, pigs don't eat it 'cause they don't know how.
I've heard something about straw is cheaper
- Straw is for bedding
- Hay is for horses, grass is free.
  Teachers smoke it, why can't we?

The modern day version of this is the response to "Thank You".

You're welcome?

No problem?

I've been told no problem is bad to say to customers, as if saying it meant they usually are a problem, but not so much this time. Since I work in IT support though, every client I speak to is either a problem or has a problem by definition.
No worries!