🕷️ Crawler Inspector

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Raw Queries and Responses

1. Shard Calculation

Query:

Response:

Calculated Shard: 21 (from laksa163)

2. Crawled Status Check

Query:

curl -X POST \
  'http://laksa021.int.ahrefs:8124/' \
  -H 'Content-Type: text/plain' \
  -H 'X-ClickHouse-Database: crawler3' \
  -H 'Authorization: Basic YXBpOg==' \
  -d 'SELECT getAhrefsURLFromUnparsed(src_unparsed) AS found_url, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(download_stamp), 0) AS crawl_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(props_url_first_seen), 0) AS first_indexed_time, download_http_code AS http_code, src_unparsed AS src_unparsed, src_root_hash AS src_root_hash, history_drop_reason AS history_drop_reason, meta_title AS meta_title, meta_descriptions AS meta_descriptions, attrs_boilerpipe_text AS attrs_boilerpipe_text, attrs_markdown AS attrs_markdown, attrs_readable_markdown AS attrs_readable_markdown, meta_canonical AS meta_canonical, ml_categories_json AS ml_categories_json, ml_types_json AS ml_types_json, ml_intent_types_json AS ml_intent_types_json, meta_language AS meta_language, attrs_author AS attrs_author, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(attrs_publish_time), 0) AS attrs_publish_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(attrs_original_publish_time), 0) AS attrs_original_publish_time, ifNull(attrs_is_republished, 0) AS attrs_is_republished, ifNull(attrs_nr_words, 0) AS attrs_nr_words, ifNull(attrs_boilerpipe_nr_words, 0) AS attrs_boilerpipe_nr_words, ifNull(body_ext_links_number, 0) AS body_ext_links_number, ifNull(body_int_links_number, 0) AS body_int_links_number, ifNull(meta_nofollow, 0) AS meta_nofollow, ifNull(meta_noarchive, 0) AS meta_noarchive, ifNull(props_was_rendered, 0) AS props_was_rendered, ifNull(src_redirect, \'\') AS src_redirect, ifNull(download_time_msec, 0) AS download_time_msec, ifNull(download_ttfb_msec, 0) AS download_ttfb_msec, ifNull(download_size, 0) AS download_size FROM crawler3.page_info_local FINAL PREWHERE (src_root_hash, src_unparsed) IN ((getAhrefsRootHashFromUnparsed(getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/lets-go-brandon-biden-linguistics/620652/\')), getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/lets-go-brandon-biden-linguistics/620652/\'))) FORMAT JSONEachRow'

Response:

