Meep!
November 12, 2009 7:05 PM Subscribe

By order of the Principal, all students are forbidden to say the word "meep". That is all.
posted by scalefree (201 comments total) 16 users marked this as a favorite

Is this a regional thing? I have never ever heard of this. And I'm a 23 year old who doesn't live in a box.
posted by stray at 7:07 PM on November 12, 2009

moop
posted by spicynuts at 7:08 PM on November 12, 2009 [1 favorite]

ekki-ekki-ekki-pitang-zoom-boing!
posted by Pollomacho at 7:11 PM on November 12, 2009 [41 favorites]

meep
posted by Antidisestablishmentarianist at 7:11 PM on November 12, 2009 [1 favorite]

moop

Now we're going to have to ban "moop" too. Problem solved.
posted by scalefree at 7:12 PM on November 12, 2009

Threats of suspension aren't the answer. Someone find those kids a shrubbery--stat!
posted by barrett caulk at 7:12 PM on November 12, 2009 [8 favorites]

meef
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 7:12 PM on November 12, 2009 [1 favorite]

Ni! Ni! Ni!
posted by Sys Rq at 7:13 PM on November 12, 2009 [4 favorites]

Tip of the hat, Pollomacho. You got there first.
posted by barrett caulk at 7:13 PM on November 12, 2009

milf
posted by fixedgear at 7:15 PM on November 12, 2009

When I was in junior high, it was "MUHHHHH". My daughter and her friends say "BYAH!"

I meeped at her and she looked at me like I was crazy.
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 7:15 PM on November 12, 2009 [2 favorites]

"Meep meep" is, of course, what the Roadrunner says.
posted by hippybear at 7:15 PM on November 12, 2009 [2 favorites]

meepzorp
posted by caddis at 7:16 PM on November 12, 2009 [4 favorites]

You all think this is some kind of joke? WAKE UP MEEPLE!
posted by No-sword at 7:16 PM on November 12, 2009 [31 favorites]

FOOP!
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:17 PM on November 12, 2009

"Please don't do that."

Grytpype-Thynne
posted by tellurian at 7:18 PM on November 12, 2009 [2 favorites]

Bucka bucka. Woozle wuzzle.

Isn't "meep" from Spongebob?
posted by peppito at 7:18 PM on November 12, 2009

Meep to Joy
posted by jonp72 at 7:18 PM on November 12, 2009 [13 favorites]

Is the principal skinny, brown, and usually seen with a box of ACME dynamite?
posted by qvantamon at 7:22 PM on November 12, 2009 [14 favorites]

The meeps, 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.

Fucking grownups!
posted by fleetmouse at 7:22 PM on November 12, 2009 [13 favorites]

Great. Now I've got meep stuck in my head.
posted by fyrebelley at 7:23 PM on November 12, 2009

This whomps.
posted by Zalzidrax at 7:23 PM on November 12, 2009 [2 favorites]

Having the kids in your school do that all day would get pretty damn annoying.
posted by Flashman at 7:24 PM on November 12, 2009

Having the kids in your school do that all day would get pretty damn annoying.

And now that he's chosen to highlight it rather than just wait until they move on to the next annoying thing, he's guaranteed that they will keep on doing it.
posted by Pollomacho at 7:26 PM on November 12, 2009 [8 favorites]

Hmm. Now I'm tempted to ask my students to Meep. Maybe I'll just put up a sign and see what happens...
posted by blaneyphoto at 7:29 PM on November 12, 2009

I see your meep and raise you a børk børk børk!
posted by WolfDaddy at 7:29 PM on November 12, 2009 [18 favorites]

In my high school, a while back, only the super awkward kids made noises like that (generally the same ones who hugged each other way too much and cosplayed at school).
posted by OverlappingElvis at 7:29 PM on November 12, 2009 [4 favorites]

I don't marklar the marklar of all this marklar. It just marklar, after all.
posted by hexatron at 7:30 PM on November 12, 2009 [8 favorites]

meow
posted by idiopath at 7:32 PM on November 12, 2009 [4 favorites]

You are all WIERDOS!
posted by dirigibleman at 7:32 PM on November 12, 2009 [7 favorites]

Meh.
posted by box at 7:32 PM on November 12, 2009

wokka wokka
posted by Burhanistan at 7:34 PM on November 12, 2009 [4 favorites]

I hope every student in that entire high school does nothing but meep from now on. Although Beaker is beyond annoying.
posted by blucevalo at 7:34 PM on November 12, 2009 [1 favorite]

I'm not meeping you. I'm not meeping you. I'm not meeping you.
posted by maudlin at 7:36 PM on November 12, 2009 [6 favorites]

It doesn't fnord bother me at all.
posted by autodidact at 7:39 PM on November 12, 2009 [7 favorites]

They'll be banning bling/blong next.
posted by Sys Rq at 7:40 PM on November 12, 2009 [1 favorite]

meep no homo
posted by fuq at 7:42 PM on November 12, 2009 [6 favorites]

I don't see what the fuss is. It's a perfectly cromulent word.
posted by Saxon Kane at 7:42 PM on November 12, 2009 [12 favorites]

Oh god...the related article is painfully related.
posted by Taft at 7:43 PM on November 12, 2009 [1 favorite]

meep meep

plblblblbl
posted by flatluigi at 7:43 PM on November 12, 2009

Glad to see it's had no negative effect on the tone of discussion in this thread.
posted by philip-random at 7:43 PM on November 12, 2009 [4 favorites]

Doodle, doodle, dee, wubba, wubba, wubba.
posted by Harvey Jerkwater at 7:45 PM on November 12, 2009 [1 favorite]

philip-random: "Glad to see it's had no negative effect on the tone of discussion in this thread."

meep
posted by idiopath at 7:46 PM on November 12, 2009 [8 favorites]

This reminds me of Spike Milligan's battery in Adolf Hitler My Part In His Downfall who groaned on the fourth beat on route marches. Stamp, stamp, stamp, groan/stamp, until the Orders of the Day read "Gunners Shall Cease Groaning".

