How Fail Went From Verb to Interjection
Time was, fail was simply a verb that denoted being unsuccessful or falling short of expectations. It made occasional forays into nounhood, in fixed expressions like without fail and no-fail. That all started to change in certain online subcultures about six years ago. In July 2003, a contributor to Urbandictionary.com noted that fail could be used as an interjection “when one disapproves of something,” giving the example: “You actually bought that? FAIL.” This punchy stand-alone fail most likely originated as a shortened form of “You fail” or, more fully, “You fail it,” the taunting “game over” message in the late-’90s Japanese video game Blazing Star, notorious for its fractured English.
So this is partially from a game called "Blazing Star". What is a blazing star? It's a masonic symbol for Venus/Lucifer. Could "fail" actually be referring to the "fall of Lucifer", as a reference to Lucifer's failure at being accepted by "God"? Stretching a little, right? That's probably what I'm known for...
Masonic (propaganda) Dictionary has this on the Blazing Star:
In the Twenty-eighth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, the explanation given of the Blazing Star, is, that it is symbolic of a the Freemason, who, by perfecting himself in the way of truth, that is to say, by advancing in knowledge, becomes like a blazing star, shining with brilliancy in the midst of darkness. The star is, therefore, in this degree, a symbol of truth.
In the Fourth Degree of the same Rite, the star is again said to be a symbol of the light of Divine Providence pointing out the way of truth.
Fun fact: F+A+I+L = 28 (like the scottish rite degree mentioned above), and 2+8=10. Doesn't 10 represent a Hermaphroditic (Hermes+Aphrodite) god?
If anyone could help me out with the mythology stuff, that would be great...
These are some okay examples. But why not look a little further into it rather than just slapping a "fail" on the image?
Any time someone is injured or screws something up while being filmed, it is labeled a "fail" video. These are usually extremely painful to watch, and the fact that someone found it funny is disturbing. I consider "fail" to be the (d?)evolution of "America's Funniest Home Videos", gone viral. I can only imagine the karma that people build up laughing at the misfortunes of others on a regular basis. The bigger you are, the harder you fall... When you fuck something up badly, you probably won't find it too funny.
There is also a sort of education system imprint with the word "fail", in that when we got Fs on our progress reports, it meant we failed the class. I got Fs all the time, and just seeing the word sometimes makes me want to rip my hair out over the stress it caused me growing up, knowing I would have to go to summer school and deal with my parents berating me for it. I'm guessing that's where part of the "punch" comes from.
(sorry about the rhyming post titles, probably seems cheesy)
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