There are moments in life where you feel this sudden surge of hormones (mostly adrenaline) that tell you the meaning of your existence. The chore that you are supposed to be able to tick of at the end of your life, the obligation that you fulfill with - hopefully - good grace. It seemed to me that yesterday this special moment occurred to me when I was talking to an old friend (he happens to be from Vorarlberg, servas). I was using the omnipotent, omni-pretty-much-anything phrase “Duh” and all I got was a sad, cheerless “What does it mean, man?” This post is supposed to clear up some things.

After a seemingly not ending moment of shock (this post is my very approach to get over it) I was kind of willing to explain. I realized I have to raise the awareness of this oh so fancy way of saying oh so various things.

So calling out this question might get some people to use it: What does DUH mean? Well, where to begin..? Duh can be used in pretty much any situation where you want to point out the super-fluency, the uselessness of an argument. When somebody stated the obvious, the evident - see Thank You Captain Obvious. Wikipedia says the following about an appropriate use: “If one read a headline saying ‘Scientific study proves pain really does hurt‘ or ‘New reports show death is bad for one’s health‘, the response might be ‘Well, duh!’” Now my turn, hihi: A: “Today’s the 29 of february, I wonder if we’re in a leap year” - B: “Duh, yes, you moron!”

Here are some synonyms for people who are not quite sure how to use it yet: No shit Sherlock or Thank you Captain Obvious. These synonyms do not cry for an explanation, do they?

PLUS, some mentally handicapped people use the phrase to make any oh so stupid phrase true by attempting to reach superiority in discussions or even normal small talk (example: I am so pretty, duh! or Well, the earth is flat, I don’t care what you say, DUH!). So therefore you can barely use this phrase inappropriately since most English speaking people are used to having dumb kids use it in every other sentence. If you want to avoid being perceived like a dumb moron, just resist the evilness of the inexhaustible word “duh.”

Be aware, though. Using any of the phrases stated above has enormous addiction potential. Use with CAUTION. Duh! It’s like like like like, you know. You know, like what I mean, man? Like totally. Duh!

In addition to this lack of knowledge this Vorarlberg guy also asked me how to pronounce it. In German it is a plain Daaaah! Like Daaagobert or Daaaafur.

Follow this post to get to know the German equivalents. Please discuss that in the comments. My ultimate favorite would be “BAM, OIDA”.