
The complete abandonment of spelling and grammatical rules in favor of finding jokes in intentional errors is a growing trend online. I call it English-ish.
My biggest Internet obsession these days is the Twitter feed of @Seinfeld2000, which sets Seinfeld in the modern day and sarcastically describes possible episode plots. The idea of pitching modern' Seinfeld plots on Twitter is not unique to the feed, in fact Seinfeld2000 is a parody of another Twitter feed called @SeinfeldToday. Seinfeld Today came up with the whole concept of 140 character modernist Seinfeld plots, and it has thirty times more followers to show for the invention.
To see the difference between the two Twitter feeds -- the parody and the parody of the parody -- here are some typical @SeinfeldToday tweets:
Jerrys gf constantly says "hashtag." George gets a job as a "social media expert." "Its great, Jerry. You dont need to know anything!"
Modern Seinfeld (@SeinfeldToday) March 3, 2013 Elaine tries to build an Ikea dresser alone. E:"How hard can it be? Its just furniture." J:"With that attitude? I dont like your chances."
Modern Seinfeld (@SeinfeldToday) April 15, 2013 George keeps using his exs Netflix because the suggestions are finally perfect for him. "I cant start over. This thing knows me, Jerry!"
Modern Seinfeld (@SeinfeldToday) February 15, 2013 And here are some typical tweets from @Seinfeld2000:
Jerry use Internet and Elaine start using Internet
Seinfeld Current Day (@Seinfeld2000) January 12, 2013 Elane set herself on fire while trying to twerk LOL all you want but thats how her caracter dies
Seinfeld Current Day (@Seinfeld2000) September 6, 2013 Full one hour epsoad Jarry runs Norton Antivirus to remove virus fron his PC
Seinfeld Current Day (@Seinfeld2000) January 27, 2013 Whereas one of SeinfeldToday's creators now writes for Fox, the studio powers have showed Seinfeld2000 nothing but hostility. Warner Brothers requested that Seinfeld2000's anonymous creator (known only to be 30 and male) stop selling his recently penned novel due to a copyright infringement. Soon after, Gawker (never one to miss a chance mocking the epic fails of the the mainstream media) re-posted the novel, and to much praise from the New York creative community. Heres a particularly salient excerpt from the novel, titled The Apple Store, which features a Tim Burton-esque version of Barack Obama as a main character:
"U.S. Presedent Barack Sadam Husene Obame sit in the darkened Oval Ofice at 2 a.m. wearing hes traditienel Kenyan robe.
He take one last bite of the Chicago style deep dish pizza that he has flown to him every day on the Amerecan tax payers dime and wipe the grease off his mouth with the U.S. consititutien.
"Eeny, meeny, miney, mo which basic U.S. freedoms are next to go?" he say aloud to no one and every one at the same time.
Then he flash that trade mark Bary Obame million doller grin as a crack of lightning sound in the distance."
Rereading that passage a few times makes it fast apparent how much less funny all of the gags would be if the sentences were properly structured and the spelling corrected. The playful undertone of a youth in revolt commenting on, among things, some of the popular misbeliefs about our president would be nowhere near as piquant.
English-ish is bigger than lolspeak, it's not tethered to a cat.
This complete abandonment of grammatical rules in favor of finding jokes in broken flows, twisted enunciations, and other intentional errors is something that I've been noticing more and more online. I am yet to find any linguistic description of whats really going on, so I'm going to call it "English-ish."
The origins of English-ish (perhaps this term should not be capitalized, as an homage to its cacophonous roots?) do seem to be in Internet comedy subculture, specifically lolspeak and lolcats. Wikipedia describes lolcats as combining a photograph of a cat with text intended to contribute humor. The text is often idiosyncratic and grammatically incorrect.'
Lolcats and the weblog "I Can Has Cheezburger?" transformed the Internet shorthand that originated more than two decades ago in chat rooms and T9 text into something different, and something more meaningful: LOL went from being just an acronym for laughing out loud to becoming a word unto itself, one thats pronouced "loll. Theres strong onomatopoeia to "loll," it just sounds funny in sort of a laughable, lazy, impersonal-yet-communal kind of way, a word perfectly engineered for the Internet. Lol feels like some form of Internet umami.