{"found_url":"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2021\/11\/lets-go-brandon-biden-linguistics\/620652\/","crawl_time":1776288810,"first_indexed_time":1636459972,"http_code":200,"src_unparsed":"com,theatlantic!www,\/ideas\/archive\/2021\/11\/lets-go-brandon-biden-linguistics\/620652\/ s443","src_root_hash":"13119341252700813021","history_drop_reason":null,"meta_title":"A Linguist's Defense of ‘Let's Go, Brandon’ - The Atlantic","meta_descriptions":["The anti-Biden meme is meaner than your grandfather’s shoot<\/em> or heck. <\/em>It also offers a fascinating view of how language changes."],"attrs_boilerpipe_text":"I know how I am supposed to feel about “Let’s go, Brandon”: Mocking the president this way is uncivil, a sign of the collapse of once-routine public courtesy, etc., etc. How I really feel about it, though, is that it’s fascinatingly serendipitous, seriously funny, and intriguingly fecund. From that one meme, others are being born.\nLast month, an NBC reporter interviewing the victorious NASCAR driver Brandon Brown heard\nfans in the stands chanting “Fuck Joe Biden”\nin lustily contemptuous unison. The reporter insisted to viewers that the fans were in fact chanting “Let’s go, Brandon.” This improvisation made no sense. Brown had won, so why would anyone cheer him on by saying “Let’s go!” after he’d just accomplished quite a bit of going? Since then, Biden’s detractors have adopted “Let’s go, Brandon” as a kind of in-group salute—a coded way of saying, well, the other thing. The meme has\nfound its way\nonto T-shirts, masks, signs at other sporting events, the House floor, and (reportedly) airplane intercoms, and was parodied this weekend in an\nonline video from\nSaturday Night Live\n.\nInterestingly, despite its very American origins, the catchphrase is rather South African. Stay with me: In traditional societies there, such as in Zulu and Xhosa communities, a woman marrying into a family shows respect by refraining from using any words that sound like her husband’s or in-laws’ names and subbing in other words. Imagine if someone married William Green, the son of Robert Green, and instead of saying, “She will not eat green yogurt,” had to say, “She refuses to eat grass-colored yo-mix”—because\nwill\nand\ngreen\nare her husband’s names and the second half of\nyogurt\nsounds like the end of\nRobert\n. The practice is called\nhlonipha\n, and “Let’s go, Brandon” is a coy substitution of the same kind.\nConor Friedersdorf: The fight against words that sound like, but are not, slurs\nHowever, the anti-Biden euphemism is of a meaner tone. This is not your grandfather’s\ndarn\n,\nheck\n,\nshoot\n, or\nfudge\n. Those are polite terms, expressed without the teeth-baring ardor of the words they stand in for, imaginable as things that\ncharacters played by Edie McClurg\nmight say in ’80s movies such as\nFerris Bueller’s Day Off\n. “Let’s go, Brandon” springs from the mangier, madder place of euphemisms such as\nsnafu\n—which during World War II everyone in the American military knew was an acronym for “situation normal, all fucked up”—or right-wingers’ dismissal of conservatives who do not toe the party line as\ncuckservatives\n, rooted in the word\ncuckold\n.\nThose who dislike seeing President Biden’s name used disparagingly should welcome the latest development: People on the left are declaring “Thank you, Brandon” in praise of the administration’s accomplishments thus far. We are witnessing the birth of a diagonal reference to Biden that signals a defense of him from the slurs of the right.\nBrandon\ncould well take its place as one of those bemusingly opaque code names such as\nYeezy\nfor Kanye West or\nBoz\nfor Charles Dickens—or as one of those pseudonyms that some members of Congress direct their staff to use for them when talking about work in social settings. (A friend of mine who worked on Capitol Hill in the late 1980s referred to her boss as “Bubo,” lest eavesdroppers in public spaces pick up insider gossip about congressional business.)\nWe might simply embrace that sentiments will differ about this Brandon person in exactly the same way as they do about, well, Biden. Calling him Brandon when dissing him could be seen as a kind of American\nhlonipha\n. And yet, in elite circles, one senses a bifurcation:\nBrandon\nis warm and wise when preceded by\nThank you\nbut an unacceptable epithet coming from Republicans.\nFew of the commentators who\ndecried the supposed vitriol and vulgarity\nof “Let’s go, Brandon” appear to mind Democrats’ attempt to repurpose the race-car driver’s name. The tacit idea would seem to be that when the left throws shade, it counts as speaking truth to power and is thus okay. Until the late ’80s,\nsome people on the left used\npolitically correct\nunironically to suggest, without saying so, that right-wing views are inherently and incontestably wrong. The designation of conservatives outside Democratic enclaves as “\ndeplorables\n” didn’t come from the right, either.\nRead: When deplorability is no longer a dealbreaker\nOverall, “Let’s go, Brandon” is simply fascinating. A time traveler from 2019 would have been mystified at the bewigged people going as\nKaren\nthis Halloween (I saw two) as well as those in mustaches going as Ted Lasso (of which I also saw two). In the same way, think how utterly opaque “Let’s go, Brandon” would be to a time traveler from just Labor Day. The meme is a wild, woolly kink in the intersection of language, politics, wit, and creativity, and is a prime example of why\nlanguage change\nis a spectator sport.","attrs_markdown":"[Skip to content](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2021\/11\/lets-go-brandon-biden-linguistics\/620652\/#main-content)\n\n## Site Navigation\n- [Popular](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/most-popular\/)[Latest](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/latest\/)[Newsletters](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/newsletters\/)\n \n ## Sections\n - [Ideas](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/)\n - [Politics](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/politics\/)\n - [Economy](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/economy\/)\n - [Global](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/international\/)\n - [National Security](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/national-security\/)\n - [Washington Week](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/category\/washington-week-atlantic\/)\n - [Features](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/category\/features\/)\n - [Technology](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/technology\/)\n - [AI Watchdog](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/category\/ai-watchdog\/)\n - [Science](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/science\/)\n - [Planet](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/projects\/planet\/)\n - [Health](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/health\/)\n - [Philosophy](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/category\/philosophy\/)\n - [Education](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/education\/)\n - [Culture](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/culture\/)\n - [Comedy](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/category\/comedy\/)\n - [Family](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/family\/)\n - [Books](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/books\/)\n - [Fiction](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/category\/fiction\/)\n - [Photography](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/photo\/)\n - [Events](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/atlantic-across-america\/)\n \n - [![](https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/_next\/static\/images\/nav-archive-promo-5541b02ae92f1a9276249e1c6c2534ee.png)Explore The Atlantic Archive](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/archive\/)\n - [![games promo icon](https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/media\/games\/games_promo_color.png)Play The Atlantic Games](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/games\/)\n - [Listen to Podcasts and Articles](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/audio\/)\n \n ## The Print Edition\n [![View the current print edition](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/images\/current-issue.420.jpg)](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/)\n \n [Latest Issue](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/)[Past Issues](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/backissues\/)\n ***\n [Give a Gift](https:\/\/accounts.theatlantic.com\/products\/gift)\n- [Popular](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/most-popular\/)\n- [Latest](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/latest\/)\n- [Newsletters](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/newsletters\/)\n\n- [Sign In](https:\/\/accounts.theatlantic.com\/login\/)\n- [Subscribe](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/subscribe\/navbar\/)\n\n[Ideas](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/)\n\n# The Serendipity of ‘Let’s Go, Brandon’\nThe anti-Biden meme is meaner than your grandfather’s *shoot* or *heck.* It also offers a fascinating view of how language changes.\n\nBy [John McWhorter](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/author\/john-mcwhorter\/)\n\n![A propeller plane pulls a banner saying \"Let's go Brandon\"](https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/cUqKcXMn1c-bcFlqcnfihDiQqiA=\/297x166:2325x1307\/960x540\/media\/img\/mt\/2021\/11\/brandon\/original.jpg)\n\nGetty; The Atlantic\n\nNovember 9, 2021\n\nShare\n\nSave\n\nI know how I am supposed to feel about “Let’s go, Brandon”: Mocking the president this way is uncivil, a sign of the collapse of once-routine public courtesy, etc., etc. How I really feel about it, though, is that it’s fascinatingly serendipitous, seriously funny, and intriguingly fecund. From that one meme, others are being born.\n\nLast month, an NBC reporter interviewing the victorious NASCAR driver Brandon Brown heard [fans in the stands chanting “Fuck Joe Biden”](https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/11\/01\/politics\/lets-go-brandon-joe-biden\/index.html) in lustily contemptuous unison. The reporter insisted to viewers that the fans were in fact chanting “Let’s go, Brandon.” This improvisation made no sense. Brown had won, so why would anyone cheer him on by saying “Let’s go!” after he’d just accomplished quite a bit of going? Since then, Biden’s detractors have adopted “Let’s go, Brandon” as a kind of in-group salute—a coded way of saying, well, the other thing. The meme has [found its way](https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/2021\/11\/05\/nation\/halls-congress-west-roxbury-phrase-lets-go-brandon-is-popping-up-what-does-it-mean\/) onto T-shirts, masks, signs at other sporting events, the House floor, and (reportedly) airplane intercoms, and was parodied this weekend in an [online video from](https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=l3PRfAI-yK4) [*Saturday Night Live*](https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=l3PRfAI-yK4).\n\nInterestingly, despite its very American origins, the catchphrase is rather South African. Stay with me: In traditional societies there, such as in Zulu and Xhosa communities, a woman marrying into a family shows respect by refraining from using any words that sound like her husband’s or in-laws’ names and subbing in other words. Imagine if someone married William Green, the son of Robert Green, and instead of saying, “She will not eat green yogurt,” had to say, “She refuses to eat grass-colored yo-mix”—because *will* and *green* are her husband’s names and the second half of *yogurt* sounds like the end of *Robert*. The practice is called *hlonipha*, and “Let’s go, Brandon” is a coy substitution of the same kind.\n\n[Conor Friedersdorf: The fight against words that sound like, but are not, slurs](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2020\/09\/fight-against-words-sound-like-are-not-slurs\/616404\/)\n\nHowever, the anti-Biden euphemism is of a meaner tone. This is not your grandfather’s *darn*, *heck*, *shoot*, or *fudge*. Those are polite terms, expressed without the teeth-baring ardor of the words they stand in for, imaginable as things that [characters played by Edie McClurg](https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm0566052\/) might say in ’80s movies such as *Ferris Bueller’s Day Off*. “Let’s go, Brandon” springs from the mangier, madder place of euphemisms such as *snafu*—which during World War II everyone in the American military knew was an acronym for “situation normal, all fucked up”—or right-wingers’ dismissal of conservatives who do not toe the party line as *cuckservatives*, rooted in the word *cuckold*.\n\nThose who dislike seeing President Biden’s name used disparagingly should welcome the latest development: People on the left are declaring “Thank you, Brandon” in praise of the administration’s accomplishments thus far. We are witnessing the birth of a diagonal reference to Biden that signals a defense of him from the slurs of the right. *Brandon* could well take its place as one of those bemusingly opaque code names such as *Yeezy* for Kanye West or *Boz* for Charles Dickens—or as one of those pseudonyms that some members of Congress direct their staff to use for them when talking about work in social settings. (A friend of mine who worked on Capitol Hill in the late 1980s referred to her boss as “Bubo,” lest eavesdroppers in public spaces pick up insider gossip about congressional business.)\n\nWe might simply embrace that sentiments will differ about this Brandon person in exactly the same way as they do about, well, Biden. Calling him Brandon when dissing him could be seen as a kind of American *hlonipha*. And yet, in elite circles, one senses a bifurcation: *Brandon* is warm and wise when preceded by *Thank you* but an unacceptable epithet coming from Republicans.