Thursday, November 12, 2015

Weird Word of the Week: Lulz

I know it's an old one, but it occurred to me while watching the latest Republican debate Tues. night. Was Rand Paul just trolling the other Republicans on that stage? Was he doing it for the Lulz?

Here's the Wiktionary definition:

lulz ---  Fun; amusement; humor; especially schadenfreude. Some quotes from this same article:
  • 2007 July 26, KKTV Fox 11 News report:
    Anonymous gets big lulz from pulling random pranks
  • 2008 June 20, Tom Whipple, “Scientology: the Anonymous protestors”, in The Times:
    Like “Hakuna matata” in The Lion King, “lulz” is not just a word, but a philosophy. [...] Anonymous has made campaigning sexy for the first time since 1968. The lulz is, after all, the ancient spirit that once made the young become Marxists, or sail off to the New World.
  • 2008 August 3, Mattathias Schwartz, “Malwebolence - The World of Web Trolling”, in The New York Times:
    Lulz” is how trolls keep score. A corruption of “LOL” or “laugh out loud,” “lulz” means the joy of disrupting another’s emotional equilibrium. “Lulz is watching someone lose their mind at their computer 2,000 miles away while you chat with friends and laugh,” said one ex-troll who, like many people I contacted, refused to disclose his legal identity.

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