I think there might even have been another sound on the third beat, I don't have my copy with me.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 7:46 PM on November 12, 2009 [2 favorites]

... if only it weren't such a tinny word.
posted by philip-random at 7:48 PM on November 12, 2009 [3 favorites]

Ugh! "Meep"? Dreadful tinny sort of word.
posted by dephlogisticated at 7:49 PM on November 12, 2009 [2 favorites]

BLAST!
posted by dephlogisticated at 7:49 PM on November 12, 2009

It was MERP at my high school.
posted by deezil at 7:50 PM on November 12, 2009

I assumed this was related to a recent Phineas and Ferb episode, The Chronicles of Meep (that spoofed Star Wars in a number of ways).
posted by idb at 7:51 PM on November 12, 2009

It was 33 in our classes. Our math class came to a grinding halt when every answer was 33. Then just to fuck with us, the teacher gave us a test that worked out every answer to be ... 33. And some people still managed to fail it.
posted by msbutah at 7:52 PM on November 12, 2009 [18 favorites]

Part 1 and Part 2.
posted by idb at 7:53 PM on November 12, 2009 [1 favorite]

My friends and I used to say, "Pants!"

Yeah, we were stupid losers.
posted by Saxon Kane at 7:53 PM on November 12, 2009

See, I knew this Twitter thing was bad, kids meeping each other all day on their text phones. School is a place to get real!
posted by jeremias at 7:55 PM on November 12, 2009

Oh, good grief, it has it's own wiki.
posted by idb at 7:55 PM on November 12, 2009

Zoinks!
posted by humannaire at 7:56 PM on November 12, 2009 [1 favorite]

^meep _{_meep} meep ^meep meep ^{^meep}

And as for the fnords....
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 7:56 PM on November 12, 2009 [3 favorites]

Mahna Mahna
posted by unsupervised at 7:56 PM on November 12, 2009 [2 favorites]

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 administrators learned that students were conspiring online to mass-meep in one part of the school building.

Kids using the interwebs to organize mass-meeping. I have no words. I love the future.
posted by lazaruslong at 7:59 PM on November 12, 2009 [27 favorites]

Ugh! "Meep"? Dreadful tinny sort of word.

Sounds woody to me.
posted by Joey Michaels at 8:00 PM on November 12, 2009 [4 favorites]

Does this look like "gub" or "gun"?
posted by shockingbluamp at 8:00 PM on November 12, 2009 [4 favorites]

MeepFi.
posted by twoleftfeet at 8:01 PM on November 12, 2009 [3 favorites]

When I was in high school, one of my friends made up a fictional student (let's call him MC), started inserting his name into high school radio broadcasts as kindof an inside joke between himself and a few people. After a while they started dropping the name into other situations, announcements over the PA system probably being one of the early key ones.

And before long at all, this had serious legs as a meme, if one swimming in a 4A size pond, to seriously mix a few metaphors. If you were in the know, you were naturally dying to let other people know you were in the know ("this guy's not real, funny that he's getting mentioned like he is, right? And by the way, yes I am part of the cabal and here's your secret handshake.")

So, before too long, MC is getting work submitted to the literary magazine, he's getting shout-outs in school assemblies, he's announced as placing in competitions. And he's running for student council. And upon investigating some of these latter appearances, he's making two uptight assistant principals and a number of staff members upset about this kind of hooliganry, who become determined to find out who is behind all this. Which, by this point, is pretty much 90% of the school, and naturally this only fuels the fire, since now not only is MC a social phenomenon, he can invoke zeal that's usually reserved for the adolescent hairstyle-du-jour and "skateboarding is not a crime."

MC naturally has a Facebook account now. Think I'll go meep at him for old times sakes.
posted by weston at 8:02 PM on November 12, 2009 [34 favorites]

Best part of the article:

"It's very similar to a face-to-face verbal version of a lot of what's emerging in emoticon key-board speech," such as LOL or OMG.

These kids today, with their key-boards and their strange noises...
posted by Limiter at 8:02 PM on November 12, 2009 [1 favorite]

Remember kids, if you're trying to be disruptive in class, you'll get much more mileage out of subtle techniques rather than random meeps. For example, if you get enough people to hum together quietly, it sounds a lot like a swarm of bees. It's quite annoying plus it's nearly impossible for a teacher to pinpoint exactly who is humming.

Ah, the wonderful things I learned in high school...
posted by TBAcceptor at 8:05 PM on November 12, 2009 [6 favorites]

They best nip it in the bud....
posted by vrakatar at 8:06 PM on November 12, 2009

It seems obligatory, at this stage: Eep opp ork ah ah
Crazy kids, they never change.
posted by Red Loop at 8:10 PM on November 12, 2009 [2 favorites]

Mahna Mahna!

(meep meep-meep meep!)
posted by notsnot at 8:12 PM on November 12, 2009

I weep for this generation. They are every inch as dumb as I was when I was their age, and now look at me! Unfulfilled in my ambitions of becoming a science-fiction author who also fronts a breakdancing metal band... and worst of all,I am now old. I can see the same thing happening to these kids if they don't straigten out.
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:15 PM on November 12, 2009 [15 favorites]

I can confirm that the words written in Chuck's own hand are indeed Beep Beep. Having had the Road Runner himself pass me the gravy, however, I can confirm that he pronounced it Meep Meep. -- scody
posted by dhartung at 8:18 PM on November 12, 2009 [5 favorites]

meap?
posted by JoeXIII007 at 8:18 PM on November 12, 2009

Can we leave me out of this?
I don't think I've ever meeped.
posted by fnord at 8:18 PM on November 12, 2009 [1 favorite]

I meep for this generation, too. Meep.
posted by el_lupino at 8:19 PM on November 12, 2009 [4 favorites]

Narf!

