Chatspeak as symbols
This is a little old, but I found it quite interesting:
An amusing exercise
It is a discussion thread over at Typophile about what chat shorthand (lol, wtf, rofl) might look like as symbols, much as ‘at’ has ‘@’, or ‘and’ has ‘&’. Though most chat shorthands are acronyms instead of single words, it is still a very neat topic with some great ideas. I prefer the one pictured to the right of this post for LOL, submitted by gmckenzi.
I also have been pondering a discussion I had with someone at work about how we do not *usually* laugh literally “out loud” when we type lol, or actually fall out of our chairs when we type rofl (how would we type it if we were?), although there have been times when it has happened. Instead, maybe we should use an alternative, and leave LOL for more hilarious outbursts. You could just take the acronym of out, producing LIL (Laughing In Loud) but that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, plus it looks like an abbreviation of little.
Perhaps LI or LIW, for Laughing InWardly, would work. Or we could spark a whole new term like TVF (Thats Very Funny) as in “That’s very funny, a fly marrying a bumble bee… I TOLD YOU I’D SHOOT! BUT YOU DIDN’T BELIEVE ME! WHYYYYYYYY DIDN’T YOU BELIEVE ME?!?!“. God I love that show.
In lieu of LOL, I tend to use “heh” when I find something funny, and “heheheheh” when it is funnier still. Note that I mean this as “heh heh heh”, as in a chuckle, as opposed to “he he he”, a feminine giggle…
So what do you all think? Do you like LIL, LIW, TVF? Create your own and post them here. I would love to hear your input on this!
PS: *bonus points for a symbolic for “OMG WTF BBQ” that is not just letters run together.
B are discussing.
B 1:17 am on 2/4/2007 Permalink
i’ve just gotten used to typing ‘haha’ and if i am really laughing just typing it longer or with exclamation or something “hahahaha that fuckin rocks!”
its a really good point that people always type and say they are laughing and are really just laughing on the inside … (0_0)
which is awesome when typing to someone and watching each other on a webcam, totally funny the amount of internalization, so you might be having a crazy conversation and … (0_0) [ ] / [ ](0_0)
thats just funny haha (not LOL funny)
Doody 3:26 am on 2/4/2007 Permalink
I kind of do the same thing. I usually use “haha” when laughing on the inside. When I am litterally laughing though I will make it more extreme by lengthening it to like “hahahahaha” or if I am really laughing hard HAHAHAHAHA!
Nyrath the nearly wise 7:52 pm on 2/16/2007 Permalink
I use “Heh” as well.
Your aunt Patti really enjoys when she hears your laugh in person, she thinks it sounds so delightfully evil.