# Devo's "Whip it" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 24, 2005, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devos-whip-it/332523 "2005-11-24T01:18:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Diamonds02](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5a626/32.png) [@Diamonds02](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diamonds02)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devos-whip-it/332523/1 "2005-11-24T01:18:47Z")
What is the meaning of this song? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devos-whip-it/332523/2 "2005-11-24T01:21:53Z")
Masturbation is the generally accepted meaning. ---
**Author:** ![Diamonds02](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5a626/32.png) [@Diamonds02](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diamonds02)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devos-whip-it/332523/3 "2005-11-24T01:28:37Z")
I thought so! No wonder why my Christian friends were rolling their eyes at me a couple of weeks ago. Everyone starting belting out 80’s songs. Then I starting singing “whip it”. They were like :rolleyes: :o :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devos-whip-it/332523/4 "2005-11-24T01:33:08Z")
> [@Diamonds02](#): > > They were like :rolleyes: :o :dubious: Yeah. We all know good Christians don’t masturbate. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devos-whip-it/332523/5 "2005-11-24T01:33:24Z")
Don’t tell him what “Turning Japanese” is about!! ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devos-whip-it/332523/6 "2005-11-24T01:40:49Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Don’t tell him what “Turning Japanese” is about!! Or _Blister In The Sun_. ---
**Author:** ![clnilsen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecccb3/32.png) [@clnilsen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clnilsen)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devos-whip-it/332523/7 "2005-11-24T01:50:51Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > Masturbation is the generally accepted meaning. And yet that’s NOT what it actually means. The phrase comes from something Mark Mothersbaugh’s father (lead singer for Devo, and Brother to Bob1) said growing up. Basically it’s what the lyrics actually say… When a Problem comes along - you must Whip It. ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devos-whip-it/332523/8 "2005-11-24T01:51:25Z")
It’s actual a parody of 80’s style self-help slogans. Made even more meaningless because they’re so devoid of context. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devos-whip-it/332523/9 "2005-11-24T01:56:00Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Don’t tell him what “Turning Japanese” is about!! VH1 had a short-lived series concerning song meanings. The guy who wrote this song (he was a music-biz lawyer) said it had nothing to do with masturbating. He said it was about the confusing feelings of being in love. Most people don’t believe him. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devos-whip-it/332523/10 "2005-11-24T01:57:08Z")
> [@Menocchio](#): > > It’s actual a parody of 80’s style self-help slogans. Made even more meaningless because they’re so devoid of context. And you can’t spell “devoid” without “Devo”! ---
**Author:** ![Brainiac4](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brainiac4/32/3534_2.png) [@Brainiac4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brainiac4)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devos-whip-it/332523/11 "2005-11-24T01:57:16Z")
Masturbation may be the generally accepted meaning but that does not mean it’s the actual meaning. From [Songfacts](http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=722) : > [@Gerald V. Casale](#): > > "Whip It, like many Devo songs, had a long gestation, a long process. The lyrics were written by me as an imitation of Thomas Pynchon’s parodies in his book Gravity’s Rainbow. He had parodied limericks and poems of kind of all-American, obsessive, cult of personality ideas like Horatio Alger and ‘You’re #1, there’s nobody else like you’ kind of poems that were very funny and very clever. I thought, ‘I’d like to do one like Thomas Pynchon,’ so I wrote down ‘Whip It’ one night. I’ve never thought of it as being about masturbation… which, of course, doesn’t mean that it _isn’t_. And I was 15 when Freedom of Choice was released – prime masturbation age. 😃 For reference, the chorus is > [@](#): > > now whip it > into shape > shape it up > get straight > go forward > move ahead > try to detect it > it’s not too late > to whip it Which doesn’t seem to reference masturbation. Just my $02. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devos-whip-it/332523/12 "2005-11-24T02:38:15Z")
I’m still trying to get my head around She Bop. To this day I don’t know, nor care, what the lyrics are. I always thought it was a throw-away\* dance hit. Who knew? - I almost wrote toss-off, but that would likely degrade this thread into something dirty and vile. And we all want to keep this cerebral, right? Right?!? [sub]What?[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devos-whip-it/332523/13 "2005-11-24T04:13:13Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > I’m still trying to get my head around She Bop. To this day I don’t know, nor care, what the lyrics are. I always thought it was a throw-away\* dance hit. Who knew? a) Anybody who listened to Cyndi Lauper going around proclaiming to everyone in sight that she wrote a song about female masturbation? b) Anybody who listened to the lyrics? c) Anybody? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devos-whip-it/332523/14 "2005-11-24T04:58:30Z")
21 years later, I can still remember that crazy song They say I gotta get a chaperone ‘Cause I can’t stop messin’ with my danger zone ---
**Author:** ![Albert\_Rose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Albert\_Rose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Albert_Rose)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devos-whip-it/332523/15 "2005-11-24T05:10:49Z")
Gonna take a ride into the _DANGER ZONE_! ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devos-whip-it/332523/16 "2005-11-24T05:24:27Z")
Wanna hear something really disturbing? “She-bop” came out about the time I was in 7th-8th grade at a Catholic school back home. In one of our 8th grade music classes, our priest music teacher deconstructed the song for us! From what “Blueboy magazine” was to what she was supposedly doing… Of course, I’m also the person who was taught the guitar chords and words to “House of the Rising Sun” by Sister Placida… ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devos-whip-it/332523/17 "2005-11-24T05:55:07Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > Or _Blister In The Sun_. Or _Dancin’ With Myself_ ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/devos-whip-it/332523/18 "2005-11-24T06:29:50Z")
Or _I Touch Myself_ by the Divinyls … .