Trash talk is a form of

insult An insult is an expression or statement (or sometimes behavior) which is disrespectful or scornful. Insults may be intentional or accidental. An insult may be factual, but at the same time pejorative, such as the word " inbred". Jocular ex ...

usually found in

sports events Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...

, although it is not exclusive to sports or similarly characterized events. It is often used to intimidate the opposition and/or make them less confident in their abilities as to win easier, but it can also be used in a humorous spirit. Trash-talk is often characterized by use of

hyperbole Hyperbole (; adj. hyperbolic ) is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. In rhetoric, it is also sometimes known as auxesis (literally 'growth'). In poetry and oratory, it emphasizes, evokes strong feelings, and ...

or figurative language, such as "Your team can't run! You run like honey on ice!"

Pun A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...

s and other wordplay are commonly used. Trash-talk was most famously used by

heavyweight Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling. Boxing Professional Boxers who weigh over are considered heavyweights by 3 of the 4 major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation, the W ...

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

champion

Muhammad Ali Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, ...

in the 1960s and 70s. In 1963, Ali even released a popular full-length record album consisting largely of trash-talk poetry. It was entitled '' I Am the Greatest!'', a phrase that became his signature line. Since then, it has become common for boxers, wrestlers, and many other sports competitors to use trash-talk. However, in amateur sports ranks, trash talking is generally frowned upon as unsportsmanlike conduct (especially in youth leagues). Former UFC

Featherweight Featherweight is a weight class in the combat sports of boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, and Greco-Roman wrestling. Boxing Professional boxing History A featherweight boxer weighs in at a limit of . In the early days of the division, th ...

and

Lightweight Lightweight is a weight class in combat sports and rowing. Boxing Professional boxing The lightweight division is over 130 pounds (59 kilograms) and up to 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms) weight class in the sport of boxing. Notable lightweight boxe ...

Champion

Conor McGregor Conor Anthony McGregor ( ga, Conchúr Antóin Mac Gréagóir; born 14 July 1988) is an Irish professional mixed martial artist. He is a former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) featherweight and lightweight double-champion. He is the first ...

is a more recent example of a prominent trash-talker, he is considered by most to be the greatest trash-talker in

MMA Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, incor ...

history. Former UFC fighter Chael Sonnen is also considered by many to be one of the greatest trash-talkers MMA has ever had. Although the practice of trying to distract opponents by verbal abuse is common to virtually all sports, other sports sometimes have their own terminology for verbal abuse: for example,

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

calls it sledging and in ice hockey it is called chirping. Trash-talk has become a debatable term especially in North American sports, with the greatest trash talkers being acknowledged for both their trash talking skills as much as their athletic and mental abilities.

Usage

In sports, trash-talk most commonly comes in the form of insults to an opposing player's playing ability or physical appearance which is ethically not acceptable. The intended effects of trash-talk are to create rivalry between the players and increase psychological pressure of opposing players to perform well or to stop the trash-talker from performing well. The quality of performance of players under the pressure of trash-talk is debated, but one study found that participants who were subject to a trash-talk message exerted more effort in completing their task and perceived their opponent with more incivility and rivalry, when compared to participants who were subject to a neutral, irrelevant, or no message at all. While trash-talking frequently focuses on sporting attributes such as physical ability and athleticism, there is also significant trash-talking off-topic including opponent's sexual behavior and relationships. Trash-talk is more prevalent in contact sports than non-contact sports, and it is also more prevalent between male competitors than female competitors.

Types

Smack talk

Smack talk is a

slang Slang is vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in spoken conversation but avoided in formal writing. It also sometimes refers to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-gr ...

term seen in chat channels in chat room,

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in Reverse ...

, and

massively multiplayer online game A massively multiplayer online game (MMOG or more commonly MMO) is an online video game with a large number of players, often hundreds or thousands, on the same server. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent open world, although there are ...

(MMOG) conversations. The term came about in the early 1990s. It generally refers to the use of threatening or intentionally inflammatory language. Smack talk can also be used with

bullying Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) of an ...

, whether that be

face-to-face interaction Face-to-face interaction is social communication carried out without any mediating technology. It is defined as the mutual influence of individuals’ direct physical presence with their body language and verbal language. It is one of the basic ...

, or cyber-bullying. Smack talk is also a

term used in

sport Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...

s. It refers to inflammatory comments made by a person or team in order to insult, anger, annoy or be boisterous toward their opponents. Although it began as a term used by sports fans and athletes, it has spread to all areas of culture where competition takes place. In the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

, it is synonymous with "trash talk". The social interaction within MMOGs has been observed to be quite active and often leads to long-term social relationships. MMOG groups, such as "teams", "guilds" or "corporations", are composed of groups of people who often initially have no other social contact or interactions with each other. As a result, their conversations contain a subtext of discovery of language skills, social values, and intentions. One of the first indicators of these is the use or offense taken by the usage of smack talk. For the purpose of setting a social context or to comply with MMOG end user license agreement restrictions, MMOG groups may establish bylaws, traditions, or rules (formal or informal) that either permit, discourage, or prohibit the use of smack talk in their conversations and postings.

Talking Shit

Talking shit is a term and type of trash-talk that refers to various types of derogatory language aimed at an individual or any type of entity, such as a group or organisation. Talking shit can be used as a tactic in fighting or brawling, used to draw attention to the matter among onlookers. This is a term that has been coined more recently and is used in reference when someone talks negatively about another person, concept, organisation, or entity. This may or may not include spreading false ideas. The same term can also be used to describe something spoken which is not true, uninteresting or irrelevant. It may be a contraction of Talking Bullshit. It is not to be confused with shitposting, which is when someone posts "content aggressively,

ironically Irony (), in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what on the surface appears to be the case and what is actually the case or to be expected; it is an important rhetorical device and literary technique. Irony can be categorized into d ...

, and trollishly poor quality" to an online forum.

Morality

The ethics of using trash-talk as a strategy is debated. In sports, trash talking is often seen as unsportsmanlike, as throwing insults at opposing players goes beyond the limits and conventions of the game. Some argue, on the other hand, that trash talking can be used as a valid strategy to increase tension in opponents and thus benefit from opponents' poor performance, since any action not explicitly banned in the rules is permitted.

References