The Etymology of UwU

[@albinidk183]

Great way to stay hydrated: Take a sip of water for every UwU you hear

[@DHasty]

Alternatively, a great way to die- take a shot of liquor every time you hear uwu

[@FrankiFusilli]

I took your advice and now my town is experiencing a drought because of it 🥰

[@apricot.the.apricat]

sounds like a good drinking game tbh

[@prageruwu69]

gonna do this, i'll edit when done. edit: tried it, i am extremely hydrated and the big glass is almost completely empty.

[@fleic2262]

Water intoxication,

[@GaladaeOakbreeze]

I tried to explain uwu to my 50-something dad once and ended up at the ‘hewwo mr Obama’ post, and now any time my grown ass father wants my help with something there’s a 50/50 chance he says ‘mistew obama pwease hewp’ I’ve created a monster

[@GaladaeOakbreeze]

(I wish I was kidding but I cannot explain just how much I am not)

[@thelastholdout]

Your dad sounds cool as hell. My dad would have zero patience for any of that nonsense.

[@Cloudy4Days]

This may be the best thing that I've heard all week!!

[@GaladaeOakbreeze]

@@thelastholdout he is cool as hell! (And full of nonsense 😂)

[@thelastholdout]

@ville__ ooh we have a bot here.

[@jlo9993]

it's like how 'lol' has gone from meaning 'laughing out loud' to just being 'lol' when read

[@ihaightyouall]

The next generation won't even know it had any other meaning

[@jebtickle4065]

@@ihaightyouall Nah they will

[@damondullahan5060]

same goes for lmao, i hear people read it phonetically way more than anything else now

[@JoeNoshow27]

Alfred, I'd like a dash of le mayo applied on my cut of lawl and a glass of fine berb. Make it quick, I need to be on my rawful-copter by 7

[@Cythil]

@@jebtickle4065 You say that... But I have come across people who do not seem to know what it means. Which leads them also in to using lol in ways that diverges from it original meaning.

[@RyuuNoGin]

A dramatic reading of 'Hewwo Mr. Obama' was not on my bingo board for today

[@nevaeh9125]

Then perish (⁠눈⁠‸⁠눈⁠)

[@fireballninja01]

i had mac and cheese pizza with spookygrimoires (hewwo side) once and she’s wonderful. great film photographer

[@BassicallyKiyash]

I honestly expect in every video of hers, tha5 or some other reading of a tumblr meme (hewwo)

[@Unfortunately_Mickey]

A shiver went down my spine it made me cringe so hard this had to be illegal

[@dwell7315]

Meanwhile I'm over here trying to tell if this is a new recording or the one she's done previously (or potentially even one of the few she's done, i don't know how many times she's read it in a video lol)

[@madametaylor625]

my favorite uwu content is a twitter thread that points out how in Latin V is pronounced as W so the citizens of Pompeii would have called it "wesuwius" "Mount Wesuwius is ewwupting uwu"

[@ScrawnyTreeDemon]

HELP 😭

[@maddieb.4282]

@ville__your recent comments are particularly unhinged, are you ramping up to something or just becoming desperate for the same high you used to get from trolling 😂

[@avwholesomegamer]

How to be correct and wrong at the same time XD

[@TrashMaggie]

Forget diction its about tone when you decide to capitalize what parts of it changes the emotion. UWU (agressive) uwu (passive) UwU (alert and formal) uWu (chaos) But you never see uWu anywhere because it has a mysterious and unknowable energy.

[@meelz812]

owologist

[@petrichorbones]

i love this so much and i concur

[@Deathstorm501]

Time to add uWu into my digital lexicon to spread madness in my wake

[@bi-theway-thatsit3050]

I think the fact that OwO and UwU can be verbalized so distinctly contributed to its popularity. Something about the simplicity and the vowel placement that made it so easy to say and thus merge into the lexicom

[@cassiopeia_mori]

yeah, defo much easier to say fluidly than something like T-T or qwq

[@geealion]

Totally this. It also makes it easier to use as a reference or shorthand. It’s harder to directly reference something like ^_^ or o.O because you can’t say it.

