I. Hustle
11-12-2009, 03:35 PM
Massachusetts High School Class President Threatens to Kill Adults Caught Smurfing
Smurf!
Don't know what it means? Don't worry -- most people under the age of 28 don't either.
But the nonsense word -- which apparently started with the 1980s cartoon characters the Smurfs -- is causing a lot of teeth-gnashing for kids at one Massachusetts high school. They have gone so far as to threaten to slash tires of teachers caught smurfing.
But just what does it mean to "smurf?" No one really seems to know -- even those who use it as part of their daily vocabulary.
According to UrbanDictionary.com, smurf "can mean whatever you want it to mean."
Yeah, that clears it up.
Bob Thompson, a first year student at Syracuse University, said he first heard adults smurf about a year ago during a class screening of a television show.
"Something happened and one of them said 'Smurf,'" he said. "And then they all started doing it."
The smurfs, he said, came from all of the students in the class in rapid-fire succession. When he asked them what that meant, they said it didn't really mean anything.
"It's almost like they look at you like it's a silly question," he said.
But smurfing doesn't seem to be funny to Danvers High School basketball player Thomas Murray, who threatened to punch teachers caught smurfing in school.
In an interview with the Salem News, Murray -- who did not respond to e-mail or voice mail messages from ABCNews.com -- said automated calls were made to parents, warning them of the possible punishment after cheerleaders learned that teachers were conspiring online to mass-smurf in one part of the school building.
"It has nothing to do with the word," Murray told the Salem News. "It has to do with the conduct of the adults. We wouldn't just ban a word just to ban a word."
The planned disruption (smurf-ruption?) never happened, he told the paper.
Thompson said the word is a bit like the F-word, in that it can be used as virtually any part of speech -- verb, noun, adjective.
"Smurf doesn't necessarily mean what the F-word does, but it operates in similar ways," he said. "It's very similar to a face-to-face verbal version of a lot of what's emerging in old school speech," such as bogus or rad.
Popular uses of "smurf" include:
A way to say "Uh-oh," "ouch" or other variations of displeasure.
A replacement for vulgar language.
A greeting: "You see someone and you smurf them," Thompson said.
An expression of happiness.
And while it may be a new phenomenon for Danvers, people seem to have been smurfing for years. Some of the earliest "smurf" entries into UrbanDictionary.com were logged back in 2003. And one of the earliest smurfing trendsetters seems to have been Papa Smurf: "Just Smurfy!"
There are also Facebook groups devoted to smurf. The "Smurp" group had 425 members early this afternoon. Wall postings, several of which come in each day, including musings such as "Fight the power! Defy the censorship! SMURF AGAINST THE MACHINE!!!!"
A posting from Tuesday: "Azrael says 'smurf.'"
And from Oct. 6: "I could smurf all day!"
Really? All day?
Thompson said that the use of "smurf" is just one of an ever-evolving list of things that adults do for no other reason than to annoy their kids. He pointed to past trends – wearing hammer pants, or seeing how many people you could cram into a phone booth -- as examples.
"Adults are consistently doing things that embarrass kids," he said.
As for the Danvers High School smurfers, Thompson said the class president was right to put a stop to any planned disruption, but said he probably wouldn't have gone so far as to threaten tire slashing over a word that has no real meaning, calling it the perfect way to start an "us versus them" situation.
"When the class president bans the use of a nonsense word it's officially been given a seal of approval," he said.
SMURF!
http://www.independent.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00062/smurf_62932t.jpg
Smurf!
Don't know what it means? Don't worry -- most people under the age of 28 don't either.
But the nonsense word -- which apparently started with the 1980s cartoon characters the Smurfs -- is causing a lot of teeth-gnashing for kids at one Massachusetts high school. They have gone so far as to threaten to slash tires of teachers caught smurfing.
But just what does it mean to "smurf?" No one really seems to know -- even those who use it as part of their daily vocabulary.
According to UrbanDictionary.com, smurf "can mean whatever you want it to mean."
Yeah, that clears it up.
Bob Thompson, a first year student at Syracuse University, said he first heard adults smurf about a year ago during a class screening of a television show.
"Something happened and one of them said 'Smurf,'" he said. "And then they all started doing it."
The smurfs, he said, came from all of the students in the class in rapid-fire succession. When he asked them what that meant, they said it didn't really mean anything.
"It's almost like they look at you like it's a silly question," he said.
But smurfing doesn't seem to be funny to Danvers High School basketball player Thomas Murray, who threatened to punch teachers caught smurfing in school.
In an interview with the Salem News, Murray -- who did not respond to e-mail or voice mail messages from ABCNews.com -- said automated calls were made to parents, warning them of the possible punishment after cheerleaders learned that teachers were conspiring online to mass-smurf in one part of the school building.
"It has nothing to do with the word," Murray told the Salem News. "It has to do with the conduct of the adults. We wouldn't just ban a word just to ban a word."
The planned disruption (smurf-ruption?) never happened, he told the paper.
Thompson said the word is a bit like the F-word, in that it can be used as virtually any part of speech -- verb, noun, adjective.
"Smurf doesn't necessarily mean what the F-word does, but it operates in similar ways," he said. "It's very similar to a face-to-face verbal version of a lot of what's emerging in old school speech," such as bogus or rad.
Popular uses of "smurf" include:
A way to say "Uh-oh," "ouch" or other variations of displeasure.
A replacement for vulgar language.
A greeting: "You see someone and you smurf them," Thompson said.
An expression of happiness.
And while it may be a new phenomenon for Danvers, people seem to have been smurfing for years. Some of the earliest "smurf" entries into UrbanDictionary.com were logged back in 2003. And one of the earliest smurfing trendsetters seems to have been Papa Smurf: "Just Smurfy!"
There are also Facebook groups devoted to smurf. The "Smurp" group had 425 members early this afternoon. Wall postings, several of which come in each day, including musings such as "Fight the power! Defy the censorship! SMURF AGAINST THE MACHINE!!!!"
A posting from Tuesday: "Azrael says 'smurf.'"
And from Oct. 6: "I could smurf all day!"
Really? All day?
Thompson said that the use of "smurf" is just one of an ever-evolving list of things that adults do for no other reason than to annoy their kids. He pointed to past trends – wearing hammer pants, or seeing how many people you could cram into a phone booth -- as examples.
"Adults are consistently doing things that embarrass kids," he said.
As for the Danvers High School smurfers, Thompson said the class president was right to put a stop to any planned disruption, but said he probably wouldn't have gone so far as to threaten tire slashing over a word that has no real meaning, calling it the perfect way to start an "us versus them" situation.
"When the class president bans the use of a nonsense word it's officially been given a seal of approval," he said.
SMURF!
http://www.independent.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00062/smurf_62932t.jpg