What is a Jejemon?

“3ow ph0w, mUsZtAh nA?”

“i wuD LLyK tO knOw moR3 bOut u. crE 2 t3ll mE yur N@me? jejejejeje!”

“d2 na me, wr n u? hr n aq s hrp!”

It’s not a fancy new code or shorthand (longhand?). We know this because it is not limited to personal notes, but is used in SMS or forums, and can be highly irritating. To distinguish and ridicule these people, majority of the people who have not succumbed to the jejespeak have labeled them “jejemons”

“So… what is a Jejemon?”, a Fil-Am friend who lives in San Francisco, asked me this afternoon. I didn’t think I’d ever have to define it because the term has been floating around for about a year now. “It’s hard,” I told him, “to define Jejemons without employing a condescending tone.”

Wikipedia defines it best: Jejemon (IPA: ['dʒɛdʒɛmon]) is a pop culture phenomenon in the Philippines. Jejemons are defined by Urban Dictionary as those “who has managed to subvert the English language to the point of incomprehensibility and online lynch squads.”[1] A Jejemon is described as one of a “new breed of hipsters who have developed not only their own language and written text but also their own sub-culture and fashion.”[2]

Etymology

The word “Jejemon” supposedly originated from online users’ penchant to type in “hehehe” as “jejeje”, either because “jeje” is derived from Spanish, whose speakers denote the interjection as laughter, or because the letters “h” and “j” are beside each other^[1], and that it is appended by “-mon” that came from the Japanese anime Pokémon,^[3] with “-mon” meant as “monster,” hence “jeje monsters.”^[4]

READ THE REST OF THE WIKI ENTRY HERE

Most sites have a tendency to describe them as “sub-species” ,  “retards”, “non-fictional hipsters“,”people with a low IQ“, “the most stupid people in the grammar world”, and dismissed as a fad, a phenomenon, idiocy.

Someone even made a diagram of An Anatomy of a Jejemon to understand these guys:

People have become so obsessed in their search for the definition of a jejemon, delving even deeper into the matter. There’s jejemon.com complete with a jejemon translator, jejemon dance videos, free jejemon emails, forums, etc. They’re mostly in forums, social networking sites and do they like their jejetalk and jejemonisms!

As a result,  Facebook groups have sprouted up making fun of the jejemons, one even called Jejebusters (pretty much like grammar Nazis), who supposedly equally irritate other people because of their, erm, hate. And despite the numbers of jejemons vs jejebusters vs apathetics, everyone’s writing and blogging about it,  very much like when the term “Jologs” came out 15 (?) years ago, and was common knowledge enough after 7 years that people made movies, books explaining Jolography, and a blogger made famous by his Know Your Jologs series (the pictures are hilarious!).

Jejemons = Jologs?

It is easy to mistake one for the other. For me, the difference is in the medium. A jejemon can be a jolog in cyberspace. A jolog can exist anywhere. You can only pretty much catch a jejemon in action once s/he speaks, rather, types.

“But,” says my friend, “isn’t that extremely elitist?”, after I told him it had to do with the sTicKy KeYs,  choice of language (taglish) and alphanumeric-ness. At first, I replied “People who insist on sounding like imbeciles get the beating they deserve”. Then, immediately regretted it.

It IS extremely elitist , especially when you begin to describe what Jologs (baduy; out of style; squatters) is. You think: they couldn’t possibly help how they dress if they’re not wealthy, urban-minded, or educated. If they can’t speak properly, engage in cultured conversations or give a shit about socio-civic events or politics, that truly isn’t their fault… is it?

Be that as it may, it is impossible not to see the ridiculousness of this photo (thanks NoisyNoisyMan):

especially when you see it turned to this:

Some tidbits:

Jejemon beat Ondoy as “Word of the Year”. Pinoy nga naman!

Want to speak jejemon via jejemon translator? If you are serious (or bored), click HERE.