Skibidi Boppity Boo
E&G | Issue 242
“Isaac, why is your bucket sitting in the middle of the kitchen?” I asked, peering into the frightening discarded contents of what he consumes in his room. “Well I was gonna dump it in the kitchen trash but that was full.” These are the things that parents deal with. I’m a writer and I find it hard to put into words the complete and total exasperation one feels when you need to point out the obvious all.the.time. I yanked the kitchen trash out, dumped Isaac’s trash in it (there was room), and handed it to him to take out. 20 minutes later, I opened the trash can to find a discarded paper plate covered in pizza crusts sitting at the bottom…no bag. I had forgotten to replace it but that doesn’t matter to the kids.
My house smells like all the numbers of Sol de Janeiro perfumes mixed with Biofreeze, three-day-old coffee, nag champa incense, and some kind of cologne that looks like a bar of gold. We have four generations represented ranging from the silent to the alpha. “What the heck is Skibidi Toilet?” I asked the kids at dinner. Mom suddenly blurted “bippity boppity boo?” The kids corrected her “No, Nana, Ski-bi-di.” Mom and I looked at one another, perplexed, J.D. shook his head, Isaac told me to “just…stop” and Maire laughed. I would go into what Skibidi Toilet is but that would cause you to have “brainrot” as the kids say and I don’t want to be too much of a Jitleyang in a world of Fahalatoogins. If you’re laughing right now, I salute you my brothers and sisters. I don’t get it either and, according to Gen Zers, that’s ok.
It’s bad enough that I live this insanity at home but I also teach high school and that means I live the insanity all.day.long. I hear “that’s so skibidi” at least 7 times a day and kids regularly try to drop current slang in my presence to see if I know what it is. “Ms. Alfaro. Show me mewing.” I turned my head and pointed to a flexed jawline. This is a thing, a flexed jawline is a thing. I know. “What the sigma??” the student was beyond shocked I knew what he was talking about. They forget that I am a linguist and I am fascinated by words of all kinds, particularly slang. That being said, I am a proud Gen Xer and regularly say “I am so glad I am not you.” in the nicest way possible to these kids. There’s a reason why 90s music is back. For real, I listened to Semi-charmed life at a bar last night.
“Do you look up these words for fun?” a student asked me after I confessed that I had been studying the origins of current slang on the internet. “Yes. Yes I do.” I admitted with a smile. “What else is a Jitleyang to do?” He just shook his head and seemed a bit worried for me. “If I don’t keep up, who will?” I asked another student later that day. I have to say that I have been well entertained this week and have laughed more than I have in a while. The world right now is so frightening, what is the harm in watching an episode of Skibidi Toilet to take your mind off things? So what if you get brain rot? After all, you once almost knew all the lyrics to Semi-Charmed Life which is, according to one YouTuber “the most upbeat song about drug addiction ever.” Doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo.
