Vocabulary Lesson: Jerbang

Jerbang is a slang word for people who hang out with juggalos.

OK, that's not fair. "Jerbang" is a somewhat derogatory term for sloppy and slovenly young men and women who revel in an offshoot culture devoted to extreme beverages, poorly orchestrated heavy metal, and a feigning disinterest in moral values. In short, a juggalo is a jerbang, but a Korn, Limp Bizkit, and mall rat is a jerbang too. To be certain, you would not lovingly call you roommate, child, significant other, or friend a jerbang. But you would certainly reserve it for anyone in line to see Buckethead (he's a 40-year-old dude who was in Guns N Roses from 2000–2004 and wears a white mask and—I kid you not, Mom—a KFC bucket on his head).

I learned the word from Andy Sandimas, and because the word had such a significant impact in my vocabulary during my college years, I asked if she would provide her own definition. She obliged over Twitter, writing:

a nu metal kid who shops @ hot topic, wears baggy clothes, spike jewelry, is kind of trashy, usually 12 – 21

The following, rambling, definition was provided on Urban Dictionary. It could use some editing but otherwise more than suffices:

a jerbang is any kid that looks like they are falsely debating suicide every day of their life. the type that wears so much eye make up they cant see their feet. they dress in all black and talk about raving even though none of them know what a rave really is. they shop and work at hot topic and spencers and thinks clowns are cool and so is fire. they dont associate witheach other even though they all think they are the darkest most put upon member of the human race and that basically the world is out to get them even though they are mostly all trust fun kids because seriously who can afford $130 raver pants with streamers hanging off of them and still say they are low income and hated. nthnx.
they listen to icp and may refer to themselves as a juggalo while indulging in such beverages as faygo. they think that korn is really heavy and they feel jonothan davis's pain when he sings about his father touching him. they secretly dislike slipknot because they yell too much but they think they are cool anyway because they all wear masks. rage against the machine was cool because they hated the government and most jerbangs all think that che gueveras face and the anarchy symbol make them peace leaders and doing something to help the government be cleansed.

Harsh! But I worked at Hot Topic one summer in high school, and therefore, dutifully agree.

Additional Resources:

@andysandismas' tweet (background may be NSFW)

Jerbang, Urban Dictionary

Buckethead Wikipedia article

LOL Jerbang (a blog devoted to sharing photographs of jerbangs with humorous captions)

Hot Topic Core, Your Scene Sucks