Freakazoids, netizens, and yuppies

Ha. I just called steve one of those things.

There was a competing acronym, “yumpie”, at the same time.  That was for Young Upwardly Mobile Professionals.

Hymie, n. By 1984, the familiar form of the Jewish personal name Hyman is being used as a derogatory term for Jews in general.

HDAS cites it from 1973.

Just curious, was “Hymie” a black thing, like “Gober” in Bonfire of the Vanities?  Or was it a Chicago thing?  I confess that in my Metro-NYC life I hadn’t heard it before Jesse Jackson got himself in all that hot water in 1984 with “Hymie” for Jews and “Hymietown” for New York City.  I remember thinking of Hymie the Robot from the 1960’s comedy Get Smart, and thinking the character’s name must have been an inside joke.

I don’t think Hymie is specifically African American, nor is it particularly regional.

I too considered Get Smart when I was writing up the entry. I concluded that since the derogatory use didn’t appear for another fifteen years Brooks was just making a joke about a Jewish robot, and that Hymie the Robot was hypocoristic rather than derogatory. But given the 1973 cite in HDAS, it may be that Brooks was doing a bit of reclaiming of the name which was edging into derogatory use.