Tonight, I wanted to share with you a funny English phrase that people have been using on Facebook the past year. As far as I know, it is only an American English phrase, although perhaps it could be getting used in the UK and Australia as well. It may not even be used throughout all of America though. I am not sure, but at least I have been seeing people within New England (the region of the United States that I live in) using it.

Anyhow, the phrase is "Let me get my popcorn." The context that it is used in is whenever you see someone argue either online or offline, typically online though and definitely on Facebook. What it basically means is that a fight has broken out and you are amused by it and so, like with watching a movie, you want to get your bowl of popcorn and enjoy watching the confrontation unfold before you. Hehehehe. I laugh every time I see this actually, especially since it is so American as we are huge fans of watching movies.

A number of slang phrases appear before it sometimes, such as, "Oh shit. Shit just got real.", etc. Although "let me get my popcorn" isn't vulgar itself, these additional slang phrases are and so you should never use them in a professional setting like with your boss, etc. Sometimes the phrase is worded as "*getting my popcorn*", "*gets his popcorn*, etc also. This is how Americans typically indicate that an action is taking place in chat. We place asterisks (the star character *) around some words which depict an action and chop off the subject of the sentence. The subject is understood to be "I" so that is most likely why it is dropped. :) Anyways, let me give an example dialog now to demonstrate how it is used.

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Dialog:

Mark works at Starbucks and is on Facebook on his cellphone at work. He gets an annoying customer in his line and posts "Really wish this woman would shut the hell up and order something already. I don't have all day." on his timeline.

Jeremy (comments on the post): Wow, you are always such a drama queen and so rude. I am glad I don't come through your line.

Mark (comments on the post): Whatever, if you don't like what I post on my Facebook then remove yourself. This is my timeline, idiot. I really wouldn't give a f*ck.

Jane (comments on the post): Oh shit. Shit just got real. Let me get my popcorn.

Billy (comments on the post): Hahahaha Too funny, Jane. *gets his popcorn too... and a diet coke...*

Jeremy (comments on the post): Hey, don't hate when someone calls you out for what you are. I never see you post a single positive thing on here!

Mark: Go scr*w off, Jeremy. Seriously!!!

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So yeah, now if you ever see the phrase online, perhaps you will remember this discussion and know what it means. Hehehe. Anyways, I thought it was funny and wanted to share it with all of you English learners tonight. :) Oh, and sorry for the profanity used in this post but they were necessary to actually represent the context in which the phrase is used. Hehehehe :D