Isn't there a kids' book with a very similar
premise? I think it involves a kid who decides to call a pencil a frendl and it causes all kinds of outrage. But that example is fiction.
posted by sleeping bear at 8:19 PM on November 12, 2009

I MEAN I'M WATCHING YOU ALL.
posted by fnord at 8:19 PM on November 12, 2009 [3 favorites]

I always suspected Jim Henson's legacy might be one of bewildering, hilarious nonsense. It befits him.
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:20 PM on November 12, 2009 [9 favorites]

You know, whenever some dumb thing like this happens at our school, we admin types sit around and say "well, if we try to stop it, it will just make it a thousand times worse."

The way we kill these things isn't to try and ban them. Its to encourage the teachers and administrators to do it to. The minute the principal or the physics teacher says "meep" a couple of times in class, it will die the slow death of the uncool.

You'd think this dude had never worked with high school students before. Jeez.
posted by Joey Michaels at 8:28 PM on November 12, 2009 [39 favorites]

When I was a kid for a while there was this weird regional nonsense slang going around for a while that was called "Watson talk." Watson was a nearby town. It is the self-proclaimed "Goose Capital of the USA," has a population of 209, and the only thing I could tell you about it from direct memory is that is contains a bar called "The Loose Goose." I don't know what it all means, other than that trying to ban teenagers from being goofy asses is a particularly quixotic quest.
posted by nanojath at 8:29 PM on November 12, 2009 [1 favorite]

Egads, "do it too."

Thank goodness I don't teach grammar or spelling.
posted by Joey Michaels at 8:29 PM on November 12, 2009 [1 favorite]

This reminds me of something that happened way back in the dark ages when I was in high school (1984 or so). There was this algrebra II teacher, and I can't remember his name, but he was a hard ass, very strict, and didn't put up with any nonsense.

It was discovered somehow that a particular noise could drive him insane. The noise was a kind of very loud, high pitched sound that you can make by performing the Spanish rolling-r thing, but with extreme gusto.

For a time, the students were satisfied with making this noise in various parts of the campus during lunch. The teacher would stride purposefully across the lawn in the direction the sound came from, scowling fiercely all the while, and on arriving at a likely group of students, would begin his inquisition, looking at one student then another, demanding to know "Who did that? Who made that noise?" They'd just chuckle and shrug their shoulders.

After awhile of this, someone in one of his classes made a cassette tape of this noise repeated at random intervals of three to five minutes, then locked a running cassette player into his locker just outside the classroom right before class.

Class commences, and, after a few minutes here comes the sound. The teacher freezes at the chalkboard, then sprints out into the hall. Now, he was wearing dress shoes, and the floor was of course that institutional tile, machine waxed. So as he sprints out of the classroom his feet are slipping like a cartoon character, and he would brake just before the door and slide out into the hall like Tom Cruise in Risky Business, except, wearing pants of course. He looks down the hallway to the left, to the right... nothing.

He scowls and slinks back to the chalkboard in front of the tittering students. This happens a few more times, each time with the slipping sliding cartoon exit, looking left, right, nothing, and slinking back to the chalkboard muttering, "I'm going to get that sucker. I'm gonna wear my sneakers tomorrow!"

Eventually he just stands out in the hall, waiting, and the lockered cassette player is eventually discovered. I don't remember what the culprit's punishment was, but I do remember he considered the enterprise to be "totally worth it."
posted by smcameron at 8:29 PM on November 12, 2009 [48 favorites]

-- A fire, a fire is burning! I hear the boot of Lucifer, I see his filthy face! And it is my face, and yours, Danforth!

-- MEEP!
posted by pyramid termite at 8:32 PM on November 12, 2009 [2 favorites]

Foster: Ten? Starting right meow?
[They go up to the car.]
Driver: Sorry about the...
Foster: All right meow. Hand over your license and registration.
[The man gives him his license.]
Foster: Your registration? Hurry up meow.
Driver: [laughing] Sorry.
Foster: Is there something funny here boy?
Driver: Oh, no.
Foster: Then why you laughing, Mister... Larry Johnson?
[Foster stares at him.]
Foster: All right meow, where were we?
Driver: Excuse me, are you saying meow?
Foster: Am I saying meow?
Driver: I thought...
Foster: Don't think boy. Meow, do you know how fast you were going?[The man laughs.]
Foster: Meow. What is so damn funny?
Driver: I could have sworn you said meow.
Foster: Do I look like a cat to you, boy? Am I jumpin' around all nimbly-bimbly from tree to tree? Am I drinking milk from a saucer? DO YOU SEE ME EATING MICE?
[The man is uncontrollably laughing.]
Foster: You stop laughing right meow!
Driver: [Stops and swallows hard.] Yes sir.
Foster: Meow, I'm gonna have to give you a ticket on this one. No buts meow. It's the law.
[Rips off the ticket and hands it to the man.]
Foster: Not so funny meow, is it?
[Foster gets up to leave, but Mac shakes his hands at him, indicating only nine meows.]
Foster: Meow!
posted by P.o.B. at 8:33 PM on November 12, 2009 [12 favorites]

AskMe -ed and answered.
posted by longsleeves at 8:34 PM on November 12, 2009 [1 favorite]

Aw, man, I was going to be the first one to mention frindles in here, but now I'm not.
Anyway, I hope the principle took copious notes with his frindle.
posted by redsparkler at 8:35 PM on November 12, 2009

The new swear word is "karkfum."

