Recently, I’ve been wondering about catchphrases. Those random quirps (yeah, I just made that up. It’s a mix between quirk and quip) that people spew to indicate some sort awesomery that occured.
COOL & HOT
These two are probably the coolest to use, and probably the most neutral. “That was movie was so cool”. Paris Hilton has also been the forerunner of “HAWT”, the close relative to “HOT”. See you gotta make your quirps your own to ensure longevity.
KIFF & Spiff
Two local quirps that have recently reentered my vocab. Everything these days are either spiff or kiff. For the non-South African peeps, spiff actually originated from “spiffing”. So ain’t that grand.
Viral Quirps
Maybe you’ve noticed, but when some of your friends start using interesting quirps that are super catchy (hence the name catchphrase), you start to mimic them. This is interesting. I once used the word “awesomesauce” and I swear I started it. Then one day some kid from some country town puts it on his Facebook. Quirps travel.
Another interesting quirp I usually used is the construcion “Wicked McNicked” or “Spiff McDiff” or something [word] + Mc[slight variation of word one]. Needles to say, it also caught on among my friends.
Late 80′s, Early 90′s
This was a productive time for quirps. Just listen to these: Gnarly, Radical, Awesome, Right On, Cowabunga, Tubular, Eycarumba.
Recent Trends
For the past month I’ve been quoting stuff from the web a lot. Which in some circles make me the uncool one. I’ve been saying a lot of “Fail” and “Win”. Like when something spiff happens, I say “that was a win” or “this is such a win-win situation”.
What is your quirp? Your weirdest one perhaps?
