FOB-ulous

For the uninitiated, F.O.B. or fob is an affectionately pejorative term employed by immigrant communities. "Fresh off the boat" captures the naivete, awkwardness and disruptive dislocation embodied in more recent immigrants as they negotiate a new culture. Acculturated first generationers or 2nd and subsequent generationers use this label as they squirm with shame at the odd antics of their discordant brethren. It has a broad spectrum of application, from something as simple as strong accents, to dress, to norms for social interaction.

I take credit for coining the adjective "fobulous"; perhaps someone beat me to it, but I've never heard it employed by others. Using fobulous phraseology is a useful technique in times of social awkwardness, for a smattering of eccentric humor, or to invoke a whole imaginary of cross cultural clashes and the complex dynamics involved.

To express heartfelt affection, one might exclaim, in appropriate south asian accented inflection, "You are being awesome!" The subtle subversive nature of this Bhabhian mimicry is the gerundive addition to the predicative. The object of our affections here, the referent, need not be doing anything at the moment. The being is general. This term replaces the more efficient and less fobulous "You are awesome". Do you catch the slippage here?

There are too many instances and examples to invoke, but I've gotten a kick out of the disruptive interpretation of song lyrics I've encountered over the years. A few examples:

"Do you believe in la fuckin love?" Recognize this? Can you hear Cher crooning?

"It's the final nzazahhh!" A bit more abstract. I wouldn't expect immediate recognition. You'll have to reach back to Europe's glamrock proclamation of its imminent trip to Venus.

I must confess I have been guilty on several occasions of my own fobulous gaffs. One for which I received no small amount of recurrent ribbing involves a Tracy Chapman song:

"Love is hate, war is peace, no is yes, zero degrees".

Don't ask me where I came up with this or why I unreflectively continued to sing along with the song in this fashion. It makes sense to me in a vague apocalyptic way: zero degrees invokes a frozen, dead world, perhaps metaphorically related to ground zero, where the "missiles called peacekeepers" which were "aimed to kill" completed their mission. Who knows?

At any rate, I apparently qualify now as the recipient for hearty, congratulatory, and, again, south asian accent inflected "zero degrees, man!!"