[@kurasuta3715]

@@geealion Perfectly illustrated with how she struggled with reading out the tumblr replies

[@j.2512]

Discord pervert lexicon for "i want to groom kids"

[@goranisacson2502]

@@cassiopeia_mori ... Yeah, saying "que-wu-que" doesn't quite slip off the tongue as easily.

[@joshuamoore8560]

"And then around the mid 2010s... IT BREACHED CONTAINMENT." I LOVE that expression. Anything that compares an online fad to a velociraptor or malignant force... is APT, in my book.

[@prageruwu69]

it's on days like these that i reconsider what the hell my username is.

[@lyrablack8621]

Prageruwu69. _MOREL OREL PFP._

[@ZedaZ80]

This was a good laugh for me thank you for that decision

[@tabbitee]

I know someone called uwugossharag, she's awesome! I think all the uwu-based or -inclusive names should get together and have a conference - or indeed, a cowonference.

[@notshardain]

its perfect

[@j.2512]

a typical "how you do fellow kids" pervert groomer

[@sach1485]

Shoutout to Matt Rose who always reads uwufied texts with Jason Statham's voice, really adds another layer

[@niamhs6042]

I feel like I wasn't expecting a matt rose strange aeons crossover but hello fellow watcher of both!

[@goranisacson2502]

I have never heard of Matt Rose before, and after reading this message I feel I have to change that right now. Thank you for the eye-opener, stranger.

[@transsexual_computer_faery]

@@goranisacson2502 just a twitter/reddit post reader. but actually not because he's legit the funniest post reader i've ever heard.

[@DOCTORWHIMSY]

FELLOW MATT ROSE FAN

[@Mandavee]

UwU isnt even an emoticon to me anymore. Shes like someone who survived a tragic experience with me and now we are bonded for life

[@Mandavee]

Also cigarette Aheago is a great song that features UwU pretty heavily

[@j.2512]

the tragic experience of kids getting groomed and molested online by furries who use UWU

[@Cythil]

Funny enough, when I saw the emoticon gaining popularity again, I saw it as that. Like cool. A decade's old emoticon from Japan (translated to western keyboards) has gotten popular again. But then I hang with weird types that do use kaomoji at the time. Even I do. (Even if I am lazy and stick to the simpler ones ^_^ )

[@fatcat2137]

'owo' is a perfectly normal and relatively common suffix used for location names in my language. needless to say, i have never felt peace ever since the emoticon became a popular meme

[@katethegoat7507]

What language?

[@laxsjo.]

We need to know what language this is

[@wayfaringspacepoet]

​@@katethegoat7507Polish

[@haras-unicorn]

@@wayfaringspacepoet Powish

[@4rumani]

Powolish

[@hethemheathen2853]

Sad... Happy... I always read UwU as being cheeky. Like a gremlin of a cute anime girl

[@thatsdisco]

You get iit!!!

[@voodoolilium]

I've just always thought it is as a cat smiley, like :3

[@rosyguard]

for me it was that and also like a cat

[@rosyguard]

@@voodoolilium SAME

[@schwammi]

I always just read it as a cat with gently closed eyes, just like :3 is a cat with normal open eyes, OwO is a cat with widely opened eyes and x3 is aa cat but with eyes shut tight like when you're laughing really hard

[@namechangermcgee]

along these lines, i think the old fanfiction citrus scale could be a fun topic

[@loganl3746]

I feel like in my online circles, uwu started being vocalized as a word shortly after people switched from saying El-Oh-El to lol or lul or lawl

[@anzaia2164]

Never thought about that, but I think that tracks. Strange.

[@frauleinfunf]

I’ve been on the internet since the mid 2000s and this video is the first time I’ve considered people seeing UwU as a word rather than an emoticon. Kind of breaks my brain a little

[@SuzuXIII]

​I've been on the internet since the mid 2000s and this video is the first time I've considered people seeing UwU as a word rather than an emoticon. Kind of breaks my brain a little

[@ajzn97]

Same, I just thought people say it aloud nowadays to ironical. But now I understand it's really a thing and a word.

[@ZedaZ80]

Yuuup *edit:* dang it, it would have been funnier if I said: Yuwup

[@mistakesmisfits]

I felt so old

[@succinctsucculent9007]

Both. Both is good.

