Our pal Joly sent the following, knowing it would provoke a response …
"MEEP!
Don't know what it means? Don't worry -- most people over the age of 22 don't either.
But the nonsense word -- which apparently started with the 1980s Muppet character Beaker -- is causing a lot of teeth-gnashing for adults at one Massachusetts high school. They have gone so far as to threaten suspension for students caught meeping.
But just what does it mean to "meep?" No one really seems to know -- even those who use it as part of their daily vocabulary. Bob Thompson, a pop culture professor at Syracuse University, said he first heard students meep about a year ago during a class screening of a television show. "Something happened and one of them said 'Meep,'" he said. "And then they all started doing it." 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." (Click here for the rest of the non-story, but…)
The truth is that the word Meep was coined in 1969 by my old and dear friend and partner in crime, the late lamented Edward Barker. He was the creator of the cartoon alien species (with no arms) called The Largactalites whose one word vocabulary was the single word “meep”. They were named after the antipsychotic drug Largactil (Chlorpromazine) the UK brand name for what was sold in the US as Thorazine. The Largactalites ran in the underground paper IT, from 1970 to around 1973. I was also picked up by the national Sunday paper The Observer, but this raised profile brought the name to the notice of Smith Kline & French, the makers of Largactil, who threatened a lawsuit, and the name was changed to The Galactalites. Edward was finally fired when he turned in a strip that consisted of four frames with nothing but a blank, single-line horizon, with no characters and no dialogue. We all thought that was pretty damned Dadaist, but The Observer didn’t see it that way.
Don't know what it means? Don't worry -- most people over the age of 22 don't either.
But the nonsense word -- which apparently started with the 1980s Muppet character Beaker -- is causing a lot of teeth-gnashing for adults at one Massachusetts high school. They have gone so far as to threaten suspension for students caught meeping.
But just what does it mean to "meep?" No one really seems to know -- even those who use it as part of their daily vocabulary. Bob Thompson, a pop culture professor at Syracuse University, said he first heard students meep about a year ago during a class screening of a television show. "Something happened and one of them said 'Meep,'" he said. "And then they all started doing it." 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." (Click here for the rest of the non-story, but…)
The truth is that the word Meep was coined in 1969 by my old and dear friend and partner in crime, the late lamented Edward Barker. He was the creator of the cartoon alien species (with no arms) called The Largactalites whose one word vocabulary was the single word “meep”. They were named after the antipsychotic drug Largactil (Chlorpromazine) the UK brand name for what was sold in the US as Thorazine. The Largactalites ran in the underground paper IT, from 1970 to around 1973. I was also picked up by the national Sunday paper The Observer, but this raised profile brought the name to the notice of Smith Kline & French, the makers of Largactil, who threatened a lawsuit, and the name was changed to The Galactalites. Edward was finally fired when he turned in a strip that consisted of four frames with nothing but a blank, single-line horizon, with no characters and no dialogue. We all thought that was pretty damned Dadaist, but The Observer didn’t see it that way.
You can guess the secret word.
Meep
ReplyDeleteMeep
ReplyDeleteNOU!! NOU!
ReplyDeleteMeep...encore
ReplyDeleteI hate to sound like a tosser, but Lovecraft's ghouls meep. (They glibber, too.)
ReplyDelete"Then, just as he was about to creep back from that detestable flame, he saw a stirring among the vague dark forms and heard a peculiar and unmistakable sound. It was the frightened meeping of a ghoul, and in a moment it had swelled to a veritable chorus of anguish."
-- H P Lovecraft, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, 1927.
meep meep
ReplyDeleteand meep again! Check out the Edward Barker Gallery http://www.funtopia.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/friends/edgallery.html - not much Largactalites but plenty of other stuff, Om and His Stinky Old Cat
ReplyDeletegood man down
ReplyDelete