In this episode, Meredith uses the phrase "LOL" during pillow talk with Hank. This clearly—and rightly—disturbs Hank, as it would any writer, so he divulges his gross feelings towards the use of such abbreviations, and credits them as murderers of the English language. Meredith then argues that he shouldn't let something so trivial get in the way of the best "BJ" of his life. Of course, he’s not a fan of the term "BJ" either. (Same here.)

LOL, LMAO, OMG, TGTBT, TTYS, TTYL, WTF, BRB, BTW… these are just some of the abbreviations often used in email and in text messages (or "txt msgs"). I've listed these ones, because I've personally used them in my online written history at some point or another. But why do I keep doing it? It really is easier to say that something is hilarious by writing "LOL" instead of "that's funny" or "I'm laughing," right? Everyone gets that! But Joe Randazzo, editor of The Onion, takes a more Hank-ian approach on the damaging effects of such expressions in today's cultural lexicon. From the Washington Post:

What used to be an amusing byproduct of Internet use has mutated into something horrible: an insatiable parasite that impairs its host's judgment, rendering it totally useless… Once an "enjoyable thing" becomes a "meme," we stop enjoying the thing for its own sake, but consume and regurgitate our enjoyment of it as a symbol of hipness, as if to say: "I am aware of this thing's popularity -- therefore I, too, exist!" 

And it's getting worse, as today's youth come up with endless ways to express themselves that would read as a foreign language to others. Twitter has made this trend even more prominent—and public—as full thoughts and feelings must be contained to 140 characters or less, but are posted online for all to see.
 
Check out webopedia.com and you'll see HUNDREDS of abbreviations for texting, and even a Twitter Dictionary. I don't know what's more disturbing: that I'm starting to pick up on abbreviations that I've never seen before (WIBAMU?!) or that there's a Twitter Dictionary.
 
To paraphrase Hank, are we killing the English language? Are people becoming stupider? Or, must we accept this as human beings forging ahead in our dialectical evolution?

Let's check back in a hundred years.

Written by Angela Tosse

Hank's Ranks for Week 5 is not as strong as we'd hoped, but he managed to get in the sack twice this week at his house. We're including the "BJ" as sex, because... it totally counts.