\n\nFew of the commentators who [decried the supposed vitriol and vulgarity](https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/lets-go-brandon-causes-media-freakout) of “Let’s go, Brandon” appear to mind Democrats’ attempt to repurpose the race-car driver’s name. The tacit idea would seem to be that when the left throws shade, it counts as speaking truth to power and is thus okay. Until the late ’80s, [some people on the left used](https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2016\/nov\/30\/political-correctness-how-the-right-invented-phantom-enemy-donald-trump) [*politically correct*](https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2016\/nov\/30\/political-correctness-how-the-right-invented-phantom-enemy-donald-trump) unironically to suggest, without saying so, that right-wing views are inherently and incontestably wrong. The designation of conservatives outside Democratic enclaves as “[deplorables](https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2016\/09\/10\/493427601\/hillary-clintons-basket-of-deplorables-in-full-context-of-this-ugly-campaign)” didn’t come from the right, either.\n\n[Read: When deplorability is no longer a dealbreaker](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/politics\/archive\/2018\/02\/what-donald-trump-supporters-cannot-be-trusted-to-do\/551201\/)\n\nOverall, “Let’s go, Brandon” is simply fascinating. A time traveler from 2019 would have been mystified at the bewigged people going as [Karen](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/international\/archive\/2020\/08\/karen-meme-coronavirus\/615355\/) this Halloween (I saw two) as well as those in mustaches going as Ted Lasso (of which I also saw two). In the same way, think how utterly opaque “Let’s go, Brandon” would be to a time traveler from just Labor Day. The meme is a wild, woolly kink in the intersection of language, politics, wit, and creativity, and is a prime example of why [language change](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2018\/06\/the-futility-of-standing-athwart-language-yelling-stop\/563612\/) is a spectator sport.\n\n### About the Author\n[![](https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/Lg1qG5s8MwFDju0Avg7iVj2CQoE=\/0x0:890x890\/120x120\/media\/None\/Columbia_U\/original.jpg)](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/author\/john-mcwhorter\/)\n\n[John McWhorter](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/author\/john-mcwhorter\/)\n\n[John McWhorter](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/author\/john-mcwhorter\/) teaches linguistics at Columbia and writes for *The* *New York Times.*\n\nExplore More Topics\n\n[Joe Biden](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/tag\/person\/joe-biden\/)\n\n## Popular Links\n- ### About\n - [Our History](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/history\/)\n - [Careers](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/jobs\/)\n- ### Contact\n - [Help Center](https:\/\/support.theatlantic.com\/)\n - [Contact Us](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/contact\/)\n - [Atlantic Brand Partners](https:\/\/atlanticbrandpartners.com\/)\n - [Press](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/press-releases\/)\n - [Reprints & Permissions](https:\/\/support.theatlantic.com\/hc\/en-us\/articles\/360011460753-Permissions-to-reprint-or-reproduce-content-from-The-Atlantic)\n- ### Podcasts\n - [Radio Atlantic](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/podcasts\/radio-atlantic\/)\n - [The David Frum Show](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/podcasts\/the-david-frum-show\/)\n - [Galaxy Brain](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/podcasts\/galaxy-brain\/)\n - [Autocracy in America](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/podcasts\/autocracy-in-america\/)\n - [How to Age Up](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/podcasts\/how-to-build-a-happy-life\/)\n- ### Subscription\n - [Purchase](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/subscribe\/footer-cover\/)\n - [Give a Gift](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/subscribe\/footer-gift\/)\n - [Manage Subscription](https:\/\/accounts.theatlantic.com\/)\n - [Group Subscriptions](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/group-subscriptions\/)\n - [Atlantic Editions](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/atlantic-editions\/)\n - [Newsletters](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/newsletters\/)\n- ### Follow\n\n### About\n- [Our History](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/history\/)\n- [Careers](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/jobs\/)\n\n### Contact\n- [Help Center](https:\/\/support.theatlantic.com\/)\n- [Contact Us](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/contact\/)\n- [Atlantic Brand Partners](https:\/\/atlanticbrandpartners.com\/)\n- [Press](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/press-releases\/)\n- [Reprints & Permissions](https:\/\/support.theatlantic.com\/hc\/en-us\/articles\/360011460753-Permissions-to-reprint-or-reproduce-content-from-The-Atlantic)\n\n### Podcasts\n- [Radio Atlantic](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/podcasts\/radio-atlantic\/)\n- [The David Frum Show](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/podcasts\/the-david-frum-show\/)\n- [Galaxy Brain](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/podcasts\/galaxy-brain\/)\n- [Autocracy in America](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/podcasts\/autocracy-in-america\/)\n- [How to Age Up](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/podcasts\/how-to-build-a-happy-life\/)\n\n### Subscription\n- [Purchase](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/subscribe\/footer-cover\/)\n- [Give a Gift](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/subscribe\/footer-gift\/)\n- [Manage Subscription](https:\/\/accounts.theatlantic.com\/)\n- [Group Subscriptions](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/group-subscriptions\/)\n- [Atlantic Editions](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/atlantic-editions\/)\n- [Newsletters](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/newsletters\/)\n### Follow\n\n## Site Information\n- [Privacy Policy](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/privacy-policy\/)\n- [Your Privacy Choices](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/do-not-sell-my-personal-information\/)\n- [Advertising Guidelines](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/advertising-guidelines\/)\n- [Terms & Conditions](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/terms-and-conditions\/)\n- [Terms of Sale](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/terms-of-sale\/)\n- [Responsible Disclosure](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/responsible-disclosure-policy\/)\n- [Site Map](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/site-map\/)\n\nTheAtlantic.com © 2026 The Atlantic Monthly Group. All Rights Reserved.\n\nThis site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google [Privacy Policy](https:\/\/policies.google.com\/privacy) and [Terms of Service](https:\/\/policies.google.com\/terms) apply","attrs_readable_markdown":"I know how I am supposed to feel about “Let’s go, Brandon”: Mocking the president this way is uncivil, a sign of the collapse of once-routine public courtesy, etc., etc. How I really feel about it, though, is that it’s fascinatingly serendipitous, seriously funny, and intriguingly fecund. From that one meme, others are being born.