Yap / Yapping / Yapper

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About

Yap, Yapping and Yapper are slang terms of the verb "to yap" whch means to talk excessively with little substance. The concept of yapping or someone yapping became a TikTok meme and TikTok slang starting in mid-2023 as a way to light-heartedly demean someone's opinions or, alternatively, highlight a creator's tendency to talk too much. Many used the yap adjacent terms to humorously ridicule reaction video creators, like Yip and Yap, or streamers and influencers who seemingly talked too much about topics. For instance, streamer BruceDropEmOff was often made fun of by his fans for yapping.

Origin

Usage of the words "yappin'" and "yapping" date back to 1990s and 2000s rap music, indicating an origin in AAVE. Early song examples include tracks from rappers like Master P,^[1] Nas^[2] and JAY-Z,^[3] among others.

The first definition for "yap" was added to Urban Dictionary^[4] on December 11th, 2004, by user Bean. The definition was "To talk noisily or stupidly; jabber" and gained 220 likes in 19 years (shown below, left). Precursor definitions for "yap" posted to the site in 2003 define "yap" as "To steal from, or rob someone" (shown below, right).

Memetic usage of "yap" and its variants started to surface on TikTok^[5] as early as January 2022. However, the first viral usage of a "yap" variant in a meme was posted on July 30th, 2022, by TikToker^[6] @blexxia, who captioned a video of a cat seemingly talking, likening it to snitching or yapping. The video received roughly 3.2 million plays and 693,800 likes in one year (shown below).

Spread

Going into late 2022, memetic usage of "yap" and "yapping" continued to surface on TikTok.^[7] In early 2023, usage of "yap" and "yapping" predominantly spread, leading to the slang term's peak usage in late 2023.

Its 2023 usage predominantly started following a prank video called "Telling People to Stop Talking During Conversation Prank" posted by YouTuber^[8] Sean Odigie on April 5th, 2023. A clip of the video was posted to TikTok^[9] by Odigie on April 5th, in which he used many "yap" puns similar to Rizz Nicknames. The TikTok^[9] clip gained roughly 229,400 plays and 16,600 likes in five months (shown below).

On April 16th, 2023, TikToker^[10] @canadianrailfan posted a video of a dog biting at the air, captioned, "what is bro yappin about," gaining over 10,000 plays in five months. The video was copied by TikToker^[11] @damasscuscamo on April 21st, who instead used the word "blud," gaining roughly 8.8 million plays and 1.1 million likes in five months (shown below, left). On April 23rd, TikToker^[12] @kylemkeller posted a prank video similar to Sean Odigie's, gaining roughly 633,100 plays and 86,900 likes in five months (shown below, right).

In mid-2023, usage of "yap" and "yapping" started to peak on TikTok. For instance, on June 28th, 2023, TikToker^[13] @spanishcomrade posted a video of Kevin Leonardo "yapping," gaining roughly 36,500 plays and 1,000 likes in three months (shown below, left). On July 15th, TikToker^[14] @jamiezau posted a Fortnite clip of a kid giggling, gaining roughly 3.4 million plays and 386,500 likes in two months (shown below, right).

Yip, Yap and Yop

Yip, Yap and Yop are nicknames for TikTokers Bag and CJ, known on their account @bag_and_cj, as well as their unnamed friend known as Yop. They were dubbed Yip, Yap and Yop because of their reaction video stitches in which viewers thought that they were "yapping." Bag and CJ started going viral in 2023, leading to others on TikTok parodying them and their reaction style as well as repurposing their videos by captioning them. Many made fancam videos of Yop, satirizing him due to his one-off appearance.