How do you use it? Oh, you know, karkfum this, karkfum that, kiss my karkfum.
posted by Naberius at 8:35 PM on November 12, 2009

"caught meeping in school" might be my favorite phrase ever.
posted by ms.jones at 8:44 PM on November 12, 2009 [2 favorites]

I don't blame the principal - meep is slang for "fuck you" in some circles. (0:20)
posted by anthill at 8:45 PM on November 12, 2009

Wow it really does mean whatever you want it to mean. Meep is the new black!
posted by Hildegarde at 8:46 PM on November 12, 2009

Fine.

Now well just say PEEM! Happy?
posted by bwg at 8:48 PM on November 12, 2009

Blerg.
posted by raysmj at 8:51 PM on November 12, 2009

Double-meep on not being the first to mention frindle. A great book. Everyone should read it.
posted by GuyZero at 8:52 PM on November 12, 2009

P.o.B, I'm really glad you posted that dialog. I've counted it several times during the movie, always coming up with 11 and left wondering.

Meep.
posted by carsonb at 8:59 PM on November 12, 2009

Doesn't anyone realize what's happening? The students have been replaced by Isz! Now if only I hadn't glued my claws shut...
posted by Ghidorah at 9:02 PM on November 12, 2009 [3 favorites]

meep!
posted by ericb at 9:02 PM on November 12, 2009

Well, is it MEEP or MEAP? Surely a Me-e/ap-Fier knows.

Also, it is clearly offensive because it is a four letter word.
posted by bearwife at 9:04 PM on November 12, 2009

Wait wait wait -- high school students? Cheezin' off The Man? Big time? WHAAAAAT?
posted by clockzero at 9:05 PM on November 12, 2009 [2 favorites]

We did this in high school, a bunch of us theater kids. In part because we used to get together to watch the Muppet Show, and also because the Michigan high school test was called the MEAP.

Then we cycled through (privately, we knew this would get us in trouble) "Bitch!" to "Byatch!" to "Byoop!" to "Beeyoo!" which were fine to annoy teachers with.
posted by klangklangston at 9:25 PM on November 12, 2009

Bulbous Bouffant!
posted by Confess, Fletch at 9:26 PM on November 12, 2009 [3 favorites]

I used the word meep throughout college, from 2003 to 2007, and I was not the average student. I was a double major in philosophy and political science. I studied Kant for four semesters, three of them in faculty reading groups. I read Wittgenstein, and took the equivalent of graduate level seminars in philosophy of mind, anthropology, and historiography. Again, I was not the average student.

Why, then, did I use "meep" when communicating? I found it a beautiful word where the meaning can be as varied as the ways it could be said. By itself, it was nonsense. Coupled with tone, context, body language, it became a beautiful experiment into communication, where modulating a multitude of variables such as pitch, frequency, and intensity could change the meaning in obvious and very understandable ways.

Imagine an interrogative "Meep?" or a definitive "Meep." or a loving "Meeep." The possibilities are endless. It is a deceptively complex form of communication with a powerfully simple set of grammar rules. It is raw and completely contextual form of communication.

Whether or not the students understood what they are doing (and the vast majority of them probably don't), by using it, they are learning the subcontext embedded in every day language. Banning the word is a powerfully stupid move, especially when it could be used as a beautiful teaching tool to understanding how we communicate with each other where the students already know the grammar. Hell, these days, we can't even claim that about English speaking students. How many people no longer speak speak with conviction? This could be a chance for lessons in slang, tone, meaning, grammar, the evolution of language, and a plethora of other communication skills. Instead, we waste it by banning the use of a word. Idiotic.

Still not convinced? Imagine meeting a complete stranger holding a bloody knife in the back alley of a foreign country. He doesn't speak English, and you don't know the local language. How do you tell if the person is dangerous? Does speak to you forcefully, or is his voice panicked? Yes, a lot of your communicating will be through body language, but a lot of it is also through the tone of his voice.

In teaching language, we concentrate on spelling and grammar, but we've forgotten the importance of everything that accompanies the spoken word, context, tone, body language the layers of meaning that cannot be expressed by the written word alone. By banning a nonsense word, and making fun of it here, we've missed a powerful opportunity to learn about communicating. There is so much that could be taught here, and that is being tossed away because we don't understand something. Let me ask you, how many of the world problems are due to miscommunication? How many are based on the fact that we don't understand each other? This is a sad state of affairs.
posted by thebestsophist at 9:26 PM on November 12, 2009 [21 favorites]

And another generation of high school students learns about metasyntactic variables.
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:27 PM on November 12, 2009 [7 favorites]

Is this a regional thing? I have never ever heard of this. And I'm a 23 year old who doesn't live in a box. -stray

You can no longer say that you've never heard of it. And because you've heard of it and you are an adult, it is already uncool, and your mention of it will just further kids' perception of just how uncool you are.
posted by eye of newt at 9:39 PM on November 12, 2009

O viddy-o, o riddy-o, MOPP MOPP!
posted by stargell at 9:39 PM on November 12, 2009

Jesus mept.
posted by emelenjr at 9:46 PM on November 12, 2009 [26 favorites]

All I can say is...tinkerty tonk.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 9:52 PM on November 12, 2009

I think they should start using hoppitamoppita.
posted by Caduceus at 9:53 PM on November 12, 2009 [1 favorite]

Bah! Youth is wasted on the young.

I wanna meep too.. I'd do it at work but they think I'm real odd already :P
posted by Monkeymoo at 9:58 PM on November 12, 2009 [1 favorite]

My kid made me watch that movie too, Caduceus.
posted by headspace at 10:01 PM on November 12, 2009

There's a regional rail system here in New Mexico, (I suppose it bears explaining that our state bird is the roadrunner.) called the Rail Runner. It "meeps" as the doors on the train are closing.

