“We all talk sh*t!”

by Evelyn Macki

First there was “Dancing Baby.” You know, “oogachaka, ooga, ooga, oogachaka…”.

Then there was “Numa Numa.” “Mai-Ya-Hi, Mai-Ya-Hoo, Mai-Ya-Ha, Mai-Ya-Ha-Ha…”.

And then, before we knew what hit us, Antoine Dodson from Lincoln Park was telling us to “hide yo kids, hide yo wives, and hide yo husband…”.

There are catchy internet videos with babies and kittens that circle around for a day or two and then there are truly viral videos that are talked about for weeks. So naturally, we must stop to recognize “sh*t people say….”.

Some weeks ago, various YouTube videos began popping up referencing common phrases that different groups of people say. Among the more popular ones are “sh*t girls say,” “sh*t abuelas say,” even “sh*t media people say.” As all this sh*t started to emerge, I found my world getting smaller and smaller. The macro became micro, the micro became mini-micro. I mean, “sh*t people from Miami say?” Really? I started to wonder how much more specific this can get? What is some sh*t people from my agency say?

“Green Gables is soo good.”
“Green Gables is soo expensive.”
“It’s soo cold in this office.”
“Is your outlook down, my outlook is down…”
“Call Eddie,”
“Call Oscar,”
“Ask Stu.”
“Someone stole my soup.”
“Someone stole my pizza.”
“Someone stole my coquito!”
“No thanks, I’m juicing.”
“Sure, can you send an IMR?”
“Is that on the CRF?”
“That was not on the CRF.”
“There’s food in the kitchen.”
“There’s food in media.”
“There’s food in bolero.”
“Does anyone have chocolate?”
“I’m pregnant.”

The truth is no matter what kind of sh*t different people say, we laugh when we relate and we shrug when we don’t. As we watch these videos, introspection is forced upon us and we stare as our individuality slowly disintegrates before our eyes. “OMG, I say that all the time!” Maybe we walk away with the desire to remove ourselves from any such group, maybe we immediately want adopt some new trend or find some way to stand apart from the pack. But in the end, no matter how hard we try, we will always be part of something. Part of some culture, within some sub-culture, within some sub-sub culture. No one stands alone. As advertisers, it’s great to see how popular these videos have become because it demonstrates that insights actually do exist and work. Despite how exaggerated and stereotypical these videos may be, they still manage to have some truth to them that connects us all.