"snap"

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Wed Apr 8 14:08:35 UTC 2009


-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain





On Wed, Apr 8, 2009 at 9:50 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> That sounds like the "in-your-face" literal finger-snap. A great
> example is shown in the old, 1976, neo-blaxploitation movie, Car Wash,
> in which Antonio "Huggy Bear/Saran Saranwrap" Fargas plays a gay
> carwasher. When one of the straight carwashers tries to gay-bash him
> metaphorically, Fargas replies:
>
> "I'm more *man* than you will ever *be* and and more *woman* than you
> will ever *get*! [Snap!!!]
>
> In this case, the snap is literally an in-yo-face finger-snap in the
> other carwasher's face, emphasizing the fact that he's been joned
> with/downed and challenging him to *try* to compose a comeback.
>
> But jones such as this one have no comeback. In the movie, the
> would-be basher simply says nothing, as would be the case in real
> life, there being nothing to say. When someone puts his back up
> against the wall, draws his guns, and fires on yo' ass, gunning you
> out the saddle like that, ain't nothing you *can* do, bisSEP grin 'n'
> bear it..
>
> -Wilson

PS. I forgot to note that the original phrase was "in-yo'-face
disgrace," popularized by, if not  actually coined by, Darryl
"Chocolate Thunder" Dawkins, as the name of one of his many dunk
shots. -W.
> –––
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -----
> -Mark Twain
>
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Apr 8, 2009 at 8:20 AM, Amy West <medievalist at w-sts.com> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM>
>> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: "snap"
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Perhaps related, perhaps not: I've seen references to some African
>> American folklore collections by Smitherman titled _Snaps_ and
>> _Double Snaps_ related to playing the dozens. Witty
>> comebacks/put-downs?
>>
>> I've heard my kids talk about the use of "snap": they don't use it,
>> but classmates do. It's used it to mark/emphasize/punctuate a
>> zinger/put-down. Much like below. But not just in gay culture. My
>> kids associate it with girls in their classes. I don't think I've
>> heard it around campus in passing.
>>
>> I've read, but haven't heard, that the one that is used in the Boston
>> area is "salted!" See recent BG Magazine article.
>>
>> ---Amy West
>>
>>>Date: Â  Â Tue, 7 Apr 2009 11:01:38 -0700
>>>From: Â  Â Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
>>>Subject: Re: "snap"
>>>
>>>On Apr 6, 2009, at 7:16 PM, Mark Mandel wrote:
>>>
>>>> Â ...
>>>> Â This question is addressed especially to Wilson, because it's in his
>>>> Â posts
>>>> Â that I remember seeing it, but of course it's open to anyone. What's
>>>> Â with
>>>> Â the written / (spoken?) interjection "Snap!"?
>>>
>>>
>>>from the Urban Dictionary under "snap" (entry 31):
>>>
>>>Pertaining to the Gay snap culture in the 80's. It's used to puncuate
>>>an insult by snapping the fingers. Today it's used mostly by the young
>>>black culture
>>>
>>>Girl, I saw your weave at Kmart...OH SNAP (*snaps fingers*)
>>> Â  .....
>>>
>>>check out the "In Living Color" "Men on X" sketches (beginning with
>>>"Men on Film"), in which Damon Wayans and David Alan Grier play two
>>>flamboyantly effeminate gay men reviewing films, tv, etc. Â almost
>>>every sketch had finger-snapping accompanying the opinions.
>>>
>>>arnold
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
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>>
>

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