I have friends who didn't know the term "stan" came from the Eminem song "Stan"
- Thread starter 808s & Villainy
- Start date
Surprised it hit #1 in some places. It is not a... bright happy song. I remember them playing it on video shows after school and how the usually cheering audience would be eerily quiet as hell after the video when the hosts came back on screen.
Jesus man, lol.
I'm never listened to a lot of Eminem growing up, even though it was in my prime time, but I do recall hearing a bit about this back then. Especially after watching the video.
"Saying 'what kind of an idiot doesn't know about the Yellowstone supervolcano' is so much more boring than telling someone about the Yellowstone supervolcano for the first time."
Kinda neat.
First time seeing this comic, and it is wonderful. What's even cooler is something I found on the site, when I long pressed the comic to save it, in that pop up menu there was additional text I couldn't find anywhere else in the page. It read:
"Saying 'what kind of an idiot doesn't know about the Yellowstone supervolcano' is so much more boring than telling someone about the Yellowstone supervolcano for the first time."
Kinda neat.
I knew the term "stan" came from Eminem's Stan. I didn't know Dido's bit in Eminem's Stan was actually sampled from one of her own songs.
I get to feel smug and silly simultaneously.
I get to feel smug and silly simultaneously.
I said "how's it hanging?" a lot before I thought oh that probably just means "how's your penis?"
I didn't stop saying it, but it's good to know.
OP
OP
Fair. These types of things usually come from a source, but it takes someone using them in a way that people latch onto and mimic to really blow up even more
To me, I had heard the Dido song many times before. In fact I had the album. I didn't feel the need to engage with the Eminem release, which is a pity because I only listened to the lyrics years later.
There's something to be said about catchphrases that become completely seperated from their context.
What does this even mean if you haven't seen the movie?
I didn't know this was the origin of the term despite being very familiar with the song. Interesting. This is likely to be the true legacy of Eminen when all is said and done.
This is such a great message, spoiled by the fact that this logic implies 100% of people have heard of *said thing* by age 30 (what xkcd is calling "by the time they're adults"). OP and co are early-to-mid 30s, I think xkcd is siding with OP here.
I think the use of "a Stan" as a derogatory term was
Damn, beaten. Yes, an iconic line from one of the most popular and influential diss tracks of all time made the term ubiquitous as an insult in the black community.
I believe a major factor is Ether by Nas that is what popularizes its use as an insult. So there's even an evolution from Eminem to insult.
Nas - Ether (Lyrics)
Artist/Group: NasAlbum: StillmaticReleased: 2001Label: Ill Will/Columbia--------------------------------------------------"Ether" is a diss song by hip hop r...www.youtube.com
Damn, beaten. Yes, an iconic line from one of the most popular and influential diss tracks of all time made the term ubiquitous as an insult in the black community.
Makes sense. It's easy not to care about etymology, and it's also easy to come up with some personal "folk etymology" about how a word came to be. e.g. "stan" is very similar to the word "fan," and also to "stand." Therefore the word came into being as a portmanteau of the two words, perhaps as a way of describing a loyal fan who will "stand" for the thing they are a fan of.
I figured it out pretty quickly the first time I heard it.
That said - it's such a stupid fucking term to use I roll my eyes when I hear people say it out loud.
Yah I'm older (Gen X) - get off my lawn and all that.
That said - it's such a stupid fucking term to use I roll my eyes when I hear people say it out loud.
Yah I'm older (Gen X) - get off my lawn and all that.
I'm 33, a fan of Eminem and this is the first i'm learning of it.
I'm guessing this is more common than OP expected cos I couldn't see so many people turning it into something many use as a term of endearment for things they're crazy about ("I'm an 'x" stan!) if it was.
Neat to know though!
I'm guessing this is more common than OP expected cos I couldn't see so many people turning it into something many use as a term of endearment for things they're crazy about ("I'm an 'x" stan!) if it was.
Neat to know though!
People were using the term as early as Ether when Nas called Jay Z one. That was 2001.
Fair enough. That's not something I would have been aware of. I've only ever seen it used here in the last few years.
Ether came out a decade after Stan?
Stan is a song about a guy named Stan who is an obsessive fan of Eminem.
Stan today means obsessive fan.
What's there to connect?
Eminem was super popular at that point in time and there's probably a lot of people that liked his music that didn't really understand what any of his lyrics meant. I didn't speak much English when Eminem first became popular and we were still going around singing Slim Shady stuff without understanding what we said!
I'm 47 and didn't know this. Had heard the song name and probably the song but never bothered to even consider trying to put 2 and 2 together.
I always assumed stan was a contraction of stand e.g. standing ovation or the idea of "standing for something like an idea or person". E.g. I stand for democracy becomes I stan for democracy.
I always assumed stan was a contraction of stand e.g. standing ovation or the idea of "standing for something like an idea or person". E.g. I stand for democracy becomes I stan for democracy.
wow! no I did not.
yeah, exactly. Em was the source, but one could argue that Nas made the usage of it become the colloquial term it is now
I'm 33, and never started listening to Eminem until this year, funnily enough after watching an Inside of You interview with Devon Sawa. Never heard the term growing up.
I dunno if it was ever confirmed but that was the common sentiment about the origin of the term