\n\nLast month, an NBC reporter interviewing the victorious NASCAR driver Brandon Brown heard [fans in the stands chanting “Fuck Joe Biden”](https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/11\/01\/politics\/lets-go-brandon-joe-biden\/index.html) in lustily contemptuous unison. The reporter insisted to viewers that the fans were in fact chanting “Let’s go, Brandon.” This improvisation made no sense. Brown had won, so why would anyone cheer him on by saying “Let’s go!” after he’d just accomplished quite a bit of going? Since then, Biden’s detractors have adopted “Let’s go, Brandon” as a kind of in-group salute—a coded way of saying, well, the other thing. The meme has [found its way](https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/2021\/11\/05\/nation\/halls-congress-west-roxbury-phrase-lets-go-brandon-is-popping-up-what-does-it-mean\/) onto T-shirts, masks, signs at other sporting events, the House floor, and (reportedly) airplane intercoms, and was parodied this weekend in an [online video from](https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=l3PRfAI-yK4) [*Saturday Night Live*](https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=l3PRfAI-yK4).\n\nInterestingly, despite its very American origins, the catchphrase is rather South African. Stay with me: In traditional societies there, such as in Zulu and Xhosa communities, a woman marrying into a family shows respect by refraining from using any words that sound like her husband’s or in-laws’ names and subbing in other words. Imagine if someone married William Green, the son of Robert Green, and instead of saying, “She will not eat green yogurt,” had to say, “She refuses to eat grass-colored yo-mix”—because *will* and *green* are her husband’s names and the second half of *yogurt* sounds like the end of *Robert*. The practice is called *hlonipha*, and “Let’s go, Brandon” is a coy substitution of the same kind.\n\n[Conor Friedersdorf: The fight against words that sound like, but are not, slurs](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2020\/09\/fight-against-words-sound-like-are-not-slurs\/616404\/)\n\nHowever, the anti-Biden euphemism is of a meaner tone. This is not your grandfather’s *darn*, *heck*, *shoot*, or *fudge*. Those are polite terms, expressed without the teeth-baring ardor of the words they stand in for, imaginable as things that [characters played by Edie McClurg](https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm0566052\/) might say in ’80s movies such as *Ferris Bueller’s Day Off*. “Let’s go, Brandon” springs from the mangier, madder place of euphemisms such as *snafu*—which during World War II everyone in the American military knew was an acronym for “situation normal, all fucked up”—or right-wingers’ dismissal of conservatives who do not toe the party line as *cuckservatives*, rooted in the word *cuckold*.\n\nThose who dislike seeing President Biden’s name used disparagingly should welcome the latest development: People on the left are declaring “Thank you, Brandon” in praise of the administration’s accomplishments thus far. We are witnessing the birth of a diagonal reference to Biden that signals a defense of him from the slurs of the right. *Brandon* could well take its place as one of those bemusingly opaque code names such as *Yeezy* for Kanye West or *Boz* for Charles Dickens—or as one of those pseudonyms that some members of Congress direct their staff to use for them when talking about work in social settings. (A friend of mine who worked on Capitol Hill in the late 1980s referred to her boss as “Bubo,” lest eavesdroppers in public spaces pick up insider gossip about congressional business.)\n\nWe might simply embrace that sentiments will differ about this Brandon person in exactly the same way as they do about, well, Biden. Calling him Brandon when dissing him could be seen as a kind of American *hlonipha*. And yet, in elite circles, one senses a bifurcation: *Brandon* is warm and wise when preceded by *Thank you* but an unacceptable epithet coming from Republicans.\n\nFew of the commentators who [decried the supposed vitriol and vulgarity](https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/lets-go-brandon-causes-media-freakout) of “Let’s go, Brandon” appear to mind Democrats’ attempt to repurpose the race-car driver’s name. The tacit idea would seem to be that when the left throws shade, it counts as speaking truth to power and is thus okay. Until the late ’80s, [some people on the left used](https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2016\/nov\/30\/political-correctness-how-the-right-invented-phantom-enemy-donald-trump) [*politically correct*](https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2016\/nov\/30\/political-correctness-how-the-right-invented-phantom-enemy-donald-trump) unironically to suggest, without saying so, that right-wing views are inherently and incontestably wrong. The designation of conservatives outside Democratic enclaves as “[deplorables](https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2016\/09\/10\/493427601\/hillary-clintons-basket-of-deplorables-in-full-context-of-this-ugly-campaign)” didn’t come from the right, either.\n\n[Read: When deplorability is no longer a dealbreaker](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/politics\/archive\/2018\/02\/what-donald-trump-supporters-cannot-be-trusted-to-do\/551201\/)\n\nOverall, “Let’s go, Brandon” is simply fascinating. A time traveler from 2019 would have been mystified at the bewigged people going as [Karen](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/international\/archive\/2020\/08\/karen-meme-coronavirus\/615355\/) this Halloween (I saw two) as well as those in mustaches going as Ted Lasso (of which I also saw two). In the same way, think how utterly opaque “Let’s go, Brandon” would be to a time traveler from just Labor Day. The meme is a wild, woolly kink in the intersection of language, politics, wit, and creativity, and is a prime example of why [language change](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2018\/06\/the-futility-of-standing-athwart-language-yelling-stop\/563612\/) is a spectator sport.","meta_canonical":null,"ml_categories_json":"{\"\/People_and_Society\":860,\"\/People_and_Society\/Social_Issues_and_Advocacy\":634,\"\/People_and_Society\/Social_Issues_and_Advocacy\/Discrimination_and_Identity_Relations\":552,\"\/Arts_and_Entertainment\":199,\"\/Arts_and_Entertainment\/Humor\":162}","ml_types_json":"{\"\/Article\":999,\"\/Article\/Opinion_Piece\":973}","ml_intent_types_json":"{\"Informational\":999}","meta_language":"en","attrs_author":"John McWhorter","attrs_publish_time":1636459200,"attrs_original_publish_time":1635724800,"attrs_is_republished":0,"attrs_nr_words":"1121","attrs_boilerpipe_nr_words":"823","body_ext_links_number":18,"body_int_links_number":83,"meta_nofollow":0,"meta_noarchive":0,"props_was_rendered":0,"src_redirect":"","download_time_msec":290,"download_ttfb_msec":289,"download_size":34983}