It was cute the first time. But now it is SO annoying.
posted by signalnine at 10:04 PM on November 12, 2009 [1 favorite]

in my previous comment I didn't mean stray personally, just adults in general, as seen through the eyes of a child noticing, with eyes rolling, just how slow and uncool they are
posted by eye of newt at 10:04 PM on November 12, 2009

In English this usually translates to: "I don't know the rules of football"
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:06 PM on November 12, 2009

The year: 1982. The place: a high school English classroom in San Francisco. The script for which reading parts are being selected: The Diary of Anne Frank. Unbeknownst to the teacher, The Muppet Show has just gone into syndication and become the after-school viewing material of choice for potheads and boozers, alike....

"Tom, you will read the part of Mr. Kraler...now, who will be reading the part of Miep..." she is unable to finish, "...Gies?" before the giggles start, and the "meeps!" begin.

I lack the hubris to suggest my irreverent little band of hooligan friends made the obnoxious connection first, but we're in our mid-40s, now and we still use the word with each other and address emails to one another (like one I received last week) with subject headings "Things that will make you go MEEP." I had no idea this was even a part of the modern teenager's vernacular until this article was posted, though, as I do essentially live in a box...one surrounded by rice fields in central Japan.
posted by squasha at 10:07 PM on November 12, 2009 [2 favorites]

What the hell is the matter with ~~studentsteachers~~everyone?
posted by davejay at 10:08 PM on November 12, 2009

I couldn't be smurfed to smurf all these smurfs, but I hope you smurfs smurfed it all out.
posted by Dumsnill at 10:17 PM on November 12, 2009 [4 favorites]

Threats of suspension aren't the answer. Someone find those kids a shrubbery--stat!

--a shrubbery is British slang for hooker, by the way. Totally changes the nature of the joke.

Of course the principal is shaking his head over the fact that he and his student body manifested a phenomenon that ends up making the daily wire.
posted by captainsohler at 10:18 PM on November 12, 2009

... it can be used as virutally any part of speech -- verb, noun, adjective.

That is the smurfiest smurf I have ever smurfed.
posted by amyms at 10:18 PM on November 12, 2009 [2 favorites]

Oops, Dumsnill smurfed me to it!
posted by amyms at 10:19 PM on November 12, 2009

h̷͙͖̤ͦ̈͋̎̿̾́ḙ̗͚̊̏ ̧̹̫̻̌ͦ̉̌̏͋ͤm̄̈́̔͆͒̇͌̈́҉̷̛͙̮e͎̪͈̘͎͖̠̠͌̋̓eͮ̅̈͑͑̀̆҉̸̻̣̬͎͖̹̩͞p̢͈͎͓͚͚̞̯ͤͤ̄̀͞ͅş̘̖͇͖̤͓̗͉͒͑͂̾͐̔̿ͬ
posted by sanko at 10:20 PM on November 12, 2009 [5 favorites]

To clarify: Woody vs Tinny.

I imagine that Principal Murray, being no doubt a man of principle, takes issue with "tinny" words.
posted by philip-random at 10:22 PM on November 12, 2009 [1 favorite]

Silliness like swine flu is contagious.
MEEP
posted by dougzilla at 10:28 PM on November 12, 2009

That is the smurfiest smurf I have ever smurfed.

Smurf yeah!
posted by Talez at 10:28 PM on November 12, 2009 [2 favorites]

I still use meep every time I have a close call of some kind. Giving what a klutz I was in high school, I likely would have been suspended every few days until someone found some sort of "meep" pathologist, who would likely never have thought to consider that the real culprit of the meep was my strange inability with my shoelaces.

What I'm waiting for - and what I've been wanting to do - is to carry little signs stapled to dowel rods a la Loony Toons Coyote. "Sorry." "Incoming" "This sucks." Oh, and of course, "I disapprove of your driving/hang up and drive/your vehicle choice is unwieldy and rude to other drivers," etc.
posted by medea42 at 10:41 PM on November 12, 2009

meep.
posted by YoBananaBoy at 10:49 PM on November 12, 2009

I instantly smurfed of smurf, then when I smurfed here I saw that it had already been smurfed. Well, really. A smurf really has to be on his smurfs to get the first smurf in here.

Also, smurf is a much more woody word
posted by nonspecialist at 10:54 PM on November 12, 2009 [2 favorites]

Queef!
posted by PeterMcDermott at 10:55 PM on November 12, 2009 [2 favorites]

Man, adults suck.
posted by kaibutsu at 10:56 PM on November 12, 2009 [4 favorites]

I checked the URL several times to make sure it wasn't on theonion.com.

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 administrators learned that students were conspiring online to mass-meep 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 students. We wouldn't just ban a word just to ban a word."

The planned disruption (meep-ruption?) never happened, he told the paper.

It sounds like it did, thanks to you, Principal Murray.
posted by grouse at 11:29 PM on November 12, 2009

And to think we were stuck with Monty Python lines.

Of course, this was the early 80s, so not only were we cliché, but behind-the-times cliché.
posted by maxwelton at 11:36 PM on November 12, 2009 [1 favorite]

You can grap my meep when you plip it from my zampoo, pleen nooptroopers.
posted by Meatbomb at 12:00 AM on November 13, 2009 [4 favorites]

First they came for the meepers...
posted by Schlimmbesserung at 12:02 AM on November 13, 2009

Meat!

Hey, why is everyone looking at me?
posted by krinklyfig at 12:30 AM on November 13, 2009

My understanding of the term "meep", as it has been in use in many circles online, is as a kind of "uh oh" sound. A nervous sound. An IM conversation staring with "meep" would result in the answer, "what's wrong?"

This. With an additional undercurrent of "I am not quite nervous enough to make high-pitched squealing guinea-pig noises, nor am I sufficiently of the large, confident blustery type to just barrel on through feigning obliviousness." It's a small, wide-eyed, inquisitive animal in a wood full of predators kind of noise.

