A favorite word of mine is cantankerous. I am more annoyed with accents than words themselves.
As an aging Millennial, there are things I have sworn off. The closer you get to age forty, words and/or youth culture are irritating. We think we ended all need for vocabulary expansion with one movie, “Clueless”. I was all about the phrase “Whatever”. I disliked “My Bad” forever though. It’s an iconic Gen-X movie that affected 90s kids in middle school.
At present time, I joke (and hope) there are 2 places you’ll never find me: Jail and TikTok. I used to cringe at the mention of “yeet” or “yeet-ing” anything. So you’ll be surprised that I have, and unashamedly, welcomed a very Gen-Z word… “yeet”. My hard headed Aries nature is skeptical of these things.
The word is not new. It even has its own dance, yeet tutorials, and parodies. Type the word into your favorite Giphy search and you’ll find a lot of that information. I was confused and overwhelmed at first. Early definitions likened the sound to a squeal of excitement, similar to a “Yay!” or “Yippee!”. Younger users of the word informed me it meant “throw”. I prefer the Urban Dictionary definition (updated in 2021) “to discard an item at a high velocity”.
If you spend time with others, you can adopt their behavior. This can be good or downright hilarious. I saw the word in action before I left. My college best friend’s young son was tossing a ball. Right as he wound up, he let out the funniest high pitched sound. It was my first time seeing a yeet in progress.
That foreshadowed the yeet-ing of 2021. Within walking distance of our hotel was what else: an amusement park that stayed open way late. Pandemic aside, it’d been a long time since I saw so many happy Gen Z’ers. Many of the rides had Yeeters on them.
My friend had heard it and was unclear what it meant. She heard a classmate say they had thoughts of “yeeting their laptop out the window” in frustration. As somewhat of a comedy writer, I have inserted the word into my jokes many times. If hosts are in control of sound board options, I get the “yeet” sound.
Within joke telling, you should not limit yourself by being so anti- stance or controversial. It’s already a small niche, no need to alienate yourself or audiences. Winning them over is key. By adopting this ridiculous word, I gained some street cred and the coveted title of “funny lady”. Try adopting a silly sounding word today!
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