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A Linguist's Defense of ‘Let's Go, Brandon’ - The Atlantic

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The anti-Biden meme is meaner than your grandfather’s shoot or heck. It also offers a fascinating view of how language changes.

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I know how I am supposed to feel about “Let’s go, Brandon”: Mocking the president this way is uncivil, a sign of the collapse of once-routine public courtesy, etc., etc. How I really feel about it, though, is that it’s fascinatingly serendipitous, seriously funny, and intriguingly fecund. From that one meme, others are being born. Last month, an NBC reporter interviewing the victorious NASCAR driver Brandon Brown heard fans in the stands chanting “Fuck Joe Biden” in lustily contemptuous unison. The reporter insisted to viewers that the fans were in fact chanting “Let’s go, Brandon.” This improvisation made no sense. Brown had won, so why would anyone cheer him on by saying “Let’s go!” after he’d just accomplished quite a bit of going? Since then, Biden’s detractors have adopted “Let’s go, Brandon” as a kind of in-group salute—a coded way of saying, well, the other thing. The meme has found its way onto T-shirts, masks, signs at other sporting events, the House floor, and (reportedly) airplane intercoms, and was parodied this weekend in an online video from Saturday Night Live . Interestingly, despite its very American origins, the catchphrase is rather South African. Stay with me: In traditional societies there, such as in Zulu and Xhosa communities, a woman marrying into a family shows respect by refraining from using any words that sound like her husband’s or in-laws’ names and subbing in other words. Imagine if someone married William Green, the son of Robert Green, and instead of saying, “She will not eat green yogurt,” had to say, “She refuses to eat grass-colored yo-mix”—because will and green are her husband’s names and the second half of yogurt sounds like the end of Robert . The practice is called hlonipha , and “Let’s go, Brandon” is a coy substitution of the same kind. Conor Friedersdorf: The fight against words that sound like, but are not, slurs However, the anti-Biden euphemism is of a meaner tone. This is not your grandfather’s darn , heck , shoot , or fudge . Those are polite terms, expressed without the teeth-baring ardor of the words they stand in for, imaginable as things that characters played by Edie McClurg might say in ’80s movies such as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off . “Let’s go, Brandon” springs from the mangier, madder place of euphemisms such as snafu —which during World War II everyone in the American military knew was an acronym for “situation normal, all fucked up”—or right-wingers’ dismissal of conservatives who do not toe the party line as cuckservatives , rooted in the word cuckold . Those who dislike seeing President Biden’s name used disparagingly should welcome the latest development: People on the left are declaring “Thank you, Brandon” in praise of the administration’s accomplishments thus far. We are witnessing the birth of a diagonal reference to Biden that signals a defense of him from the slurs of the right. Brandon could well take its place as one of those bemusingly opaque code names such as Yeezy for Kanye West or Boz for Charles Dickens—or as one of those pseudonyms that some members of Congress direct their staff to use for them when talking about work in social settings. (A friend of mine who worked on Capitol Hill in the late 1980s referred to her boss as “Bubo,” lest eavesdroppers in public spaces pick up insider gossip about congressional business.) We might simply embrace that sentiments will differ about this Brandon person in exactly the same way as they do about, well, Biden. Calling him Brandon when dissing him could be seen as a kind of American hlonipha . And yet, in elite circles, one senses a bifurcation: Brandon is warm and wise when preceded by Thank you but an unacceptable epithet coming from Republicans. Few of the commentators who decried the supposed vitriol and vulgarity of “Let’s go, Brandon” appear to mind Democrats’ attempt to repurpose the race-car driver’s name. The tacit idea would seem to be that when the left throws shade, it counts as speaking truth to power and is thus okay. Until the late ’80s, some people on the left used politically correct unironically to suggest, without saying so, that right-wing views are inherently and incontestably wrong. The designation of conservatives outside Democratic enclaves as “ deplorables ” didn’t come from the right, either. Read: When deplorability is no longer a dealbreaker Overall, “Let’s go, Brandon” is simply fascinating. A time traveler from 2019 would have been mystified at the bewigged people going as Karen this Halloween (I saw two) as well as those in mustaches going as Ted Lasso (of which I also saw two). In the same way, think how utterly opaque “Let’s go, Brandon” would be to a time traveler from just Labor Day. The meme is a wild, woolly kink in the intersection of language, politics, wit, and creativity, and is a prime example of why language change is a spectator sport.