With that in mind, the last time I changed countries the final text I sent was to a person I'd been seeing on and off, and was thus leaving for the forseeable future. Neither of us being particularly alpha personalities, the text consisted solely of "Meep! <3", which really did sum up the situation pretty well.

As I met someone else in the next country surprisingly quickly, I guess that also makes Meep the noise I make when I'm trading you in for a different model. I should probably warn people about that.
posted by Sparx at 1:16 AM on November 13, 2009 [4 favorites]

moop

Now we're going to have to ban "moop" too. Problem solved.

"It's MOOPS."

"MOORS."

"MOOPS!"

"MOORS!"
posted by armage at 2:26 AM on November 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

The school in question sounds like one of those brittle authoritarian regimes founded on total conformity and discipline, where no dissent, no matter how absurd or frivolous, can be tolerated lest its existence shows that disobedience and nonconformity are possible. (Sort of like the way China suppressed the Falun Gong, not because their practice of calisthenics is subversive, but because their existence outside of the Party is.)
posted by acb at 2:33 AM on November 13, 2009

I've read the article. I've read this thread. I still have no idea what kind of problem the school's supposed to be solving. So everyone says "meep," then what?
posted by Doublewhiskeycokenoice at 2:33 AM on November 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

They should start to say "meeep." Then they wouldn't be breaking the rules, and as an added bonus, "meeep" isn't a four-letter word.

(p.s. when I was in high school we would set a specific minute in which all would accidentally drop our books on the floor. Only for substitute teachers, natch. Mass "Meeping" seems positively calming by comparison.)
posted by chavenet at 2:36 AM on November 13, 2009

P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:25 AM on November 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

They could add it to the end of their sentences lah. And then claim cultural protection lah! Language isn't static lah. Meep-lah.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 3:36 AM on November 13, 2009 [2 favorites]

signalnine: There's a regional rail system here in New Mexico, (I suppose it bears explaining that our state bird is the roadrunner.) called the Rail Runner. It "meeps" as the doors on the train are closing.

It was cute the first time. But now it is SO annoying.

Dude, you're missing the practical value: that meeping has kept me from sleeping through my stop more times than I would care to admit.
posted by joedan at 4:02 AM on November 13, 2009 [2 favorites]

Metafilter: meep
posted by Kalthare at 4:14 AM on November 13, 2009

Funny.. We tried to make meep happen at an all school assembly in Jr. High School way back in 1980. Just couldn't get any momentum behind it. Generation X, forever the non-joiners.

My hat is off to these kids, job well done.

Oh, and: meep.
posted by psmealey at 4:29 AM on November 13, 2009

This made the national news?

"High school administrator is a humorless stuck-up prig. Film at eleven."

Also, FWIW when I was in high school we frequently said "Ni" to each other.
posted by lordrunningclam at 4:33 AM on November 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

GABBA GABBA HE - aw fuck I'm old.
posted by Ritchie at 4:39 AM on November 13, 2009 [3 favorites]

I don't blame the principal - meep is slang for "fuck you" in some circles. (0:20)

So is the letter F. Ought that be banned, too, genius?
posted by Construction Concern at 4:40 AM on November 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

Oh, that principal. It's pretty clear, they're not going to make a fool of him, oh no!

Thomas Murray should be fired. He clearly has control/power issues. I think that is inappropriate. If a high school principal can make such a fuss over something as meaningless as this, I have to assume that principal is incapable of performing his normal duties. His sort of bullshit would be more at home in junior high, or perhaps kindergarten.
posted by Goofyy at 4:47 AM on November 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

Meep-meep, meep-meep
His school went meep-meep-meep
posted by Horace Rumpole at 4:49 AM on November 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

I've read the article. I've read this thread. I still have no idea what kind of problem the school's supposed to be solving.

I haven't read the article, but doesn't the "It has nothing to do with the word. It has to do with the conduct of the students" part quoted upthread explain it pretty well? Annoying morons being annoying in group to assert their precious snowflake individuality, and other morons finding annoying morons annoying and overreacting? Reminds me of quite a few internet sites...
posted by effbot at 4:52 AM on November 13, 2009

Oh, Salem News, your articles are never half as entertaining as the comments they inspire. Well, except for the ongoing saga of the drunk guy from Maine who came down to Salem to 'hunt some witches' and tended to lose all his clothes with a disturbing regularity.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 4:53 AM on November 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

Didn't anyone see the episode of Recess where the kids got in trouble for saying womps?
posted by theichibun at 5:03 AM on November 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

I always suspected Jim Henson's legacy might be one of bewildering, hilarious nonsense. It befits him.

.

(cries tears of joy to have lived to see this day)
posted by mikelieman at 5:10 AM on November 13, 2009

So basically these kids are being threatened for using the word "meep" in place of the word "Smurf?" I don't think I can smurf that kind of approach to smurfing the students. They're entitled to smurf if they smurfy well want to smurf.

Fnord.
posted by majick at 5:22 AM on November 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

Best Doom .wad ever.
posted by turgid dahlia at 5:26 AM on November 13, 2009

Oh, Salem News, your articles are never half as entertaining as the comments they inspire.

