This morning, while stalking looking at BIGBANG member Taeyang’s Instagram, we noticed a slew of comments on one of his posts. When we say “slew”, we mean that a large number of the comments (out of over 13,000 comments) repeated the phrase, “Om Telolet Om”.
In case you missed it:
Confused, we initially thought it was a joke Taeyang made that perhaps caught on with fans and was being repeated. Taeyang has that effect on VIPs (as BIGBANG fans are lovingly called), such as that one time when fans noticed that he was commenting “dope” on almost every other Instagram post, which saw a repercussion in terms of VIPS flooding his Instagram updates with “dope”. Repeatedly. For a few days.
But then things took a turn for worse when musicians from halfway across the world started tweeting “OM TELOLET OM”, with some sounding more genuinely confused than the others:
OM TELOLET OM
— Zedd (@Zedd) December 20, 2016
Om Telolet Om
— DJ SNAKE (@djsnake) December 20, 2016
Om Telolet Om is awesome
— marshmello (@marshmello) December 20, 2016
Om Telolet Om pic.twitter.com/kckKOsdURv
— Showtek (@SHOWTEK) December 20, 2016
what is Om Telolet Om?
— MARTIN GARRIX (@MartinGarrix) December 20, 2016
Wtf is OM TELOLET OM?
— BASSJACKERS (@Bassjackers) December 20, 2016
What the hell is this Om Toilet Om about?!
— Laidback Luke (@LaidbackLuke) December 20, 2016
Honestly, it’s like our worlds collided!
So, really, what on earth is “OM TELOLET OM”? Is it a music industry inside joke? A social media campaign for a festival? Did we miss out on a new Internet challenge? Or “PPAP”-like viral video?
(Sorry, couldn’t help it)
Here’s the truth: “OM TELOLET OM” is Indonesian and it translates roughly to, “Sir, honk the horn, sir!”
The meme first began when a video surfaced last month of kids standing on the streets of Ngabul in Central Java shouting, “Om Telolet Om!” at passing inter-province buses. Some drivers customise their vehicle horn to play various tunes and those kids, with no other source of entertainment, cheer in glee when they get a response from the buses.
As seen in the video above, sometimes, the children would even carry/flash cardboard signs scribbled with the words, “OM TELOLET OM” to get the attention of the bus drivers. Because persistence is key!
So why is Taeyang getting spammed in his Instagram comments and why are DJs/producers from halfway across the world tweeting about it? Because Indonesian fans are absolutely delighted that the trend has gone viral internationally and are spamming their favourite celebrities’ social media accounts.
There’s really no real context in why they’re using the term on the musicians. It’s just funny!
Om Telolet Om pic.twitter.com/MIfpwm446K
— marshmello (@marshmello) December 21, 2016
Listen to it here.
Sources: The Jakarta Post, reddit.