Markdown

[Skip to content](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/lets-go-brandon-biden-linguistics/620652/#main-content) ## Site Navigation - [Popular](https://www.theatlantic.com/most-popular/)[Latest](https://www.theatlantic.com/latest/)[Newsletters](https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/) ## Sections - [Ideas](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/) - [Politics](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/) - [Economy](https://www.theatlantic.com/economy/) - [Global](https://www.theatlantic.com/international/) - [National Security](https://www.theatlantic.com/national-security/) - [Washington Week](https://www.theatlantic.com/category/washington-week-atlantic/) - [Features](https://www.theatlantic.com/category/features/) - [Technology](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/) - [AI Watchdog](https://www.theatlantic.com/category/ai-watchdog/) - [Science](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/) - [Planet](https://www.theatlantic.com/projects/planet/) - [Health](https://www.theatlantic.com/health/) - [Philosophy](https://www.theatlantic.com/category/philosophy/) - [Education](https://www.theatlantic.com/education/) - [Culture](https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/) - [Comedy](https://www.theatlantic.com/category/comedy/) - [Family](https://www.theatlantic.com/family/) - [Books](https://www.theatlantic.com/books/) - [Fiction](https://www.theatlantic.com/category/fiction/) - [Photography](https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/) - [Events](https://www.theatlantic.com/atlantic-across-america/) - [![](https://cdn.theatlantic.com/_next/static/images/nav-archive-promo-5541b02ae92f1a9276249e1c6c2534ee.png)Explore The Atlantic Archive](https://www.theatlantic.com/archive/) - [![games promo icon](https://cdn.theatlantic.com/media/games/games_promo_color.png)Play The Atlantic Games](https://www.theatlantic.com/games/) - [Listen to Podcasts and Articles](https://www.theatlantic.com/audio/) ## The Print Edition [![View the current print edition](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/images/current-issue.420.jpg)](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/) [Latest Issue](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/)[Past Issues](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/backissues/) *** [Give a Gift](https://accounts.theatlantic.com/products/gift) - [Popular](https://www.theatlantic.com/most-popular/) - [Latest](https://www.theatlantic.com/latest/) - [Newsletters](https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/) - [Sign In](https://accounts.theatlantic.com/login/) - [Subscribe](https://www.theatlantic.com/subscribe/navbar/) [Ideas](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/) # The Serendipity of ‘Let’s Go, Brandon’ The anti-Biden meme is meaner than your grandfather’s *shoot* or *heck.* It also offers a fascinating view of how language changes. By [John McWhorter](https://www.theatlantic.com/author/john-mcwhorter/) ![A propeller plane pulls a banner saying "Let's go Brandon"](https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/cUqKcXMn1c-bcFlqcnfihDiQqiA=/297x166:2325x1307/960x540/media/img/mt/2021/11/brandon/original.jpg) Getty; The Atlantic November 9, 2021 Share Save I know how I am supposed to feel about “Let’s go, Brandon”: Mocking the president this way is uncivil, a sign of the collapse of once-routine public courtesy, etc., etc. How I really feel about it, though, is that it’s fascinatingly serendipitous, seriously funny, and intriguingly fecund. From that one meme, others are being born. Last month, an NBC reporter interviewing the victorious NASCAR driver Brandon Brown heard [fans in the stands chanting “Fuck Joe Biden”](https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/01/politics/lets-go-brandon-joe-biden/index.html) in lustily contemptuous unison. The reporter insisted to viewers that the fans were in fact chanting “Let’s go, Brandon.” This improvisation made no sense. Brown had won, so why would anyone cheer him on by saying “Let’s go!” after he’d just accomplished quite a bit of going? Since then, Biden’s detractors have adopted “Let’s go, Brandon” as a kind of in-group salute—a coded way of saying, well, the other thing. The meme has [found its way](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/11/05/nation/halls-congress-west-roxbury-phrase-lets-go-brandon-is-popping-up-what-does-it-mean/) onto T-shirts, masks, signs at other sporting events, the House floor, and (reportedly) airplane intercoms, and was parodied this weekend in an [online video from](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3PRfAI-yK4) [*Saturday Night Live*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3PRfAI-yK4). Interestingly, despite its very American origins, the catchphrase is rather South African. Stay with me: In traditional societies there, such as in Zulu and Xhosa communities, a woman marrying into a family shows respect by refraining from using any words that sound like her husband’s or in-laws’ names and subbing in other words. Imagine if someone married William Green, the son of Robert Green, and instead of saying, “She will not eat green yogurt,” had to say, “She refuses to eat grass-colored yo-mix”—because *will* and *green* are her husband’s names and the second half of *yogurt* sounds like the end of *Robert*. The practice is called *hlonipha*, and “Let’s go, Brandon” is a coy substitution of the same kind. [Conor Friedersdorf: The fight against words that sound like, but are not, slurs](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/fight-against-words-sound-like-are-not-slurs/616404/) However, the anti-Biden euphemism is of a meaner tone. This is not your grandfather’s *darn*, *heck*, *shoot*, or *fudge*. Those are polite terms, expressed without the teeth-baring ardor of the words they stand in for, imaginable as things that [characters played by Edie McClurg](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0566052/) might say in ’80s movies such as *Ferris Bueller’s Day Off*. “Let’s go, Brandon” springs from the mangier, madder place of euphemisms such as *snafu*—which during World War II everyone in the American military knew was an acronym for “situation normal, all fucked up”—or right-wingers’ dismissal of conservatives who do not toe the party line as *cuckservatives*, rooted in the word *cuckold*. Those who dislike seeing President Biden’s name used disparagingly should welcome the latest development: People on the left are declaring “Thank you, Brandon” in praise of the administration’s accomplishments thus far. We are witnessing the birth of a diagonal reference to Biden that signals a defense of him from the slurs of the right. *Brandon* could well take its place as one of those bemusingly opaque code names such as *Yeezy* for Kanye West or *Boz* for Charles Dickens—or as one of those pseudonyms that some members of Congress direct their staff to use for them when talking about work in social settings. (A friend of mine who worked on Capitol Hill in the late 1980s referred to her boss as “Bubo,” lest eavesdroppers in public spaces pick up insider gossip about congressional business.) We might simply embrace that sentiments will differ about this Brandon person in exactly the same way as they do about, well, Biden. Calling him Brandon when dissing him could be seen as a kind of American *hlonipha*. And yet, in elite circles, one senses a bifurcation: *Brandon* is warm and wise when preceded by *Thank you* but an unacceptable epithet coming from Republicans. Few of the commentators who [decried the supposed vitriol and vulgarity](https://www.foxnews.com/media/lets-go-brandon-causes-media-freakout) of “Let’s go, Brandon” appear to mind Democrats’ attempt to repurpose the race-car driver’s name. The tacit idea would seem to be that when the left throws shade, it counts as speaking truth to power and is thus okay. Until the late ’80s, [some people on the left used](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/30/political-correctness-how-the-right-invented-phantom-enemy-donald-trump) [*politically correct*](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/30/political-correctness-how-the-right-invented-phantom-enemy-donald-trump) unironically to suggest, without saying so, that right-wing views are inherently and incontestably wrong. The designation of conservatives outside Democratic enclaves as “[deplorables](https://www.npr.org/2016/09/10/493427601/hillary-clintons-basket-of-deplorables-in-full-context-of-this-ugly-campaign)” didn’t come from the right, either. [Read: When deplorability is no longer a dealbreaker](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/what-donald-trump-supporters-cannot-be-trusted-to-do/551201/) Overall, “Let’s go, Brandon” is simply fascinating. A time traveler from 2019 would have been mystified at the bewigged people going as [Karen](https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/08/karen-meme-coronavirus/615355/) this Halloween (I saw two) as well as those in mustaches going as Ted Lasso (of which I also saw two). In the same way, think how utterly opaque “Let’s go, Brandon” would be to a time traveler from just Labor Day. The meme is a wild, woolly kink in the intersection of language, politics, wit, and creativity, and is a prime example of why [language change](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/06/the-futility-of-standing-athwart-language-yelling-stop/563612/) is a spectator sport. ### About the Author [![](https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/Lg1qG5s8MwFDju0Avg7iVj2CQoE=/0x0:890x890/120x120/media/None/Columbia_U/original.jpg)](https://www.theatlantic.com/author/john-mcwhorter/) [John McWhorter](https://www.theatlantic.com/author/john-mcwhorter/) [John McWhorter](https://www.theatlantic.com/author/john-mcwhorter/) teaches linguistics at Columbia and writes for *The* *New York Times.* Explore More Topics [Joe Biden](https://www.theatlantic.com/tag/person/joe-biden/) ## Popular Links - ### About - [Our History](https://www.theatlantic.com/history/) - [Careers](https://www.theatlantic.com/jobs/) - ### Contact - [Help Center](https://support.theatlantic.com/) - [Contact Us](https://www.theatlantic.com/contact/) - [Atlantic Brand Partners](https://atlanticbrandpartners.com/) - [Press](https://www.theatlantic.com/press-releases/) - [Reprints & Permissions](https://support.theatlantic.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011460753-Permissions-to-reprint-or-reproduce-content-from-The-Atlantic) - ### Podcasts - [Radio Atlantic](https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/radio-atlantic/) - [The David Frum Show](https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/the-david-frum-show/) - [Galaxy Brain](https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/galaxy-brain/) - [Autocracy in America](https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/autocracy-in-america/) - [How to Age Up](https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/how-to-build-a-happy-life/) - ### Subscription - [Purchase](https://www.theatlantic.com/subscribe/footer-cover/) - [Give a Gift](https://www.theatlantic.com/subscribe/footer-gift/) - [Manage Subscription](https://accounts.theatlantic.com/) - [Group Subscriptions](https://www.theatlantic.com/group-subscriptions/) - [Atlantic Editions](https://www.theatlantic.com/atlantic-editions/) - [Newsletters](https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/) - ### Follow ### About - [Our History](https://www.theatlantic.com/history/) - [Careers](https://www.theatlantic.com/jobs/) ### Contact - [Help Center](https://support.theatlantic.com/) - [Contact Us](https://www.theatlantic.com/contact/) - [Atlantic Brand Partners](https://atlanticbrandpartners.com/) - [Press](https://www.theatlantic.com/press-releases/) - [Reprints & Permissions](https://support.theatlantic.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011460753-Permissions-to-reprint-or-reproduce-content-from-The-Atlantic) ### Podcasts - [Radio Atlantic](https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/radio-atlantic/) - [The David Frum Show](https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/the-david-frum-show/) - [Galaxy Brain](https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/galaxy-brain/) - [Autocracy in America](https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/autocracy-in-america/) - [How to Age Up](https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/how-to-build-a-happy-life/) ### Subscription - [Purchase](https://www.theatlantic.com/subscribe/footer-cover/) - [Give a Gift](https://www.theatlantic.com/subscribe/footer-gift/) - [Manage Subscription](https://accounts.theatlantic.com/) - [Group Subscriptions](https://www.theatlantic.com/group-subscriptions/) - [Atlantic Editions](https://www.theatlantic.com/atlantic-editions/) - [Newsletters](https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/) ### Follow ## Site Information - [Privacy Policy](https://www.theatlantic.com/privacy-policy/) - [Your Privacy Choices](https://www.theatlantic.com/do-not-sell-my-personal-information/) - [Advertising Guidelines](https://www.theatlantic.com/advertising-guidelines/) - [Terms & Conditions](https://www.theatlantic.com/terms-and-conditions/) - [Terms of Sale](https://www.theatlantic.com/terms-of-sale/) - [Responsible Disclosure](https://www.theatlantic.com/responsible-disclosure-policy/) - [Site Map](https://www.theatlantic.com/site-map/) TheAtlantic.com © 2026 The Atlantic Monthly Group. 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Readable Markdown

