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I have friends who didn't know the term "stan" came from the Eminem song "Stan"

j7vikes

j7vikes

Definitely not shooting blanks
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Jan 5, 2020
6,064
This isn't surprising. Although to me it seems like it came out yesterday it's headed towards 3 decades.

A holy cow I'm old moment for me recently was we hired someone named Norm who I think was in his mid 20's (he didn't last long with us) and I told him I thought Norm Macdonald was one of the most brilliant comedians ever.

He had no idea who he was and told me he would look his stuff up.
 
Hollywood Duo

Hollywood Duo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
42,908
j7vikes said:
This isn't surprising. Although to me it seems like it came out yesterday it's headed towards 3 decades.

A holy cow I'm old moment for me recently was we hired someone named Norm who I think was in his mid 20's (he didn't last long with us) and I told him I thought Norm Macdonald was one of the most brilliant comedians ever.

He had no idea who he was and told me he would look his stuff up.
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To be fair Norm was never that popular even in his hey day.
 
MoonlitSeer

MoonlitSeer

Fallen Guardian
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Jun 9, 2023
984
sph3re said:
Most people don't know most things.

...I know that sounds facetious, but I'm being serious. I'm constantly surprised at the innocuous things I have knowledge of that my peers don't.
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I remember once when American Gods released as a TV show I made a random comment about how cute the way Odin was named and some friends got super pissed off at me for spoiling it. Because to me it was obvious in the Wednesday = Odin connection (and the show goes out of its way to not hide that, in some ways more than the book), just because I knew the origin of the day's name. No one else but me knew that, though, which was shocking because I thought it was just common knowledge!
 
The Albatross

The Albatross

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Oct 25, 2017
39,377
I wouldn't have known this if I wasn't on Era, tbh. and I grew up when that song was a big hit, I just didn't see "stan" becoming a thing until at least a decade after that song, and then I thought that it would be to millennial-boomer of me to assume that a popular slang term today(ish) was coined from something from 20 years ago.

And then we had a thread here about it that the origin was that song, and I was like, well, shit, nice.
 
sph3re

sph3re

One Winged Slayer
Avenger
Oct 28, 2017
8,491
MoonlitSeer said:
I remember once when American Gods released as a TV show I made a random comment about how cute the way Odin was named and some friends got super pissed off at me for spoiling it. Because to me it was obvious in the Wednesday = Odin connection (and the show goes out of its way to not hide that, in some ways more than the book), just because I knew the origin of the day's name. No one else but me knew that, though, which was shocking because I thought it was just common knowledge!
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Case in point: I didn't even know this until I read the book. Even in this thread, there are things that are common knowledge that aren't even that common! 😂
 
Hollywood Duo

Hollywood Duo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
42,908
MoonlitSeer said:
I remember once when American Gods released as a TV show I made a random comment about how cute the way Odin was named and some friends got super pissed off at me for spoiling it. Because to me it was obvious in the Wednesday = Odin connection (and the show goes out of its way to not hide that, in some ways more than the book), just because I knew the origin of the day's name. No one else but me knew that, though, which was shocking because I thought it was just common knowledge!
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Don't tell them about Thursday
 
j7vikes

j7vikes

Definitely not shooting blanks
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Jan 5, 2020
6,064
Hollywood Duo said:
To be fair Norm was never that popular even in his hey day.
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Yeah I just figured at least where I'm from Norm is not a common name at all so someone else might have brought it up to him before.

I mean I'm 40 and lived in Kansas my whole life and that's only the second person I met with the name. I figured surely an uncle, teacher, or someone said something like that to him.
 
Layla

Layla

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Oct 25, 2017
1,820
along similar lines it always amused me that 4Ch@n type chuds seemed to be unaware that their favorite phrases "based" and "red pilled" came from a black man and two trans women, the two groups they seem to hate the most.
 
Garp TXB

Garp TXB

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Apr 1, 2020
6,383
That's how language works, the origins start to fade away and it doesn't really matter unless you're on a trivia game show
 
GoodGrief

GoodGrief

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Jan 24, 2024
961
This is why I've always hated the term, people proudly declaring themselves stans without a hint of irony, even though the song calls out exactly that kind of person.
 
