yolo! how many times are u gonna live?

the latest video on the is an analysis of the acronym yolo (you only live once).

as mentioned at :30 on the video, rapper drake aka drizzy brought the expression to the attention of the millennial generation with his rap the motto. and as the rest of the vid explains, yolo has been an important phrase, one way or another, for a long time.

make sure to click CC at the bottom of the player to read the captions and maximize your english practice.

here are a few other observations to enhance (upgrade, improve) your enjoyment of the video…..

at :40, get that shit is an informal motivational phrase used in this case to pump up a group of hunters in a fight against a mammoth.

mae west yolo
mae west: u only live once, but it’s enough if you’re humping a lot. (la times)

sexual innuendo is when sex is implied if not necessarily mentioned. it’s used at 1:33 in reference to mae west.

listen at 1:54 for the expression seize the day, which is similar to u only live once.

in this e*trade commercial, house of cards star kevin spacey opens his dialogue explaining that e*trade is all about seizing opporunity (taking advantage of it).  spacey closes with the historic equivalent of yolo, seize the day, and commands viewers to seize investment opportunity, which according to e*trade, is everywhere.

at 2:05 in the richyrocks yolo video, the observation is that yolo is

considerably less charming when it’s used as a justification to act like an asshole or to just do something stupid.

charming means attractive or charismatic. the song this charming man by the smiths tells the story of a poor boy meeting a wealthycharming man.

starting at 2:10 in the richyrocks video, there is a long list of mostly bad suggestions that could be justified by yolo.

one of these suggestions is binge watching the dance competition show dancing with the stars. binge means doing an activity at an intense, perhaps even dangerous level. for example eating, shopping, drinking, recreational cocaine use or watching consecutive episodes of a tv series.

beavis yolo
beavis huffed some thinner in the home improvement episode of beavis and butthead.

another bad idea in the vid is huffing thinner.  huff means inhale fumes.

one final terrible idea that is proposed is sticking a dick in a toaster. stick has several applications; in this context it is the same as put.

preaching yolo
will his preaching convince these millenials to reject yolo? (rod anderson)

but even after this long list of ill-advised (unwise) activities, the function of the yolo video is not to preach (lecture, give unwanted moral advice).

and though the video is not anti-yolo either, the final comments from m.i.a.’s song y.a.l.a. (u always live again) are an interesting contrast. m.i.a. wonders

if u only live once, why we keep doing the same shit?

in an english text book, m.i.a.’s question would be, why do we keep doing the same shit? but she reduces the auxiliary do.  

m.i.a. yala vs yolo
m.i.a.: why we keep doin the same shit?

the same shit, another of the many shit expressions that we have in english, means the same things or activities.

fun english practice :) richyrocks english on youtube

is your personal philosophy closer to yolo or reincarnation? does yolo guide your decision-making process? share your perspectives under leave a reply


 

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