Category Archives: Folk speech

Hobama

HF: “I wanted to talk about the most iconic ship around…especially since it’s been resurfacing online through TikTok. Harry Styles x Barack Obama, aka ‘Hobama’. This ship has been around ever since I can remember, I don’t even know how I learned about it, but suddenly I just knew. This was way before TikTok, I probably heard on Twitter and Tumblr since most memes like this originated there. It was during the One Direction era when it started so probably around 2014-2015 was the start.”

Interviewer: What kind of memes was it? Did people actually see them hang out as One Direction meeting the President or something?

HF: “Hahahah, no no, that would’ve been amazing for the fandom though, I’m sure. They were photoshopped images, some goodish, some really poorly mad but they were equally as funny. I’m pretty sure there were even Wattpad/Tumblr short fanfics on them, too. The fandom took the bit and just ran with it.”

Interviewer: “Omg wow, that’s so funny. You mentioned earlier it’s resurfacing, could you please expand on that?”

HF: “Yeah, for sure. So there’s always the occasional edit from time to time, like since 2014, the fandom has kept this running, so out of the blue, you’ll find a great edit or photo. But recently, I’ve been seeing them in what everyone’s been posting about the new Tomodachi Life game.”

Interviewer: “Tomodachi Life?”

HF: “Nintendo released a game this year called Tomodachi Life, where you can make custom Mii’s, and it’s kinda like Sims, where you watch them live life and help them move the stories along. People are genuinely so creative and have been posting videos of their games and the Mii’s they’ve created, and how they interact. Oh, and the characters can fall in love with each other! You can’t make them, though – you can try and have them hang out until they do, but it’s all worth their coding like of the personalities you picked for them match. So, to my point, people have been making Mii’s of Harry Styles and Barack Obama, and they’ve been falling in love. So basically their love is universal haha….This fandom brought people together. Having a shared joke like this all over created a community, and I’m so happy to see it continue now.”

Context: This was a story told to me by my cousin. She is 25 now and was a prime target audience for One Direction, being a teenage girl during their peak years. On a phone call, we were talking about Tomodachi Life and the different characters people are making, and she mentioned Harry and Obama. I knew some of the lore, but knowing she was older and deep in this info during the prime of it all, I knew I had to ask her to elaborate for the archive.

Analysis: This shows how internet fandoms can take a completely random joke and keep it alive for years just because it’s funny and weird. It started on Twitter and Tumblr and has moved to every social media platform since then. Becoming a prominent part of the new viral videos of Tomodachi Life on TikTok proves how diverse its platforms are and how it will jump and continue anywhere. This fandom ship has had so much potential to break up, considering Obama has not been president, and One Direction has broken up for a while, but the ship is still prominent and not going anywhere anytime soon. Fans will always find new ways to keep them going. The strength of ships and fandoms is a force that should not be reckoned with.

Plonkies

Text: “In High School, I was in drama club. Every time before a show, about 15 minutes before a show, everyone would gather around to hear our director’s speech to send us off. When it got down to 5 minutes, our stage managers – that being our Production Stage Manager and two Assistant Stage Managers would stand up on chairs in the center of the crowd. Their speech is different from the directors’; it was more centered towards hype and getting all the positive energy into your systems. They would start with a drum roll…and as that beat rolled through the crowd, they would spin their arms in circles and YELL, “It’sssssss going! Itsssssss going! ITSSSSSSS PLONKIES!” Everyone would say the Plonkies part with them, and then all hype, we would run off to places, whether we were in the crew or cast. I’m not sure how it originated, but it has been a long-running tradition since I joined my freshman year. Plonkies is pretty much a funny way to say places. It would be said at the beginning of each of the three shows we had over the weekend; the last one was always said cause it meant the last show, but it was fun nonetheless.”

Context: A high school theater tradition that is celebrated by both members of the cast and crew and performed by students. OK was a tech student and saw and participated in this tradition for all four years in high school, for each of the eight shows over that time. There would be two shows every year. It is always performed by the Stage Managers.

Analysis: The mix of the drum roll, the yelling, and everyone joining in creates this shared burst of energy that hypes people up and calms nerves at the same time. There has always been a wide variety of traditions within theaters, most relating to ghosts, but it is interesting to see a different kind, one that includes both the crew and the cast together. Overall, it’s a good example of how inside jokes and traditions can build a sense of community and make stressful moments feel exciting instead of overwhelming. Knowing it has been a tradition passed down for generations of theater students makes the sense of community even stronger; it’s a bond of the present and past students.

Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons

Interviewer: Can you please dive into what exactly is Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons?

VS: A movie franchise that pretty much raised me. To be shorter, we can call it ROTBTD. It’s a mix of the movies Rise of the Guardians, Tangled, How To Train Your Dragon or HTTYD, and Brave. I honestly don’t think there’s any crossover between the movies, but they came out around the same time and have similar story lines with shared themes and animation styles. OH! And Frozen is sometimes included in there too, but isn’t a main one enough to change the fandom title.”

Interview: Ok, so interesting fandom them for such a random reason…how did the fandom grow and spread? Did people just know to watch them together, or where did you see it?”

VS: “Well I just knew haha, but that was through my older sister. She was old enough around then to have Tumblr and Twitter and read it through there. She would show me and my brother and just laugh, it was all so creative, honestly. The movies came out and people saw the similar styles and made this awesomely random connection to put them together.”

Interviewer: “What kind of things would you see?”

VS: “Ha it’s kind of what wouldn’t I see to be honest. There were edits of them – both photo and videos, Wattpad fanfics, AU stories on Tumblr of them all together in high school. People would ship the characters as well. It mainly revolved around the big four, like Rapunzel, Merida, Jack Frost, and Hiccup. I think Frozen came into it because people loved to ship Jack Frost with Elsa…rip Jelsa, that was a peak ship. Those edits were before AI and always edited so scarily accurate, like they were in the same room. Also, Rapunzel showed up in a blury background in Frozen during Elsa’s coronation scene. That’s pretty much the only part where Frozen’s in the ROTBTD fandom, it mainly consists of the big four.”

Interviewer: “Is it still a thing?”

VS: “Not as big as before, but it comes back sometimes, especially on TikTok. It’s very nostalgic.”

Context: My friend and I were watching YouTube videos together and saw the creator, Danny Motta (a movie and TV show reacter), had started a series on Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons. We started watching his videos on the subject and started reminiscing about it from when we were kids. I was aware of the Jelsa part on the internet, but VS knew the true lore and crossovers of everything.

Analysis: This truly shows the power of fandom and that it can emerge from anything. These were four movies that seriously have barely anything in common, yet people put them together, and it took the internet by storm. It became a true fandom with fanfics, edits, ships, and AU (Alternate Universe) stories of them hanging out. It goes to show the creativity and extend the fan will go to create something new entirely for others to enjoy, and ultimately create a community. These characters have never interacted, so everything made was completely from the fans’ imagination, and one fan would build off the content from another fan. Communities and fandoms can be made from anything.

Angel Kisses

Text:

“Angel Kiss”

Context:

As a child, my mother would call my sister’s freckles “angel kisses.” As I got older, I was curious about “angel kisses,” so I researched them online. Apparently, “angel kisses” often refer to both freckles and birthmarks – especially on children.

Analysis:

I believe parents call their children’s freckles and birthmarks “angel kisses” to instill them with confidence and self-love. It is a form of esoteric communication between a mother and her child. Society can sometimes look down upon features such as birthmarks and freckles, so the labeling of them as “angel kisses” evokes a sense of sacredness and beauty in spite of the world’s cruelness. It teaches children to wholly love themselves and see their beauty in uniqueness.

Golden Birthdays

Text:

S: “A golden birthday is the year you turn the same age as your birthday”

Context:

My sister turned 17 this year, and she told me that it was her golden birthday. She then explained that a golden birthday is the birthday when you turn the age of the day you were born on. For example, my sister was born on the 17th and she turned 17 years old.

Analysis:

A “golden birthday” is a form of folk speech used especially by kids. I remember hearing others at school excitedly talking about their golden birthday. It was believed that your “golden year,” the year you’re the age of your birthday, was suppose to be one of good luck. As I’ve gotten older, I haven’t heard it used or discussed much, leading me to believe that it is primarily an “esoteric” – insider’s – form of communication amongst children. I remember always being a little sad that my golden birthday is when I turn 30 – it felt very far away for a child, and I wanted to be a part of the community, an insider.