I know how I am supposed to feel about “Let’s go, Brandon”: Mocking the president this way is uncivil, a sign of the collapse of once-routine public courtesy, etc., etc. How I really feel about it, though, is that it’s fascinatingly serendipitous, seriously funny, and intriguingly fecund. From that one meme, others are being born. Last month, an NBC reporter interviewing the victorious NASCAR driver Brandon Brown heard [fans in the stands chanting “Fuck Joe Biden”](https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/01/politics/lets-go-brandon-joe-biden/index.html) in lustily contemptuous unison. The reporter insisted to viewers that the fans were in fact chanting “Let’s go, Brandon.” This improvisation made no sense. Brown had won, so why would anyone cheer him on by saying “Let’s go!” after he’d just accomplished quite a bit of going? Since then, Biden’s detractors have adopted “Let’s go, Brandon” as a kind of in-group salute—a coded way of saying, well, the other thing. The meme has [found its way](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/11/05/nation/halls-congress-west-roxbury-phrase-lets-go-brandon-is-popping-up-what-does-it-mean/) onto T-shirts, masks, signs at other sporting events, the House floor, and (reportedly) airplane intercoms, and was parodied this weekend in an [online video from](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3PRfAI-yK4) [*Saturday Night Live*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3PRfAI-yK4). Interestingly, despite its very American origins, the catchphrase is rather South African. Stay with me: In traditional societies there, such as in Zulu and Xhosa communities, a woman marrying into a family shows respect by refraining from using any words that sound like her husband’s or in-laws’ names and subbing in other words. Imagine if someone married William Green, the son of Robert Green, and instead of saying, “She will not eat green yogurt,” had to say, “She refuses to eat grass-colored yo-mix”—because *will* and *green* are her husband’s names and the second half of *yogurt* sounds like the end of *Robert*. The practice is called *hlonipha*, and “Let’s go, Brandon” is a coy substitution of the same kind. [Conor Friedersdorf: The fight against words that sound like, but are not, slurs](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/fight-against-words-sound-like-are-not-slurs/616404/) However, the anti-Biden euphemism is of a meaner tone. This is not your grandfather’s *darn*, *heck*, *shoot*, or *fudge*. Those are polite terms, expressed without the teeth-baring ardor of the words they stand in for, imaginable as things that [characters played by Edie McClurg](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0566052/) might say in ’80s movies such as *Ferris Bueller’s Day Off*. “Let’s go, Brandon” springs from the mangier, madder place of euphemisms such as *snafu*—which during World War II everyone in the American military knew was an acronym for “situation normal, all fucked up”—or right-wingers’ dismissal of conservatives who do not toe the party line as *cuckservatives*, rooted in the word *cuckold*. Those who dislike seeing President Biden’s name used disparagingly should welcome the latest development: People on the left are declaring “Thank you, Brandon” in praise of the administration’s accomplishments thus far. We are witnessing the birth of a diagonal reference to Biden that signals a defense of him from the slurs of the right. *Brandon* could well take its place as one of those bemusingly opaque code names such as *Yeezy* for Kanye West or *Boz* for Charles Dickens—or as one of those pseudonyms that some members of Congress direct their staff to use for them when talking about work in social settings. (A friend of mine who worked on Capitol Hill in the late 1980s referred to her boss as “Bubo,” lest eavesdroppers in public spaces pick up insider gossip about congressional business.) We might simply embrace that sentiments will differ about this Brandon person in exactly the same way as they do about, well, Biden. Calling him Brandon when dissing him could be seen as a kind of American *hlonipha*. And yet, in elite circles, one senses a bifurcation: *Brandon* is warm and wise when preceded by *Thank you* but an unacceptable epithet coming from Republicans. Few of the commentators who [decried the supposed vitriol and vulgarity](https://www.foxnews.com/media/lets-go-brandon-causes-media-freakout) of “Let’s go, Brandon” appear to mind Democrats’ attempt to repurpose the race-car driver’s name. The tacit idea would seem to be that when the left throws shade, it counts as speaking truth to power and is thus okay. Until the late ’80s, [some people on the left used](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/30/political-correctness-how-the-right-invented-phantom-enemy-donald-trump) [*politically correct*](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/30/political-correctness-how-the-right-invented-phantom-enemy-donald-trump) unironically to suggest, without saying so, that right-wing views are inherently and incontestably wrong. The designation of conservatives outside Democratic enclaves as “[deplorables](https://www.npr.org/2016/09/10/493427601/hillary-clintons-basket-of-deplorables-in-full-context-of-this-ugly-campaign)” didn’t come from the right, either. [Read: When deplorability is no longer a dealbreaker](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/what-donald-trump-supporters-cannot-be-trusted-to-do/551201/) Overall, “Let’s go, Brandon” is simply fascinating. A time traveler from 2019 would have been mystified at the bewigged people going as [Karen](https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/08/karen-meme-coronavirus/615355/) this Halloween (I saw two) as well as those in mustaches going as Ted Lasso (of which I also saw two). In the same way, think how utterly opaque “Let’s go, Brandon” would be to a time traveler from just Labor Day. The meme is a wild, woolly kink in the intersection of language, politics, wit, and creativity, and is a prime example of why [language change](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/06/the-futility-of-standing-athwart-language-yelling-stop/563612/) is a spectator sport.

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John McWhorter

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