What the Sigma!
Michael Robbins | mrobbins25@dtechhs.org & Ro Wu | cwu26@dtechhs.org
Everyone has heard slang terms such as “gyatt” or “skibidi”, and thought that they were strange words. But where did these words come from, and what do they truly mean?
The term “skibidi,” commonly attributed to Alexey Gerasimov’s Youtube Shorts series, “Skibidi Toilet,” actually has an origin that goes further back than that. On April 20th, 2022, Bulgarian singer Biser King released his most popular song, “Dom Dom Yes Yes.” When translated into English the song does not make much sense, featuring lyrics including “I am a bear” and “I will wash your clothes.” The song sacrifices meaningful lyrics for the sake of being catchy. The chorus features the lines “Tr-r-r, shtibididob dob, dob, dob, dob, yes, yes, yes, yes, shtib, shtibidid, shtibidi, dabudu, dabudu, dabudu, yes, yes, yes, yes.” The song was later turned into a viral meme when Turkish belly dancer Yasin Cengiz posted videos of himself dancing to the song. The story then transitions to Alexey Gerasimov, who was an animator using an online sandbox program to make videos on YouTube. He began to have nightmares of body parts emerging from toilets, and only when he began making “Skibidi Toilet,” did the nightmares allegedly cease. Due to the popularity of King’s song, it was used as the background audio for Alexey Gerasimov’s “Skibidi Toilet.” The term “Skibidi” has been used in numerous contexts, as it does not necessarily have any meaning, being gibberish in both the original song, as well as the version used for the Youtube Short series. While there are many different ways that the term is used, such as “that is so skibidi,” “skibidi” can either be a good thing or a bad thing, and in the end, the term does not have any objective meaning.
The word “Gyatt” or “Gyat” was coined by online streamer YourRAGE; however, it was popularized by the popular American streamer Kai Cenat. ‘Gyat’ is used to describe a physically beautiful woman, typically referring to someone with a curvy body type. It has also become a statement used to express excitement. “Gyatt” on the other hand, is used to describe either a man or a woman with a large or “beautiful” butt.
In October 2023, a TikTok user by the username @ovp.9, released a parody cover of the song "Ecstacy" by Suicidal-Idol. It featured popular internet terms including "skibidi toilet," "rizz," as well as "gyatt," kicking the term into mainstream media.
From an etymology standpoint, the term evolved from the word “goddamn” and possibly “golly.”. A researcher at Virginia Tech’s language studies stated that the origin of “gyatt” is considered to have come from Black Southern, Jamaican, and other cultures of the African diaspora. The term is attributed to having roots in AAVE (African American Vernacular English). There have also been backronyms created for both terms such as; "Girl Your Ass Is Thick", "Girl You Ate That", "Get Your Act Together", and many more. Despite this, many don’t follow the original meaning of the term.
So what does this say about our internet users? As Gen-Alpha grows older, they begin experiencing independence from their parents and forming social groups, creating niches. Although these slang terms have often been credited to both Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha, many older members of Gen-Z have expressed that they have not contributed to their rise Some members of Gen-Z have even embarked on a hate trend toward the rising generation and their language. Will this become another wave of Internet War like what happened between Gen-Z and Millennials? Only time will tell…