I got as far as the erudite troll who used the phrase "ver batum" and giggled so hard I thought I might lose a filling.
posted by Spatch at 5:31 AM on November 13, 2009

MEE meeeeeeeeee memememe MEE meeeeeeeee

Also, thanks for the Maxx ref.
posted by Fleebnork at 5:45 AM on November 13, 2009

In the weeks that we were together Meep became a symbol to me of Young America, so that whenever I read some public utterance proclaiming what Youth demanded in the Future and what the world owed to Youth, I would test these general statements by substituting ‘Meep’ and seeing if they still seemed as plausible. Thus in the dark hour before reveille I sometimes pondered: ‘Meep Rallies’, ‘Meep Hostels’, ‘International Meep Cooperation’, and ‘the Religion of Meep’. Meep was the acid test of all these alloys.

posted by orthogonality at 5:45 AM on November 13, 2009

Where can I install Meep?
posted by lukemeister at 5:59 AM on November 13, 2009

jolifanto bambla o falli bambla
großiga m'pfa habla horem
egiga goramen
higo bloiko russula huju
hollaka hollala
anlogo bung
blago bung blago bung
bosso fataka
ü üü ü
schampa wulla wussa olobo
hej tatta gorem
eschige zunbada
wulubu ssubudu uluwu ssubudu
tumba ba-umf
kusa gauma
ba - umf
posted by 2or3whiskeysodas at 6:20 AM on November 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

(by which I mean, of course: GABBA GABBA HEY!)
posted by 2or3whiskeysodas at 6:20 AM on November 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

Oh, for meep's sake. Don't schools have more important meeping things to worry about than whether their meeping kids have come up with a new cuss word to use?
posted by Target Practice at 6:47 AM on November 13, 2009

Arglebargle, glop-glypf?!
posted by cog_nate at 7:09 AM on November 13, 2009

My 15 year old niece and her best friend since kindergarten have been saying "meep!" for at least ten years (they still say it to each other). I remember the first time I heard them say it while playing a computer game circa 1999 and asked what it meant. They just shrugged and kept doing it. Kids are weird.
posted by LuckySeven~ at 7:14 AM on November 13, 2009

Our middle school (was it more regional?) used "steemer" pretty heavily for two or three years. I think it meant liar, and if you were a *really* big liar you were a "Stanley Steemer."

Where on earth would that have come from? "Stanley Steemer"? I mean, they clean carpets. What does that have to do with lying, or being lame, or whatever?

(To this day, I giggle when I see commercials for Stanley Steemer - and according to Wikipedia there's a NASCAR "30-lap Stanley Steemer NASCAR Late Model" race, which fills me with glee.)
posted by harperpitt at 7:18 AM on November 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

Well, except for the ongoing saga of the drunk guy from Maine who came down to Salem to 'hunt some witches' and tended to lose all his clothes with a disturbing regularity.

That'll teach him to mess with women who know the Disrobe spell.
posted by scalefree at 7:23 AM on November 13, 2009

"Meep doesn't necessarily mean what the F-word does, but it operates in similar ways,"

Lets see;

You dirty mother-meeper, after the meeping shit you just pulled, I'm going to hunt you the meep down, then I'm going to rip out your meeping eyes and skull meep you to death, and when I'm done? I'm going to meeping piss all over your meeping corpse...

I don't know, it just doesn't feel the same.
posted by quin at 7:26 AM on November 13, 2009 [4 favorites]

"Kids are consistently doing things that drive adults crazy," he said.

You're shittin' me.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:51 AM on November 13, 2009

Read it and meep.
posted by pianomover at 8:14 AM on November 13, 2009 [2 favorites]

In my high school, back in the stone tablet era (circa 1967-1971), we "discovered" that a repeated "otto, otto" in a high, fast staccato produced a warble similar to a turkey's. The new Phys Ed instructor and assistant football coach, ummm, coincidentally, was named Otto. Our meep was otto.

This meme persisted even in the face of evidence that despite his job and his name, Otto was cool and not a jerk. For a while, he sort of embraced it as his personal cheer, which pretty much killed it.
posted by beelzbubba at 8:31 AM on November 13, 2009 [5 favorites]

When you're a meep, you're a meep all the way! from you first meeparette to your last dyin' days.

Maybe I never became an adult or something. Or people just lose their minds when they get a career in education. The principal has no idea that banning something like that would absolutely cement it spreading everywhere?
Do they bring these people in from Mars? Were they never kids themselves or hyperintroverted or home schooled?
posted by Smedleyman at 8:50 AM on November 13, 2009 [5 favorites]

My year 10 maths class used applause as its particular brand of not-very-rebellious rebellion. Every time the teacher wrote anything on the board, every time a student answered a question, basically every time anything happened, the entire class would burst into spontaneous applause.

My senior year, the high-honors level history class achieved the status of legend with a similar act of rebellion -- the teacher was very, very dull, and whenenever he turned around to write something on the board, he always did so very slowly and very painstakingly.

And one day in class, when he turned around to write something on the board, the whole class spontaneously did the wave behind him while his back was turned. The last student was just sitting down as the teacher turned back to face the class, so he never found out. People poured out of the room after class to tell all their friends and they were the coolest-kids-of-the-week for the rest of the week afterward.

*sigh* I was never inspired to such heights -- I ended up with the cool teachers (including a math teacher who reportedly once wore a full-head gorilla mask to a staff meeting without ever offering a word of explanation to anyone).
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:52 AM on November 13, 2009 [4 favorites]

"Meep" isn't a dirty word, Blackadder. "Crevice" is a dirty word, but "meep" isn't.
posted by trillian at 8:59 AM on November 13, 2009 [2 favorites]

Where on earth would that have come from? "Stanley Steemer"? I mean, they clean carpets.

Clearly, that the person lies like a rug.
posted by jocelmeow at 9:03 AM on November 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

One time in high school english we had a substitute teacher. One of the most cleverly annoying kids in class passed around a note that said "everybody say 'chop!' randomly throughout the hour, then at 9:30 we all shout TIMBEEEERRRR!"

That was a very confused substitute teacher. All throughout the reading people were throwing in chops, where clearly there were not on the page. Fantastic. Only a few of us actually did the TIMBERRR but it was totally worth it.
posted by cbecker333 at 9:14 AM on November 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

In French there is a word for things that students do as a group to annoy their teachers. The verb is chahuter, the noun is le chahut. We need something like this in English.
posted by mareli at 9:21 AM on November 13, 2009 [6 favorites]

Mareli -- I think "chahut" sounds like a perfect option in and of itself. It'd get anglicized into "chahoot," but there's something folksy-sounding about that ...
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:26 AM on November 13, 2009

By order of the Principal, all students are forbidden to say the word "meep".