[@Jack-je1zt]

As a person who is elderly in internet years I remember a lot of the old AIM emoticons. For some reason, UwU always struck me as a cat face whereas OwO always struck me as an owl.

[@jameskolby]

same, i remember friends making the same comparisons back in the mid 2010's

[@uamdbro]

Jesus I never used AIM but I remember my friends at school talking about it in like 2007, have not thought about that in forever lol

[@gracel2mart]

For me, it has to be OvO to be an owl

[@27ratsinatrenchcoat90]

But OvO is an owl... And :> is a little bird, and :3 is also a cat

[@eliotsholmes]

fandom etymology would actually be really interesting especially in the different ways people in fandom use words (also i think i took 2d6 psychic damage from this video

[@helloamanda04]

oooo yeah things like the exclamation mark to denote an alternate/headcanon version of a character or the origin of words like "whump", it'd be cool to see a vid about that kinda stuff

[@EnigmaticRPG]

I gather you are also "old enough to remember lemons"? I died a bit inside when I saw that on a button in the wild lol

[@RicardoMoralesMassin]

OwOno

[@dwell7315]

fandom etymology needs to be a recurring series on this channel it's such a fun concept

[@tera1692]

That would be fun tbh, like seeing the origins of words like glomp (being like a running hug)

[@emilavoie]

I've always been curious why fandoms use exclamation marks to indicate an au or different version of a character, like "Emo!HarryPotter" etc. I feel like there has got to be some history behind that

[@opal.dreamer6736]

I’m pretty sure it’s just a reference to how Panic! At the Disco is written. Most other fandoms overlapped on some level with the Patd fan base so it’s just a little inside joke I guess :3

[@SpecialBlanket]

@@opal.dreamer6736disagree, it predates that by a ton

[@hi-um7ru]

i think i've heard about it being a thing on early fanfiction sites where you couldnt include spaces in the tags or something so it became a widely accepted way to denote different versions of the character? maybe? i don't remember where i learned that from though

[@tairneanaich]

@@opal.dreamer6736nah it‘s about early email paths pre and early internet. The ! Is called a Bang, and the concept is a bang path. Don‘t have the brain power to go into detail now but it IS an interesting moment in tech history

[@ezdispenser]

yeah bang paths!!! email networks used to be pretty localized, so if you wanted to send an email to say, john who's in the same department as you, you'd just address the email as.... to john, or something like that. but if you wanted to send an email to john who works in IT, you'd say to IT!john. and if you wanted to send an email to john who works at a company offshoot in new york, you'd say new york!john. at least, that's how it was explained to me

[@starshapedseal]

wait i'm sorry people were genuinely unaware it was supposed to be a shorthand kaomoji????? that's wild to me.

[@BassicallyKiyash]

Me too, and I was never into anime.

[@jamescalvert4471]

The concept of knowing the word, but not seeing the face is crazy to me. I'm thirty, idk if age has anything to do with it.

[@mirmarq429]

before this video i didn't even know what kaomoji are...

[@BassicallyKiyash]

@ville__ Me too, and I was never into anime.

[@littlewyzard]

i mean i definitely knew it was an emoticon and i have seen some of the other kaomojis before but never actually heard the word “kaomoji” before this video

[@creetchres]

uwu was also a huge feature of my complex teenage girl homoerotic friendship so shout out to uwu for that

[@LyndsayChan]

Happy UwU birthday guwuys

[@iamjustkiwi]

Thank youwu

[@bruhkent6895]

me trying to pronounce guwuys for the shits and gigs

[@telosnium]

@ville__ silence, bot

[@rice_frying_shrimp]

I read this in necoarc's voice

[@BD_Ghis]

Now I gotta do something special for the 25th! ...but what?