These lingual manipulations, as they appeared in I Can Has Cheezburger?" and other places, were at first largely relegated to anthropomorphizing the supposed internal monologues of our pets. After all, animals cant speak English, so of course if a cat somehow found its way to the keyboard and typed up its thoughts, of course its grammar should come off slightly mauled.
Lauren Gawne and Jill Vaughan from the Australian Linguistics Society explain that people gravitate toward lolspeak because it builds up two identities simultaneously: cat and Internet-savvy person.
I can has language play: Construction of Language and Identity in LOLspeak from Lauren Gawne on Vimeo.
This solidifies lolspeak as a fascinating storytelling tool, a way to create more complex characters and narratives that reflect the modern world in multiple dimensions.
English-ish is bigger than lolspeak, it's not tethered to a cat. Its a broader emotional reaction to the world in which we live. The Apple Store's Bary Obame character, which combines President Obama, Internet subculture, left-leaning political ideology and gleeful absurdity seems far too complex for the constraints of grammar.
I don't think english-ish is ever going away, it's far too funny of a s
Most recent headlines
13/03/2025
WASHINGTON FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the agency has launched a massive, new deregulatory initiative that could potentially subject virtually all ...
13/03/2025
SUNNYVALE, Calif. SDVI has announced that it has integrated its Rally media supply chain management platform with the Spectra Vail multi-cloud data management s...
13/03/2025
ATLANTA Gray Media has announced that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted a waiver of its local ownership rules to permit Gray Media to acqu...
13/03/2025
TV Tech: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trends at the 2025 NAB Show?...
13/03/2025
Watch Student Naomi Soleils Folk Pop Performance on The Voice The songwriting major sang Stars by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals during the blind auditions.
...
12/03/2025
O Spotify acaba de lan ar o relat rio Loud & Clear deste ano, uma vis o transpar...
12/03/2025
Spotify acaba de presentar el informe Loud & Clear de este a o, una mirada trans...
12/03/2025
Ramadan, a period of profound spiritual significance for Muslims worldwide, is a time for fasting, prayer, reflection, and community. Enrich your experience thi...
12/03/2025
Spotify has just unveiled this year's Loud & Clear report, a transparent loo...
12/03/2025
More than 70% of FAST programming has been produced since 2010, according to new Gracenote report
NEW YORK March 12, 2025 Gracenote, the content data busin...
12/03/2025
GEONA, Nev. Independent digital and linear advertising rep firm Viamedia will adopt cloud-based ShowSeeker Pilot as its primary ad campaign and order management...
12/03/2025
BRUSSELS Mediagenix has announced that Wael Yasin has joined the company as sales director Central Europe....
12/03/2025
LONDON A new study highlights opportunities for shoppable TV and the massive impact online consumer spending is having on the economy, with Omdia predicting tha...
12/03/2025
CUPERTINO, Calif. Interra Systems has announced that Comcast Technology Solutions has integrated recent updates to BATON Version 9 into its operations....
12/03/2025
Nevion announces new 400G addition to its eMerge SDN media fabric offering
Brie Clayton March 12, 2025
0 Comments
High-capacity switch enhances existi...
12/03/2025
DaVinci Resolve Studio Delivers Cinematic Sound for Adam Bol
Brie Clayton March 12, 2025
0 Comments
Feature film relies on DaVinci Resolve Studio for ...
12/03/2025
SVT Leverages Ateliere Live to Pioneer 100% Software-Defined Production at Rally...
12/03/2025
Berklee Awards Fenway Neighborhood Improvement Grant to Four Organizations A total of $17,000 will be distributed among the Boston-based nonprofits.
By
Madd...
12/03/2025
TVBEuropes Jenny Priestley sits down with new SMPTE president Richard Welsh to discuss his aims for the organisation going forward, its efforts to attract a you...
12/03/2025
The new process has significantly enhanced operational efficiencies, with automation freeing up creators to concentrate on higher value tasks
By Matthew Corrig...
