- Okay so everyone on the internet is arguing about IMHO.
^- Your social media users are in a heated debate
^over the internet acronym IMHO.
- This started with the folks at Buzzfeed
who got into a heated debate over the abbreviation IMHO.
^- And obviously it's--
- Your opinion is obviously honest
why would you have to clarify that?
- I've never read it as "humble".
- Today we're gonna get to the bottom of this.
- I'm gonna talk to the experts.
- And I'm gonna talk to the people.
Let's go.
(pop music)
- So we have to find Lauren
because she's the one who wrote the article
that started this entire debate.
I gotta ask you about IMHO.
What happened?
^- Yes, I mean thank you. You're welcome.
My friend Morgan said something and I responded, "IMHO"
and she goes "I don't know what you're saying."
Then as soon as I said "In my honest opinion,"
I was getting attacked left and right.
My coworkers were like, "In my honest opinion?
^Do you mean 'In my humble opinion?'"
^We've had this huge miscommunication for years
^I don't know you at all.
^- If you say, "In my honest opinion I like your shirt."
- To me I'm like take it or leave it;
in my humble opinion you should cut this joke.
- "In my humble opinion" makes you sound like
you're a prospector from the 1840s.
(mimicking 1840s voice) "In my humble opinion".
- Well there's something humorously.
- [Lauren] The room was divided, it was bloody.
I'm like this is kind of interesting,
let's put it to the masses of the internet.
See what they have to say.
The majority of the people; the popular vote,
were with "honest".
I'm not just giving you my opinion,
I'm giving you my honest opinion!
I'm not gonna sit here and lie to you.
Those who think it's humble,
they just couldn't really face the fact
that they were losing.
Their argument is that there's the phrase
"in my humble opinion,"
which I know.
But nobody says that really anymore.
There was a clear winner.
And it was "honest."
- Lauren's obviously team "honest"
but we're gonna get a second opinion.
I talked to the Buzzfeed news Copy Chief and she said--
^- In my humble opinion.
^Is that 100% on that? Or--
^- I would say it's 100%.
(whooping) - Okay, no.
- That's it! It's humble! That's the answer!
I was right from the beginning.
- Most of the dictionaries that we looked at
are house dictionaries, Merriam Webster,
and they're on team "humble."
On Youznet which is basically like Reddit
before there was Reddit,
came out of a longer acronym;
In My Not So Humble Opinion
and it was used pretty sarcastically.
So the general consensus there was "humble"
and there are many more instances
of "in my humble opinion" than "in my honest opinion."
- When we tweeted the question most people said "honest."
- What that's indicative of
is sort of a generational divide.
Older people are saying humble
and younger people are saying honest.
- So is it possible that the younger people could win
just because old people will die before them?
- Yes.
The one thing we can all agree on
is that the English language is a god damn mess.
- Okay Eric what did the people say?
- The people said. First of all
I just want to say the people don't know anything
and they're not smart. - That's not true.
^- So we're going NYU campus
^because I feel like the kids there probably have the answer.
^They're educated. They take English classes.
Okay they're people but they haven't studied language.
Most people at NYU said that it was "honest."
What does "IMHO" mean?
- In my honest opinion.
- Why?
- Honest?
Because I always think you're being humble
if it's just in your opinion.
- No but I always think you're being honest.
If you're giving an opinion you're gonna be honest.
- No I've given opinions that I have not believed in.
Devil's advocate.
- Whatever!
- Honest would make more sense I think.
- Honest, yeah.
- Why?
- I don't think our generation
uses the word humble anymore unless
it's talking about Kendrick's song,
like sit down be humble?
I mean I don't know.
- Humble or honest?
(groans)
- What'd you say?
- Is it "in my honest opinion?"
or "humble opinion"?
- I don't know.
- Humble or honest?
Well you got it here today,
it means...
- In my honest opinion.
- I don't understand why everybody thinks it's honest.
- It flows better off the tongue,
in my honest opinion or in my humble opinion
I would much rather hear "honest opinion".
- Watch when I asked the older generation
who's wiser and smarter, they said "humble".
- "In my humble opinion."
- Finally! Why?
- It's what my dad always said.
- [Together] Humble.
- These two right here have said there's no debate
it's 100% humble.
- We're old school, man.
- Thank you for solving the problem.
Thank you guys.
Yeah, more people said honest--
- So in a democracy it's honest.
- I asked more younger people than I did older people.
- It doesn't matter because I talked to a linguist
from Columbia.
This is an Ivy League school
where people know what they're talking about.
And she's gonna settle the IMHO debate once and for all.
Right Michelle?
- Absolutely.
^"In my humble opinion," is more like lots of love.
^"In my honest opinion," is more like laughing out loud.
^- 80 years ago people would sign their letters
"LOL; lots of love."
Language changes.
- My mom always texts me LOL when I text her goodnight.
- So she's not laughing at me?
- No she's not laughing at you.
- I thought she was just always laughing at me.
- You're saying you think
"in my honest opinion" is correct.
- I'm not gonna say it's correct.
It is far more commonly used by younger people
than by older people.
It is the new and emergent
and evolving way to say "IMHO".
But really what you wanna say is "IMHO".
"IMHO" doesn't really mean
"In my humble opinion"
or "in my honest opinion"
it means "I am going to tell you my opinion,
whether or not it's appropriate for me to do so or not
but I'm just gonna put my opinion out there."
- It's hedging your strong opinion.
It has its own meaning.
Everyone's wrong.
- So the honest and the humble don't matter?
- Not really.
- Why has there never been a definitive decision though?
- Merriam Webster and Oxford, - Oh Merriam Webster...
they both say humble.
- I would love to know the average age
of the lexicographers in the world.
I would guess it's probably over 25.
I'm not gonna say they're too old to really know.
- Okay I'll say they're too old to really know.
You can't trust them.
Who is the final arbiter of what is the correct definition?
- 100% of 18 to 21 year olds have a cell phone.
If 100% of the young people
are communicating in this language variety
they're gonna win.
- IMHO is basically just going through puberty.
- It is definitely going through puberty.
- So that's the answer.
- IMHO
means something beyond honest or humble.
Let's stop talking about it.
We ended it.
- It's over!
- Let us know your honest-- - No!
- Or humble opinions. - No!
because we just told them it's over!
Don't let us know your honest or humble opinions.
- Okay and the comments!
- Don't you dare comment your opinion on this video
- Whether it be honest or humble,
- Yeah it's over. - We don't wanna hear it.
- We already figured it out.
- We figured it out. You're welcome.