[@Magfish]

I’m a linguist and this is delightful I love bizarre lexicalization

[@runningspirit2915]

I knew there was a reason I got the sudden urge to write ówò on my study notes last night

[@Halinn]

You should invoke Thoth aka Θώθ

[@shatteredreality_513]

@@Halinn as a current Ancient Greek student, I cannot read a word with an omega in between two thetas without seeing OwO h e l p

[@bingonight1504]

​​@@shatteredreality_513ΘωΘ I'm a statistics major and same

[@tera1692]

Ǒvǒ

[@midloran]

QyQ

[@HEALORDER]

i was called an uwu girl in a derogatory way and i’m still not okay, like my feelings are still hurt on a lighter note, i would LOVE to see the origin of the “ do you love the colour of the sky “ meme from ye olde tumblr

[@arsonmouse2511]

UwU was widespread thanks to the yugioh fandom and that is so respectable

[@PaizuruInsanal]

That explains Dartz in YGOTAS

[@arsonmouse2511]

@@PaizuruInsanal and his great great great great grandson Pawadox

[@mrziiz6893]

@@arsonmouse2511damn, Paradox chose gay son over thot daughter

[@notsmrt4521]

That and Morbin' time

[@ellanimation816]

Wait no… The yugioh fandom ?! At least yugioh gets to have some internet fame

[@Aiva]

Thank you for that beautiful dramatic reading of Mr. Obama Pwease Hwep Me Also my sister will regularly read over Gaius' speech in the Praetorium dungeon in FFXIV with UWU speak. It's great.

[@Venraven]

TEWW ME, FOW WHOM DO YOU FIGHT

[@hlrartschadenfreude6430]

The first time I saw UwU was on a forum around 2003 in the Fullmetal Alchemist to represent/roleplay the character of Alphonse Elric, alongside with OwO

[@thatsdisco]

Yeah, as a kid, like at the age of 7 or 8 or something I saw fanart of Ed with an OwO face a lot :') that was around that time too, 2005/2006

[@mystic-malevolence]

When Al is drawn in the simplified manner where he's just a blob with a face, his face does resemble OwO somewhat.

[@hannah-6080]

That's so funny!!! My earliest memory of these types of emotes is also from an FMA fanfic, only I found it on Quizilla in 2004.

[@sketchycat6223]

Perfect use tbh

[@inactiuveuser69]

omg yes this too!!

[@maxineschultze922]

PERFECT THING TO WATCH WHILE WORKING ON MY WEED SMOKING GIRLFRIENDS STORYBOARD ANIMATIC FOR CLASS!!!

[@kinkanalchemist]

How many bunts did you have to draw

[@PlutosAsleep]

DOING SMTH LIKE THIS FOR FUN IDC

[@nanothrill7171]

bring back hippo face ^______________^

[@ZoeylaRose]

I use it a lot mostly with 1-2 _ like ^__^

[@Manthab]

I call it whale but I love it all the same

[@Starrypaws64]

I love using -_________-

[@ms.aelanwyr.ilaicos]

Me scrolling through my usual subscriptions: UwU Me seeing a Strange upload about UwU: OwO

[@OmegaSoypreme]

Do you know how much it fucks me up to hear 2005 be talked about as some long, long ago time? I was already an adult! I was 19! God I'm old, and get off my lawn!

[@annawesometheflameingpikac3688]

I was born in 2005 and I'm 19 so you're double my age rn

[@OmegaSoypreme]

@@annawesometheflameingpikac3688 Oh buddy, you won't believe how fast it goes by! Live it up, see the world! 🥲

[@frauleinfunf]

Felt this way when I mentioned to my friend last night that The Lightening Thief was published 19 years ago (tho we were both 9 back then so the existential dread probably didn’t hit us quite as hard)

[@EnigmaticRPG]

Green Day has been playing on the oldies station for like 10 years now, it's o v e r

[@annawesometheflameingpikac3688]

@@OmegaSoypreme I'm literally going on a research trip to Italy next week so I think I have see the world started haha

[@Madeleinewith3Es]

That reenactment of "hewwo Mr. Obama" was the perfect ending, and I'll always cackle at the "then perish" reference dropped into Nona the Ninth

[@marvelousTUD]

Crazy to me that people don’t know this was originally supposed to be a face. I guess, being a part of the Vocaloid fandom, I got exposed to it before it had evolved in that way

[@thatsdisco]

you 🤝 me

[@ohwhatsarcasm]

🤝 vocaloid gremlins

[@ratbastard6327]

🤝

[@ScrawnyTreeDemon]

🤝 Vocaloid 5evarrr 💖💖💖

[@CaptainRadiator]

getting flashbanged by Senzawa in my regularly scheduled Strange was definitely not what I expected. Someone needs to interview her once her current business is concluded, I reckon that would be very interesting for internet history

[@thejest69]

Indeed! Her memelord status goes pretty far back, she seems like she's seen a lot, and I hope she'll be open to sharing stories later on.