Herne

Herne

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Dec 10, 2017
5,377
I didn't know it was a word until it was used in all seriousness in a South Park episode.

Well, as serious as a South Park episode can get.
 
BearPawB

BearPawB

I'm a fan of the erotic thriller genre
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Oct 25, 2017
4,005
I still find the "the movie the bucket list invented the concept of the bucket list" more surprising
 
Mr. Floyd

Mr. Floyd

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Apr 30, 2023
556
NZ
GoodGrief said:
This is why I've always hated the term, people proudly declaring themselves stans without a hint of irony, even though the song calls out exactly that kind of person.
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To be fair, fan comes from fanatic and that hardly has positive connotations. Meanings of words change all the time depending on usage.
 
josaka

josaka

Member
Dec 20, 2017
92
I mean, we're not too far from kids entering high school who never got to witness LMFAO.
 
SilverArrow20XX

SilverArrow20XX

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Oct 25, 2017
5,568
Didn't know.
I suspect pretty much everybody who doesn't listen to Eminem also doesn't know unless someone else told them.
 
Dyle

Dyle

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
30,310
Nah everyone knows it was because of all the rabid fans of Flat Stanley. Post offices were overwhelmed with crowds every time that slim, shady guy was set to pop out of an envelope after some globetrotting adventure. Dozens of people were trampled to death in the height of Flat Fever and those who continued to adore Flat Stanley were called stans
 
OrangeKnight

OrangeKnight

Member
May 8, 2023
332
Spinluck said:
I knew that only because I looked it up years ago.

I'm kinda surprised more people don't look up memes or slang and just use it lol.
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yeah this actually surprises me haha. Of course a lot of people don't know where something comes from....but there is Google haha.

I mean I had to look up capping / no cap
 

IAmFromSpace

Member
May 11, 2023
81
I'm 33 and only knew because I looked it up a couple years ago. I wasn't very into Eminem, so I hadn't even heard the song when I first started seeing the term being used.
 
Revoltoftheunique

Revoltoftheunique

Member
Jan 23, 2022
1,689
I wonder if they listen to rap? Because I don't and the only reason I know is because that song was popular back then. Similar to BBL Drizzy now lol.
 
DBT85

DBT85

Resident Thread Mechanic
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Oct 26, 2017
16,568
Jarmel said:
I didn't make the connection until somebody pointed it out like 5 years ago.
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This is me.

Though to be fair never in my life had I heard the word stan used like that so naturally why would I know it. It wasn't until it was Era's word of the month where everyone and everything was "stanning" for something that I bothered to look it up.
 
Gelf

Gelf

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,402
I didn't notice the connection until I saw it pointed out a few years back despite the fact I know the track very well.

I'm completely oblivious to slang the vast majority of the time, even when I was a kid and exposed to new terms more often I tended to feel like the last to know the meaning, let along the origin. Would have been nice to have Urban Dictionary as a teen.
 
Horns

Horns

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Dec 7, 2018
2,662
Til for me to. Had no clue. That song is like 20 years old and never put that together
 
Dangerblade

Dangerblade

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,741
Black_Stride said:
Theres no way thats accurate.
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I can make it even worse if you want.

Go back to the year 2000. You're using this young and hip slang term with no care of the origins of it; you hear of some widely-accepted origin and take it as the truth. Somebody points out to you that "Actually, that term comes from this thing from 1976..." You roll your eyes, Pfft, what a dinosaur!

We are the dinosaurs.
 
Paquete_PT

Paquete_PT

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
5,455
Yes, I have a friend as well, and by friend I mean me, I didn't know that. Holy hell! And I know that song really well, just never made the connection
 
Glimlocker

Glimlocker

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Mar 7, 2019
3,662
Empire of the Inland Realm, USA
Never liked Eminem and never listened to his stuff. After skipping through that song, I like that one even less than his other songs.
I'm getting a bit old, never knew this.

How does this Stan mean the current stan - I'm having trouble connecting those two?
 
Nooblet

Nooblet

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,736
I thought it may have been the origin but didn't really think twice about it.
So I'm not entirely surprised.
 
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