#15. 낚시, 떡밥 -- Trolling, or fishing for reaction

The anonymity of the internet sometimes tempts us to do strange things. We are safe to prank people, we can mock people, and we can get involved in a fight. What's the worst that could happen? Some people might get mad at us, but all we have to do is turn off the computer, and all that is behind us. In the anglophone culture, we call this type of behaviour "trolling."

There are two theories for the origin of this word.

The first hypothesis is that these internet rogues are named after the Scandinavian monster "troll" that is often hostile and aggressive. I am all for this hypothesis -- what a wonderful way to describe that dark corner of our minds that propel us to do strange things on the internet!

The second hypothesis is equally compelling as the first. It says that "trolling" came from the word "trawling," which means to drag the net in the ocean to catch the fish. This is exactly what the trolls do on the internet. Stir up the vast ocean of the internet in hopes of getting lots of reactions from other internet users.

Shockingly, although Korean is completely disconnected from English in terms of linguistics, the Korean word for "trolling" comes from an identical background as its English counterpart. If you wanted to see if someone was trolling on the internet, you might say "Are you trolling?" In Korean slang, the appropriate thing to say would be:

낚시하냐?

"낚시" is Korean for "fishing," so it seems that the Korean internet users decided that the second hypothesis for the origins of "trolling" was more appropriate, or at least, more humorous (It often seems to be the case that the most important requirement for a successful Korean internet slang word is in its humour, so the second hypothesis is just so much more promising!) When you're intentionally trolling, you can use the verb "낚다" or "to fish" to say things like "오늘도 한번 낚아볼까?" (shall I try to fish people again today?)

When the Koreans have fallen into a clever trap, they tend to acknowledge the humour in the situation, and concede defeat by saying "낚였다" (you have fished me). When the Koreans spot someone successfully being fished by another internet user, they sometimes write "파닥파닥," which is an onomatopoeia that describes the sound that a freshly caught fish makes, to mock the hapless victim.

The Korean internet users might upload pictures like this to mock those who reacted to the trolling.

When a particular user is particularly skilled at trolling the other users, he might be dubbed "강태공." This 강태공 (강 is his last name, and 태공 is his governmental title, similar to a marquis) was a very gifted Chinese politician who helped King Wen overthrow the Shang dynasty and establish the Zhou dynasty. However, he waited for years for King Wen to recognize his talent and to hire him, by studying politics on his own in the countryside, and fishing in the nearby river to provide for himself.

And just like in English, if some internet user seems to be looking to muddy up the waters (we would probably call that "baiting," as in "clickbait,") the Koreans would say "떡밥을 뿌리다," or "scatter the bait." When someone reacts to the bait, this is described as "떡밥을 물다," or "take a bite out of the bait."

Staying true to the original analogy, though, the word "떡밥" now means any material that has the potential to stir up a reaction among the others. These two words, "낚시" and "떡밥" have become so commonplace that they even left the internet. In particular, "떡밥" is often used in dramas or webtoons, when an episode introduces a new element that has the potential to significantly impact the future events.

For example, suppose that your favourite drama ended by zooming in on a mysterious new character. This is definitely a bait that lures you to watch the next episode, to find out who this new character is. The Koreans would say, "떡밥만 뿌리고 끝나네," meaning "they just baited us and ended the episode." When all loose ends are tied up and all conflicts cleared, the Koreans would say "떡밥 회수 완료," or "the collection of all bait has been completed." On some of the comments, you might see some Koreans begging the writers or producers to tie up all the loose ends, by saying, "떡밥은 언제 회수하실겁니까?" (when will you take back all the bait?) or "아직 떡밥이 너무 많이 남았네" (still a lot of bait remains.)

All of the above expressions, although still slang, is not particularly offensive, and you could probably use it with anyone (but avoid using these at very formal occasions, just in case!)

Finally, the Koreans also use the "troll" analogy as well, although it is not as extensive as the fishing analogy. There is a word called "병먹금," which just takes the first letters of the phrase "병신 먹이 금지" (idiot feeding forbidden). It quite literally means, "Don't feed the trolls!" This expression is a bit more offensive, since "병신" (in the literal sense, it means a cripple, although most of the time it's more natural to interpret it as an idiot) is nested squarely in the swear word category. The word "병먹금" really is only for the internet!