A while ago we were driving around, and Anthony asked me to explain what “herp derp” meant. He also asked me where it came from. I told him that I’m pretty sure it sprang up organically from the internet. The idea sprung to life whole, like Athena from Zeus’s head.

So it came from 4chan, he said.

But I really don’t know where it came from, I told him, but it’s one of those memes that makes perfect sense. I didn’t need anyone to explain to me what herp derp meant. The first time I heard it I understood.

I have no idea what it means, he said.

I tried to explain. I said something like when someone’s dumb they’re all HERP DERP HERP DERP! I flailed my arms about in an instructive manner. I herped. I derped.

Stop, stop, stop, he said.

My explanation only made him more confused as to its meaning. And I may have been forbidden from ever trying to explain it again. Herp derp, I thought

About a week later we drove off to have a romantic lunch date, just the two of us. When our food arrived, we immediately stopped talking. That’s when I noticed the table of agribusiness types next to us. They were complaining, in their typical way, about taxes, brown people, and the decline of Real America. Something like that. Anyway, they were dumb.

It really made me want to turn to Anthony and say, with my Outside Voice, “Gee, honey, aren’t you glad we have taxes and Obama and Health Care Reform?” To which he would have answered, “¡Si!”

Later in the car, although I had been forbidden, I decided to risk it.

Anthony, I said, those businessmen, at the restaurant, they were TOTALLY herp derping all through lunch.

That time he got it.