Gamzee Essay number one.
A lot of people are in a lot of disagreement about what the fuck Gamzee is actually saying and what we’re supposed to take away from it. I’m here to help shed some light on the issue. My credentials to do so? Well, I’ve been a juggalo for thirty years.
Not really, but I’ve been doing a lot of research and I’m an Amurrcan that grew up around the sort of low-income troublekids that ICP markets itself too, I had a friend show me some of their music when I was a kid! And of course nowadays I’ve done my extensive journeying through juggalo lore to learn more about everybody’s least favorite sodaclown.
So basically you’re just gonna have to take my word for this one, right? Or not!! I am not your earth human mother.
GAMZEE: MOTHER FUCK WHO’S ALL THIS FRESH PIMP RYDA I GOT MY WICKED PEEP ON FOR SUDDENLY? IT’S A MOTHER FUCKIN NINJALICIOUS HO-TITTY MIRACLE JACKED UP IN THIS BITCH ASS MOTHER FU—
Okay just look at this, just look at it, for one! It’s fucking ridiculous. It doesn’t actually sound much like anything gamzee’s ever said before? It’s hyperbolic to the extreme, I’m sure it’s meant to be “look at how funny he talks” more than anything. Narratively this is a hugely awkward place to be putting in weird jokes about how hot aranea is or whatever.
Most people are hung up on “Ninjalicious Ho-Titty” but with this sentence structure he’s not even calling her “ninjalicious ho-titty.” Let’s break this shit down.
MOTHER FUCK WHO’S ALL THIS FRESH PIMP RYDA I GOT MY WICKED PEEP ON FOR SUDDENLY?
Pretty basic. “MOTHER FUCK” (expletive) WHO (subject) ‘S ALL (auxiliary verb) THIS FRESH PIMP RYDA (person, this is just, another way to say person, i promise you it means nothing? Not that hussie is going to be anywhere near using urban/rap lingo as anything other than a big joke but yeah “fresh pimp ryda” is basically just a way to say person.) I GOT MY WICKED PEEP ON FOR SUDDENLY (saw)
Translation
WHO ARE YOU?
Not wow who’s this hot lady!!! no. A “pimp ryda” is not a term for a hot lady. A fresh pimp ryda is not actually a phrase anyone really recognizes at all. Hussie is just slamming a bunch of perceived lower-class words together to make gamzee look kind of stupid and incoherent and well??? Checking the fandom response, it’s working?? blugh.
IT’S A MOTHER FUCKIN NINJALICIOUS HO-TITTY MIRACLE JACKED UP IN THIS BITCH ASS MOTHER FU—
Here’s where the contestion is. What’s he saying??
The subject here is not Aranea. The subject is “It,” and gamzee messes up his grammatical references, sure, but he’s never referred to a person as “it” before. What’s he talking about? Literally, “It!” What’s going on, what’s happening, the situation, man, which is all up and being “A MOTHER FUCKIN (expletive) NINJALICIOUS (Very ninja, ninja being ‘homie’ or relevant to the posse but I don’t actually think. It’s intended to really be hinting at anything) HO-TITTY (same tone as “wicked bitchtits) MIRACLE JACKED UP IN THIS (here in this) BITCH ASS MOTHERFUCKER (where I am currently)”
What he’s saying is
WHAT’S HAPPENING??? THIS IS STRANGE AND I DO NOT UNDERSTAND. ALSO I AM A JUGGALO, IN CASE YOU FORGOT?
Like I’m not hugely surprised people are having a hard time pulling what he says apart or are making fun of him or are immediately interpreting everything he says as objectifying/misogynist because it’s hip hop lingo and what has anyone ever ELSE done about black music and its propagations and its vernacular am I fucking right??? haha
But the point here is that Gamzee doesn’t talk like everyone else, he’s very confused, he’s very upset, he spills a bunch of jargon, it sounds funny, Aranea talks about how disgusting he is and then mind controlls him. Gamzee always had difficulty communicating and this was undoubtedly related to his upbringing. he’s always spoke sort of wrong, his dialect being a mashup between highblood scripture and lowblood vocabulary. Linguistically, he walks a line a lot of real people do on earth when they grow up in low-income/urban places and then to have a bunch of middle-class people call them “uneducated” sooo. Come on, people, don’t miss that you’re doing that here, and don’t miss that hussie is playing off this lower-class social phenomenon and speech patterns to make a big joke out of them.
Either way? This is the wrong time to be vilifying Gamzee for how he speaks because it’s exactly the justification Aranea is using to remove his speaking privledges, which is an absolutely concerning thing for her to be doing. Do not repeat the whole Tavris debacle, fandom, I’m begging you.
And that’s Clown Essay part 1.This is a good analysis. I honestly assumed that body language alone was enough to convey that Gamzee was upset and freaking out over being mind controlled, but apparently that’s not something people pick up on? I don’t know, sometimes Homestuck fans confuse me a little.
I don’t think it’s necessarily a joke about low class language alone necessarily, even. We know that quirks get more pronounced and text gets less readable the more upset people are. The more upset Karkat is, the more lurid his metaphors become, the more upset Vriska is the more letters turn into 8s, and so on. Gamzee is just following that pattern here, and as usual the comic is setting up a funny situation with a darker undercurrent to it—that long string of incoherent text and Aranea’s reaction is funny, but also disturbing the more you think about it. The comic is extremely good at setting up those uncomfortable laughter moments, really.