Do jewish people really say this? I don’t have any jewish friends, but I get the impression from TV that its a common word. If you’re Jewish is it something that you are taught, does it mean something?
My partner is jewish and his family will say that when they get into their “jewish characters”. I don’t know of a better way to say that, but it’s a bit of play acting and they start speaking in English/Yiddish and say “Oy! It’s a shaundah”(Sp?)
My paternal grandparents are Swedish and I grew up saying “uff da” all the time and I got it from them so I’m guessing that it’s similar.
Thanks ASAK, interesting article. So I would use it like “Oy, the boards have gone down!”.
Try, “Oy, vey ismir! The boards kaput!”
Well, I’m Jewish, and I never say “oy”. None of the other Jews i know say “oy”. In fact, everybody I’ve ever met who says “oy” is a gentile. I know an evangelical Christian who uses it in every other sentence, like Canadians say “eh?”. Also, I only use my SUV for hauling loaded horse trailers. 
Okay … that was my Doperland response. In reality, yes, many Jews say “oy”, sometimes when they’re in their “Jewish character” as stpauler describes, sometimes as a substitute for a grunt ot sigh, sometimes under other situations. It’s not something we say all the time, but it’s all that uncommon.
My father grew up in a Yiddish-speaking houseshold, and he mostly uses “oy” in vocalizing a grunt or sigh, but that’s about it. He doesn’t go around as if acting a part in a Mel Brooks movie and saying it at every opportunity.
Yes, we Jews really do say this. It’s kind of an all-purpose exclamation of unhappiness. “Oy vey” is the long form, but “oy” alone does a fine enough job of punctuating the statement that follows with the correct emotional flavor.
It’s not something you’re “taught”, it’s something you pick up from the adults around you.
I say it, but I’m not Jewish. My mom’s mom was Yiddish and said it quite a bit, I guess. My mom says “Oy vey” or “Oy-yoi-yoi” to express frustration, disappointment, annoyance. I got it from her.
Television has misled you. People say it way more in real life than they do on TV. At least around here.
And we might as well compile a list of oy-related words and expressions. I’ll start:
Oy!
Oy oy oy!
Oy vey!
Oy vey ist mir!
Oy gevalt!
Gevalt!
Goodness gracious! The members of the tribe certainly do have a lot of ways of expressing unhappiness! Apparently, we have tsuris…
Oogie oogie oogie?
Wait, that can’t be right…
I have a Jewish client with an “OY!” tattoo.
“Oy Vey” is Pig Latin for “Voy”
I’m Jewish. I say “oy.” All of the Jews I know say “oy.” It’s a non-obscene, non-offensive, non-oath interjection. “Oy vey iz mir! My ring went down the disposal!” not “Fuck! fuck! fucking Jesus fucking Christ! My ring went down the disposal!”
Another Jewish ‘oy’-speaker here. Also, ‘oy vey!’ and ‘oy gevalt’. My English friends are quizzical, I like to keep them on their toes 
As Leo Rosten so nicely summed it up: Oy is not a word. Oy is a vocabulary.
I picked it up from the orthodox Jewish family that semi-adopted me when I was in college. My favorite variants are “oy” and “oy gevalt”. I almost never say “oy vey”.
Heck, assumedly gentile Eddie Grant even whips “Oy!” out in his 1982 hit “Electric Avenue”.
I’m not even Jewish, I’m just from NYC. I have said Oy for as long as I can remember. I say it way more often than my Jewish wife. I use *oy vey * very often.
Oy is popular among both Jews and non-Jews in NYC for sure. Yiddish slang is rather popular in general in NYC - a local newspaper recently ranked the 23rd Street crosstown bus as “the Schleppiest” without having to define that term for the local audience. (Adjectivization of the Yiddish word “schlep” = an exhausting and/or aggravating journey (“Getting to LaGuardia airport on the bus is a real schlep. Next time I’ll splurge on a cab.”)). It strikes me that Yiddish contains many useful words to describe mild aggravation and/or inconvenience, states that New Yorkers live in nearly perpetually.
“Oy” speaker, NYC resident, Jew.
It is very important not to confuse “Oy, oy, oy!” with its homonym, “Oi oi oi!!”
VERY important.