Issues with "derp"

[sqbr]

Can someone give me a link to a post about why "derp" is abelist? There's a discussion on my twitter list, and there's no way I can summarise it in 140 characters.

(nb I am also pretty sleepy, so don't feel up to explaining it here either. If you're interested, I'm sure someone else will post a link eventually)

Comments

[kaz]

I was confused about this myself - people were saying that it arose from mocking sounds made by people with certain intellectual disabilities, but I couldn't remember anything that hinted at that context - but... Let's just say that if you run a Google image search on "derp" or "herp derp", the evidence in form of images photoshopped to look like people with Down Syndrome as well as stuff that I'm not sure how to describe but let's just say it's pretty clear what is being referred to, hits you like an anvil of ableism.

[ariaflame]

No, because apart from seeing some 'herp a derp' things around, I am unfamiliar with the word and do not know what it actually means.

[willow]

I'll be tracking to see if you get that link, cause for the longest time I've been wondering if I was the only one who knew/remembered/or realized that it's a mocking sound made towards the mentally disabled about their speech patterns/ability or inability to speak, and I've been twitchy about it for ages. But couldn't find anything about its origins (it or the hd version)

[fred_mouse]

I first encountered the word in a rant about ableist uses, but I have no memory of where, and didn't have any real understanding of what the rant was talking about at the time - I still rarely see the word, so I don't have a built in reaction to it. Mostly, I wonder if we are seeing a regional word use explode because of the lack of borders issue.

[shehasathree]

I've read a rebuttal to the idea that it was started by South Park, but I can't find it. Unfortunately fwd didn't do an Ableist Word Profile for this one (I looked!).