# How does it sound to be born out of a hermit crab? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 12, 2018, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-it-sound-to-be-born-out-of-a-hermit-crab/815983 "2018-06-12T18:16:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-it-sound-to-be-born-out-of-a-hermit-crab/815983/1 "2018-06-12T18:16:46Z")
I’m trying to make sense of [this](https://www.rawstory.com/2018/06/racist-woman-goes-bonkers-florida-nail-salon-sounds-like-born-fcking-hermit-crab/) insult. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-it-sound-to-be-born-out-of-a-hermit-crab/815983/2 "2018-06-12T18:47:33Z")
Wow! There’s a lot of flavours of crazy going on in that report: > [@](#): > > “I just wanted to come over here tell them they don’t deserve to be treated the way that they were from that lady, or for anyone else for that matter,” said Jennifer Verge. > “God just spoke to me and told me to bring him what he didn’t get from the lady because he got gypped when he’s supposed to be paid for the work that he did and that’s unacceptable.” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-it-sound-to-be-born-out-of-a-hermit-crab/815983/3 "2018-06-12T18:53:53Z")
Korea was sometimes called the Hermit Kingdom because it was relatively isolated from the Western world. (This nickname is still sometimes used for North Korea). So maybe calling a Korean person a hermit crab is a reference to this? Or maybe it’s something a crazy person would say. For what it’s worth, the woman she was calling a hermit crab is named Vu, which means her family probably came from Vietnam not Korea. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-it-sound-to-be-born-out-of-a-hermit-crab/815983/4 "2018-06-12T19:22:54Z")
_“I can name that tune in Three Racial Slurs, George!”_ ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-it-sound-to-be-born-out-of-a-hermit-crab/815983/5 "2018-06-13T00:22:33Z")
> [@naita](#): > > Wow! There’s a lot of flavours of crazy going on in that report: > > > [@](#): > > > > “I just wanted to come over here tell them they don’t deserve to be treated the way that they were from that lady, or for anyone else for that matter,” said Jennifer Verge. > > “God just spoke to me and told me to bring him what he didn’t get from the lady because he got gypped when he’s supposed to be paid for the work that he did and that’s unacceptable.” I’m guessing Jennifer doesn’t realize that “gypped” is an anti-Roma slur? (I’m still embarrassed by how long it took _me_ to find that out). ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-it-sound-to-be-born-out-of-a-hermit-crab/815983/6 "2018-06-13T00:31:19Z")
Forget it, Jake. It’s Florida. ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-it-sound-to-be-born-out-of-a-hermit-crab/815983/7 "2018-06-13T13:24:57Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > I’m guessing Jennifer doesn’t realize that “gypped” is an anti-Roma slur? (I’m still embarrassed by how long it took _me_ to find that out). I am pretty sure a lot of people don’t know that. The Roma don’t have a large presence in Florida. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2018, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-it-sound-to-be-born-out-of-a-hermit-crab/815983/8 "2018-06-14T15:51:46Z")
Hermit crabs make a creaky chirping sound. It’s rather high pitched. Perhaps she was saying that the manicurist’s voice combined with the phonemes of the language she was speaking sounded like chirpy gibberish to her. But seriously, there are better ways to describe the cadence of a foreign language than likening it to a hermit crab. That person is a real piece. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2018, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-it-sound-to-be-born-out-of-a-hermit-crab/815983/9 "2018-06-14T16:25:44Z")
> [@Serenata67](#): > > Hermit crabs make a creaky chirping sound. It’s rather high pitched. Perhaps she was saying that the manicurist’s voice combined with the phonemes of the language she was speaking sounded like chirpy gibberish to her. Huh. [I learned something today;](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=hermit+crab+sounds) thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2018, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-it-sound-to-be-born-out-of-a-hermit-crab/815983/10 "2018-06-14T17:00:50Z")
New to me, too, and I’ve owned hermit crabs. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2018, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-it-sound-to-be-born-out-of-a-hermit-crab/815983/11 "2018-06-14T21:32:54Z")
My husband (back before we were married) had hermit crabs. One night, I fell asleep in the living room – where he kept the crabs – and when I woke, I heard this weird, high pitched noise. Kinda freaked me out in my half-awake state. Finally woke up enough to realize that it was his stinking hermit crabs. (And I mean stinking literally.)