Somebody should drop an anvil on that guy.
posted by rokusan at 9:38 AM on November 13, 2009

Snail mail address of Danvers High School.
Principal Murray needs some meepin' postcards. Stat.
posted by 8dot3 at 9:43 AM on November 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

That article is a gem of comedy- my favorite line:

"But meeping doesn't seem to be funny to Danvers High School Principal Thomas Murray, who threatened to suspend students caught meeping in school."

He sounds like the principal from The Breakfast Club.
posted by emd3737 at 9:52 AM on November 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

emd3737: "I will NOT be made a fool of!!!"
posted by 8dot3 at 9:57 AM on November 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

Couple of things bugging me about this.

First, Beaker doesn't say "Meep", he says "Mee", or maybe "Meem".

I don't know what the script says, maybe it says "Meep" on the page, like the Roadrunner Beep / Meep thing, but he's not pronouncing the 'p's.

Second, are the kids saying it Beaker style, high pitched and all, or Roadrunner style, lower pitched and more melodic?

And third, the kids should totally switch to "Murray". I'd like to see the guy ban that.
posted by Reverend John at 9:58 AM on November 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

I want the recording of that automated phone call so bad it hurts.
posted by roll truck roll at 10:20 AM on November 13, 2009 [2 favorites]

Our meep was "heah." I think it's one of those near-universal phenomena: kids use nonsense sounds, hand signals, in-jokes, body posture, apparel choices, etc., as signals of belonging and a means of amusing themselves, and uptight adults and others not included in the group get annoyed.

meep.
posted by notashroom at 10:30 AM on November 13, 2009

I want the recording of that automated phone call so bad it hurts.

I know! It will be the intro track of my pretend band's debut album if I ever get my hands on it.
posted by Doublewhiskeycokenoice at 10:36 AM on November 13, 2009

It seems the key concept is that if the teacher/target in question adopts the joke, it dies. I remember when I was a young prof. I told students before I called roll (I taught freshmen comp) to let me know if he or she had a preferred nickname. One of the students, at his turn, said he wanted to be called "Tito." It was clear from the behavior of other students that this was a joke intended to provoke a response. I put him in my roster as Tito and kept going. At first students laughed when I used his "name", then it became accepted, and finally ignored. Quickly. The student in question did well in my class, and we had no problems. Perhaps that would have happened no matter what my reaction, but I suspect if I made a big deal about his joke, I would have fostered both the joke and a feeling of animosity.
posted by miss-lapin at 10:56 AM on November 13, 2009 [2 favorites]

Does a dog have Beaker-nature?
posted by argh at 11:08 AM on November 13, 2009

I'm more about the Eep, myself.
posted by Wild_Eep at 11:19 AM on November 13, 2009

I'm more about the Eep, myself.

At my high school in 1986, there was a girl who communicated mostly by saying "eep". We fondly nicknamed her "the Eeper". I can still picture her and hear her eeping at people. Good times.
posted by freecellwizard at 11:24 AM on November 13, 2009

Thomas Murray should be fired. He clearly has control/power issues.

He definitely is a principal that's a control freak. But I repeat myself.

Seriously, if we fired all the ex-jock principals that have control/power issues, we wouidn't have enough principals left to staff a single school district. The main difference between a principal and your average prison warden is that the wardens tend to be more competent and easygoing.
posted by happyroach at 11:40 AM on November 13, 2009

There are 131 meeps in these comments. That is all.
posted by fyrebelley at 12:48 PM on November 13, 2009

Oh crap. Now there's 132...
posted by fyrebelley at 12:49 PM on November 13, 2009

Word, yo.
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:51 PM on November 13, 2009

How have we gone over 100 comments without an urban dictionary link?

The most versatile word in the English language, or in fact any language!

Can mean whatever you want it to mean, but the most popular uses are:
1. An exclamation akin to 'ouch' or 'uh oh..'
2. Filling in the blanks where other (rude) words would go.
3. A greeting! I personally say meep instead of Hello...
4. A random expression of happiness used to fill gaps in conversation.

Meep is the best word ever! Meep!
1. "HEY GET BACK HERE!!!" "Meep!" 0.0
2. "Ahh.. Meeping Hell!" >.<>
posted by joedan at 1:00 PM on November 13, 2009

meep only meep 149 meep meeps meep with meep 191 meep comments meep so meep far meep is meep a meep travesty meep.
posted by idiopath at 1:02 PM on November 13, 2009

Nanoo Nanoo.
posted by Saxon Kane at 1:05 PM on November 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

And just to show how much of a dumbass this principal really is, read this. He forwarded a random "meep" email from a stranger to the police.

Yep. He's not making a mountain out of a molehill, no siree bob.
posted by splice at 1:42 PM on November 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

You can't meep without a permit.
posted by spaltavian at 2:46 PM on November 13, 2009

One of my cats is named Meep. Hopefully people don't come around and make me excise her name from everything like in that German murder case.
posted by wildcrdj at 3:04 PM on November 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

Jesus mept...
posted by Flashman at 3:06 PM on November 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

Jesus mept...

And mept again!
posted by scalefree at 5:08 PM on November 13, 2009

G.I. Joe Carnival: Hey, you're not my friend ... me me me me me me
posted by rigby51 at 11:46 PM on November 13, 2009

Blarf
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 2:10 PM on November 14, 2009

"'Stanley Steemer'? I mean, they clean carpets. What does that have to do with lying, or being lame, or whatever?"

Perhaps the phrase "lying like a rug" was responsible.
posted by smashingstars at 5:07 AM on November 15, 2009

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