[@alisdraws]

Never even crossed my mind that people didn't see it as a face. It's the UwU face.

[@nlm2nd]

Shout out to the BBC News UwU bot, which gives us such thrilling headlines as "Pwince Pwiwwip has passed away"

[@theedarling]

I’m crying. I literally kept saying “uwu mr obwama” to myself last night, and now this video is here

[@rhus36]

This video speaks to my soul as someone who works at a very small business where my boss ends all of his texts with :P and my coworker exclusively heart reacts to everything.

[@TalysAlankil]

incredible that then perish has been in my vocabulary for about a decade, i sat through a whole reading of it knowing exactly where it ends, but still lost it at "then perish" dsjflskfjsld

[@greycat1246]

It's always bizarre to me how much overlap there is between the furry and anime fandoms The two fandoms have like the opposite tone on the surface and yet They're like mirror twins separated at birth

[@totalCoolerUsername]

Internet historian in the 2080's:" This... this channel is everything we searched for.... UwU"

[@lola9148]

I used uwu as an emoticon back when I was a kid playing Habbo Hotel since the characters didn't have any expressions. Also it's so, so funny how UwU speak is like western aegyo

[@nicolebee3283]

UwU! Stwange æons Upwoaded :3

[@JS-J]

I was a tween in the early 2000s and was also chronically online, so I definitely remember uwu/UwU being used by my friends (and the Neopets forums omfg). uwu was always more shy and worried back then, especially when used with an apostrophe “sweat drop” UwU’ The best I can describe it is that it gave the vibe “sowwy, pwease don’t be mad UwU’” With plenty of variations in the sentiment, of course. It’s been interesting watching it evolve into something almost derogatory just to see it get flipped into something that’s pretty self aware. And it happened so slowly that I didn’t even realize how the emotional aspect has completely flipped!

[@toganium4175]

This is clearly a very important history lesson. Thank you, Strange.

[@AmbientAgony]

When I was a freshman in HS I became obsessed with the UwU God Is Dead video where an anime girl recites the middle portion of Friederich Nietzsche's The Parable of the Madman. I was transfixed and ended up memorizing the entire piece, but I could only recite it in UwU speech. Whenever the conversation would lull or got too heavy, I immediately came out swinging with, "Have yow not hweard of thwat madman..." I loved that piece and would go on hour-long rants about the meaning and symbolism in it.

[@KS-li1iy]

This is EXACTLY what I needed to watch while I fold laundry today THANK YOU

[@finfleming9287]

BROTHER IM FOLDING LAUNDRY TOO

[@harls99]

@@finfleming9287ME TOO BROTHERS

[@rice_frying_shrimp]

@@finfleming9287 HOW ARE WE ALL FOLDING LAUNDRY WHILE WATCHING STRANGE???

[@tonye6284]

omg same

[@kinkanalchemist]

Me too!

[@_Chlorophyllis]

We have come full circle: My 10 yr old niece uses TwT and UwU from Roblox and asked me, 30 yr old vocaloid fan, if I knew what it was (Me and boyfriend speak in emoticons unironically)

[@FlameQwert]

i love this kind of "internet folk history"! cool analysis on how the transition from soundless image (much like kaomoji) into actual sound-word is a signifier of breaching containment into "meatspace". uwu winning over owo and hewwo and o3o might also be highly specific to *speaking* the english language- perhaps the "oo-w-oo" sound is easier (and fits more into the cutesy drawl) to say than "oh-w-oh" for english speakers? regarding sadness- actually I used to think that too! as a more pensive version of "OwO"

[@jamesthegiantb1tch]

Saying uwu or owo out loud isn't as weird as saying XD. At least uwu sounds like a word

[@elizawulf8180]

Markiplier: Rawr XD uwu!

[@SomeThingOrMaybeAnother]

I think it's uwu is more weird because of the context it is generally used in. It's like a layer of cringe on top pre-existing layer of cringe.