12/03/2025
Jellyfish Pictures, which has offices in London and Sheffield, said it has been battling hard in the face of strong headwinds over the last 12 months
By Jenny ...
12/03/2025
Visit Booth #W2213 to Experience the Latest in AI-Driven Content Discovery and Workflow Automation
Bitcentral, a leader in media workflow solutions, is set to ...
12/03/2025
CHICAGO Jeff Lilly has been named WGN-TV director of technology effective March 17, 2025, according to Ric Harris, WGN-TV vice president and general manager....
12/03/2025
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. A new study from LG Ad Solutions indicates that consumers want more features that would allow them to shop for products on the connected T...
12/03/2025
BOTHELL, Wash. The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) and the Video Services Forum (VSF) will once again present...
12/03/2025
PHILADELPHIA Comcast announced that it has upgraded Xfinity Internet speeds for more than 20 million customers for no additional cost....
12/03/2025
Create with Maxon: Cinema 4D Fundamentals Workshop - March 12-14
Brie Clayton March 11, 2025
0 Comments
Makin' Waffles with Elly Wade
During Marc...
12/03/2025
Ottawa, Canada - March 12, 2025 - Ross Video is pleased to announce the appointment of Aaron Tunnell as Business Development Director, Cloud Solutions, reinforc...
12/03/2025
12 Mar 2025
VEON to release 4Q 2024 trading update on 20 March 2025 Dubai, 12 March 2025 - VEON Ltd. (NASDAQ: VEON), a global digital operator, today confirms ...
12/03/2025
Getting set for the Winter Olympics: Inside SVT's ongoing software-based pro...
12/03/2025
THE PLAYERS Championship 2025: AI Commentary, Shared-Reality Viewing at COSM, La...
12/03/2025
Seamless SMPTE 2110: A Discussion on Making the Move to IP Less Painful Leaders from Netflix, Monumental Sports & Entertainment, LinkedI, and Megapixel address ...
12/03/2025
Opening Doors of Perception: Meta's Ajit Ninan on Rethinking AR/MR Perceptua...
12/03/2025
With the 2025 Formula 1 season set to begin in Melbourne on March 16, Sky Sports is gearing up to deliver its most comprehensive F1 coverage yet. Following a th...
12/03/2025
Unicanal and Trece TV revolutionize Digital TV in Paraguay with Rohde & Schwarz ...
12/03/2025
Honoring Service, Celebrating Sport: Rohde & Schwarz UK Sponsors NavyFit Rugby D...
12/03/2025
New HVS-Q12 Represents a Quantum Leap in Switcher Design...
12/03/2025
Telespazio and ABS Expand Partnership to Deliver Tailored C-Band Connectivity So...
12/03/2025
ABC conducts independent audits across the TAG programs. In the March 2025 TAG s...
12/03/2025
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Moonlight: ESA program to create a satellite con...
12/03/2025
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
In 2025, Thales ranks among the top 0.01% of the...
12/03/2025
Consumer show back following hugely successful first series
10 March 2025 Following a hugely successful first series, The Complaints Bureau returns to RT ...
11/03/2025
By Lucy Spicer
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival...
11/03/2025
Salsa is making a comeback, captivating new listeners with its infectious energy...
11/03/2025
For many people, music can serve as a reflection of their roots and upbringing. ...
11/03/2025
The solution delivers reliable, scalable and secure connectivity for critical pu...
11/03/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced that Weigel Broadcasting has deployed Harmonics VOS Media Software, which offers playout-to-delivery capabilities, inclu...
11/03/2025
NEW BERN, N.C. Wheatstone will introduce a Linux audio driver for its WheatNet IP audio network during the 2025 NAB Show, April 5-9, at the Las Vegas Convention...
11/03/2025
NEW YORK A new study finds that as TV viewership for women's sports surged by 131% in 2024, the programming also saw a 56% year-over-year increase in ad im...
11/03/2025
Powerful switcher for news studio
FOR-A, a cutting-edge video broadcast technology company backed by more than 50 years experience, has installed its HVS-1200 ...