TWEE, Darwin and you.

[Inigo_Montoya]

Ok folks, I’ve seen the word “twee” tossed around here a bit lately. VERY lately. In fact so very lately that I just can’t help but wonder something…

You folks spewing “twee,” you don’t by any chance have a Discover magazine subscription, do you? :dubious:

[TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW]

“Twee” - as a UK slang for “cutesy” - goes back to at least the late seventies. What are you talking about?

[Evil_Captor]

@VCO3

“Twee” - as a UK slang for “cutesy” - goes back to at least the late seventies. What are you talking about?

I also get overtones of “precious” with it. It’s often applied to certain fantasy novels and stories where everything is just so … perfect in a wee little way.

[Frank]

@Inigo Montoya

You folks spewing “twee,” you don’t by any chance have a Discover magazine subscription, do you? :dubious:

I just read that article. “Twee” has been getting a lot of use here for three or four months. Perhaps you should ask if any of them are on Discover’s editorial staff?

[Jurph]

I first heard the term used to refer to a genre of indie pop. The idea is that the vocals sound almost like high school kids singing, and the lyrics are super-cute and sweet and softly emotional. The phrase “go to hell” might appear, but it could just as easily be “go to heck” to rhyme with “neck” or “tape deck.”

Imagine if you took the typical Emo commitment to openness about one’s emotions, and applied it to someone like Big Bird or Ernie from Sesame Street. The rhymes are simple, the lyrics are really basic, and the songs are catchy and poppy and no more than three minutes long.

@Salon.com

Twee kids listen to an emasculated version of rock ‘n’ roll. They don’t care much for sex or drugs. They favor puppy love over scary sex, prefer Japanese candy over beer and pot and like looking at postcards instead of going out into an intimidating, rainy world. They clad themselves in tight T-shirts with “Brady Bunch” stripes and mix-and-match corduroy. They wear unfortunate bedhead hairstyles and thick glasses rescued, almost always, from the bottom of a cardboard box at the local Lenscrafters.

Hope that fixes your wagon, kiddies.

[Terminus_Est]

I believe that word got life here when SkipMagic was pitted for being twee.

[Beware_of_Doug]

Big gween thing that gwows out of the gwound. Has woots and a twunk.

<wuns for wife>

[Revtim]

Can somebody give the gist of the Discover article so we know what your talking about?

[Frank]

@Revtim

Can somebody give the gist of the Discover article so we know what your talking about?

It was a riff at the beginning of an interview/profile of Richard Dawkins titled “Darwin’s Rottweiler”. Here is a link to the first few paragraphs, but they won’t help much.

[Revtim]

Thanks.

Funny, I actually have that issue and read that article, and thought of the SDMB when I read the word ‘twee’ there, but never made the connection.

[Monstre]

@Beware of Doug

Big gween thing that gwows out of the gwound. Has woots and a twunk.

<wuns for wife>

You fowgot about the bwanches and the weaves.

[roger_thornhill]

You must learn to face the truth, Inigo. LOTR is twee.

[Marley23]

@Jurph

Hope that fixes your wagon, kiddies.

That makes me feel like my wagon is in pretty good shape, compared to some people’s.