[@DrownInGoldenMisery]

I knew people who said "eks dee" back when UwU was popular. Both aloud and typed like that

[@JNCressey]

What about saying "lol" without laughing?

[@EnigmaticRPG]

@@JNCressey that's just 1000% ironic/sarcasm (or cringe if not)

[@hycynth82828]

5:54 I remember playing around when I was a child with characters to create new faces. So I believe that story

[@shepgustafson8131]

It's simple, Strange posts, i consume it like a goth vitamin

[@Althexia]

I tend to call myself an uwu gamer because i both think it's cute, and it's funny how annoyed lil kids get online when they see or hear it. xD

[@exbaddeathgod]

UwU's sister Nya and it's relation to the depressed game guy to cat girl streamer pipeline

[@j.2512]

the incel to troon pipeline , brought to you by autism and AGP

[@hung-upear2659]

now, I have used "nya-nderthal" (nya-nderdwal) sometimes as an username, which makes me probably pretty cursed

[@v3awna]

the fact that I've been watching your vids for over 2 years and only now realized that you, the one who convinced me to get two sphynxes through youtube, reside in the same city as me 😭that feels illegal

[@Diamondgamervideos]

half way through this video I was going to comment about how Mr Obawma was my first contact with uwu, and I audibly gasped when you said it doesn't actually make an appearence

[@ikn0waplace]

you pulled the obama roleplay from the depths of my memory holy shit

[@quenepacrossing4675]

For the longest time i didn’t realize the sound “oowoo” and the emoticon UwU were supposed to be the same thing. To my middle-aged, aim/myspace brain capitalization was so important when using emoticons that uwu (lowercase) did not register as a face, but instead as an abbreviation of something. When i finally made the connection i felt dumbfounded that emoticons had turned into sounds!

[@Yurt_enthusiast7]

Yeah I honestly didn't do that connection until this video😅

[@erinnorris]

I recently was reminded that neopets had connections to scientology for a while and that feels video-worthy

[@mygoldenwitch]

I've literally NEVER heard it used as a sound, I've only ever seen it and thought 'cringy simplified kaomoji, no?' so the constant oowwoos flying around this vid made me laugh way harder than I normally would have and I've never even heard of the rap version of the pasta SO NOW I FEEL OLD AND OUT OF TOUCH THANKS STRANGE

[@BradyPostma]

I used 0_0 and o_O in 2000 in IRC, as silent shock reactions. I didn't hear about UwU for more than a decade after that, but I did see lots of variations on the eyes-and-mouth emoticons. I remember a girl who used ~_^ as a flirty wink.

[@hatemteirelbar9510]

But what you don't know is that his real name is Strange Aeons....

[@kpopemotrash8799]

No what is it 🤔

[@rubydown3329]

But it was actually.... Tommy Tallarico!

[@mr.bluesky4130]

@@rubydown3329 Mother=Proud :)

[@BassicallyKiyash]

​@@rubydown3329 OMG NO, ITS JOEY, ITS ALWAYS JOEY

[@validpostage]

@@rubydown3329 Your mother must be very proud

[@UpandOvertheMoo]

I was there in the early uwu front lines, back when it was an emoticon. It was used on Gaia online frequently. I was a prolific user of o3o at the time as it was more my style as I wanted to convey that I was very 'rand0m.' I feel so old now.

[@hive-sys]

Finally, REAL content for us UwU soldiers. Thank you strange

[@AlfredSoul]

It's like "lol", which, at least where I live, still something people say aloud, ironically even though they are literally not laughing.

[@leocoyote6579]

oh my effing GODS that freakin art that ghislaine did of you and felina is INSANELY cute ughhhh

[@BD_Ghis]

It's actually "Ghislain", Ghislaine is the feminine version of the name. XD Thanks for commenting my drawing though! ^^

[@j.2512]

unhinged AGP energy

[@rougenaxela]

Oh geeze, when VCL was mentioned that unlocked memories.... I forgot that site existed.

[@CeaselessWatch3r]

I started to use it as a joke lmfao, it is no longer a joke-

[@TheGrinningViking]

We're in our post ironic phase 🎉

[@EnigmaticRPG]

my dude and uwu go hand in hand in that regard

[@j.2512]

grooming kids into degenerate furry fetishes, only ironically

[@drana150]

Help we still use uwu OwO and UwU as emoticons 😭SOMETIMES THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY TO EXPRESS YOUR EMOTION

[@inchw0rm]

its always so crazy to me knowing theres people who dont see uwu as a face first lmao

[@ForgetfulMind]

Nostalgia! I’m old so I’ll probably always use UwU as a bashful face, usually in response to compliments on artwork. A big one back in the day was T-T for crying or ;//; for blush crying. I regularly still use OTL too, which is supposed to be a figure collapsed on their hands and knees, usually used when you’ve failed at something or done something stupid. No one ever knows what I’m on about when I do that though! I think faces like this are easier to understand if you ever had an old mobile phone, like before a smart phone. We could use the same faces on both text messages and online chats like AIM/AOL Messenger

[@shepgustafson8131]

But strange, you missed the first person in popular media who in UwU speak: Elmer fudd

[@greyblaspheme]

There's a setting on Google in languages for Elmer fuddian

[@sophiejones3554]

This is a good point: "uwu-speak" is much older than the emoticon. It was a standard trope in cartoons for babies who needed to speak for whatever reason (Stewie on Family Guy), so they would still sound baby-ish. It mimics the way young American children speak. Elmer Fudd doesn't precisely speak in "uwu-speak", although he does have a lot of extra glides which mimics the way old time Southerners talk. It wasn't intended to be cute when it was made. I think people perceive that dialect as "cute" because of Forrest Gump: who talks that way because he's from rural Georgia, but I think a lot of people instead perceived it as caused by his developmental disability (because he spends so much of the movie surrounded by people who don't talk like that). Elmer Fudd was also supposed to be from somewhere in the rural South, and it wasn't intended as a flattering portrayal.

[@AlexisBabayan]

​@@sophiejones3554As I saw it, Elmer Fudd just had a mild speech impediment (not able to pronounce the letter "r," so it was not entirely clear whether his name was "Elmer" or "Elmo" if he were to introduce himself out loud.) I had the same problem for years as a child- it took a lot of practice to get to the pronunciation that came naturally to a lot of people. But a lot of early cartoon voice actors heavily used various accents and speech impediments to make their characters sound more distinctive- that way one person could voice several characters and they would all sound different!

[@ZackC]

@@sophiejones3554Stewie in Family Guy is literally just the voice of famous adult man Rex Harrison, there’s no babyish element to it

[@inactiuveuser69]

@@greyblasphemeomg

[@freddie.spaghetti]

i would LOVE more videos about internet etymology!! tumblr must be a gold mine for that shit

[@raeslither8600]

Thank you for this very important research

[@brieffs]

Thank u for making this video! As someone who still uses uwu and owo unironically it’s interesting to hear the origins of them. I’m in the cosplay/idol community and almost every time I use uwu it’s to show a serene, relaxed, or even an embarrassed (blushing) face. owo is one of surprise, intrigue, and/or alarm. Ex: “Wanna go thrifting today owo?” // “Thanks for such a fun day out uwu” Anyways, thenk u so much Mr. Obama

[@juliajihae]

Senzawa had such an influence on memes during that time omfg I never noticed

[@awlomthesheepermen]

I like the theory that she’s guragara

[@awlomthesheepermen]

She went from owo rap to the biggest vtuber, if true I mean

[@strippinheat]

a

[@CaptainRadiator]

@@awlomthesheepermen its not even a theory

[@awlomthesheepermen]

@@CaptainRadiator oh was it confirmed?

[@Im_Merobiba_]

I absolutely still use UwU unironically

[@nintando]

I love getting academic with strange

[@thesixthmonth4928]

I miss the use of old emoticons! like 0_o or OAO or =3= and so on... it describes emotions so much better!

[@roxashighwind]

another one to research: OTL / oTL a few months ago it came to my attention that the younger generation is less aware of that one

[@VanguardAlexkio]

Is that like a variation of orz?

[@ilexdiapason]

​@@VanguardAlexkioyeah orz and oTL are similar but one of the guys has their ass up

[@tempexrer5627]

It's really interesting how emojis can be read in different ways. I always read UwU as a look of disappointment. To me the downcast eyes and the scrunched up mouth had one of those "aw shucks" vibe to it when I saw it in the 2000s.

[@gh0st._.t0wn]

the best use of OwO is the slimsicle tweet

[@sasha-is-eepy]

based opinion

[@necrotoxin7366]

There was a point in time between like 2016-2019 where my friend group used uwu/owo/OwO/owu/awa as like. Tone indicators? It was before tone indicators got super popular online but we used them at the end of sentences to convey how we were speaking to eachother. No idea if other people did that though, and eventually uwu merged into tone indicators for me and my friends anyway

[@ethanlarge3572]

UwU Edit: the way Strange says “UwU” makes me feel happy feelings

[@TazzieVioletta]

This is the most "Strange AEon" video topic ever. If I only saw the title and not the channel name, I'd know it was your video haha

[@teddieprox2307]

Thanks for the video, yuval

[@LordZeebee]

having some firsthand experience of it's early uses i'm honestly a bit surprised that UwU in particular was the one to get mainstream recognition, always felt like OwO was faaaaaar more widespread

[@tartadecaca5852]

i will keep using uwu as an emoji because how else am i suppose to convey a tone of unserious softness

[@j.2512]

you need to project the soy in you

[@Blue_Caribou]

Honestly, I'm a history/linguistics nerd. This is right up my alley. That said... I feel like this is like the industrial revolution era of internet history... we need the *deep* history, Strange! How did the internet come to use kaomoji/emoticons? who was the first university intranet user of the 1980s to use :)? How did symbols-as-facial-expressions-in-text start, and how on earth did *that* breach containment? Please, the internet needs to know it's deepest lore!

[@Theonetheydontfear]

Hearing uwu is like hearing Cicero(Skyrim) after completing the main dark brotherhood quest

[@macaulayranch]

as an elder scrolls fan i don’t understand what this means but i do at the same time

[@bluwu3698]

probably somewhere around the 2012-2016 time i started kinda obsessively using uwu ironically for a variety of reasons, most often used to annoy my friends. over time it became unironic and even became a surprisingly large part of my personality online [don't look at my username]. now i hear it's getting a resurgence on tiktok?? amazing. i'm glad uwu has persisted this long, i hope it stays forever. on a tangential note, i think the early usage of uwu as more of a sad or pensive emote is really cool, and i think that aspect is still somewhat reflected through the way it was percieved as annoying or cringe. for me personally it gives off a vibe of cute and pathetic, and maybe even smug at times. i love uwu, truwy such a vewsetaiw emowte (UwU)/~💕

[@hellaradusername]

I remember seeing it on raver forums in the early 00's but it was fully ironic, like having a bunch of ascii characters before and after your username like ...,,;;;:::'."."."~0~0~kandy_krystal_sparkle_pony~0~0~".'.'.':::;;;,,,...

[@Vgn1701]

Strange giving us the answers to the important questions. Just the content I signed up for. /positive I think internet "word" etymologies are so interesting

[@annawesometheflameingpikac3688]

I can confirm my first interaction with UwU was that when I first was becoming internet aware circa 2013 my brothers would frequently tell me not to "be such an uwu" as short hand for "don't act particularly fandom/online"

[@AprilTheDoe]

If you're looking into like phrases used in internet culture the *inflates you making you big and round* rabbit hole might be deep enough to be interesting

[@realenzelad]

uwuing so hard rn

[@Jcsim13]

I was there for all these variants around 15 years ago. The good old days.

[@currentyearok]

love the new background

[@currentyearok]

keep it pls

[@jaredjensen1418]

I'm always so fascinated by the microcosms of cultural anthropology that we see with examples like this. Honestly I think experiencing stuff like this as I've gotten older is kinda what got me into etymology and all that. It's just so cool. Okay, so the one I really like, if you wanna look into it: It is Wednesday, My Dudes To my knowledge, started as the Wednesday Frog image, then circulated enough that the phrase became more well known, then was used in the popular (vine? Tik Tok? It's all a blur now) and very quickly began an upward tick in people casually saying "my dudes." I could be wrong but that's what I understand of it.