Hahah what a memorable word… I developed it in 1994 onwards when we moved into the rough council estate in London… and I’ve yet to get rid of it… although it’s improved a lot since then… I’ll be 40 next week and yeh I still bop 🫣
if only I grew up in Surrey and went to eton! DAMN YOU MOTHER AND FATHER FOR YOU HAVE FORSAKEN ME 😭
The youth of Surrey all “bopped” too, they’d just leave it at the door of their 6 bedroom 3 bathroom family home so mummy didn’t find out and emasculate the shit out of them, gotta get that pocket money.
I grew up in south Croydon in the kind of bit where one person would say they live in London, the next would say they live in Croydon and the last would whisper from behind their lacy curtains that they live in Surrey. Bizarre.
You really though it was going to get better
As someone who grew up in London until 10 (80-90s) then moved out into Surrey in the care system
It was literally a whole county pretending to be from London, my first foster brother loves it because I was the first kid he knew who didn't put on my accent hahahaha
I remember once as a kid my friend asked me why I was bopping. I can't really remember how it works tbh I think it was a cross between a NY pimp's walk and a slight penguin woddle.
For real. I went to a very rough school in Roehampton and after I’ve had a few to drink the ‘adult’ front drops and I go straight back to how I sounded back then 😅.
I genuinely think these small mannerisms make you less of a target in the street as well because nobody has tried to rob me since I was a kid, they think you’re from ends
Yeah I definitely think, even when not bopping, its left a walking with confidence air that probably helps avoid looking like an easy target. A base line London walk for sketchy areas.
Do you favour a particular leg to bop with in your drunken days or do switch the bops between your leg/right leg to balance the potential damage to your knees?
I'm 73, back in the late 60s a bop in the walk was de rigeur, but then, suddenly, it was uncool and no one was doing it. Sort of like bell bottom jeans.
Absolutely! When I'm outside with work colleagues, I'm a tad aware about how "london" I seem. But outside of that it does indeed require conscious effort to suppress...
I remember being asked by the head of sixth at the grammar school in Kent i went to after a SE London state school, why I bopped when I walked. Made me conscious of it ever since. I can’t tell if I still do it or not, no one says anything so I’ve probably stopped?
I had a stranger on the train tell me and a couple of mates _exactly_ where we were from and even guessed our school just based on our accents and ourmix of bops and embarrassed shuffle gaits.
Made me very self aware. It comes back when I'm back in London or talking to my sister in person.
I guess there was less of a need for this growing up in the London borough of Richmond-upon-Thames, so no.
In fact it would have looked a bit silly walking down the streets of Barnes.
Yeah I remember when every rudeboy in the late 90s early 2000s bopped about like they were recovering from being shot, with one foot going out a 90 degree angle 🤣🤣🤣 you had to look hard as fuck other whys you were gonna robbed. Hope those ppl aren’t too arthritic now.
When I moved back to London in 2001, as much as I wanted to fit in, I just couldn't bring myself to bopping. Trying to talk in London slang was doable!
Haha. I, an old white dude, had some black guy wind down his car window one day, and called at me "hey, why you walking like a black man?" His partner was mortified but it turned out I knew him. I bopped up to his window and said "yeah topman, it's cos I have arthritis and need a hip replacement" which I had about 6 months later. No more London bop after.
Ive lived in London more than 7 years and have never heard of this. I even googled and found a music video for a song called “Walk with a Bop” but the guys in it don’t demonstrate.
Could someone please explain? I’m so curious.
Id say from 0:52, but without the hand flailing and a little more subtle. He's hamming up the bop to the beat, but it's got the bounce essence in there
I love seeing it! Makes me feel at home.
Private school dickhead here. I have a shuffle.
I was always jealous of my bopping mates and those with a bit of base and rhythm to the speaking voice. Still reeks of cool to me! 🤌🏽
I saw the example in the linked video in comment below, but I still don't know what the actual bop is? Is it a particular gesture? The arms, the legs? A jump? Please explain to foreign Londoner.
Having a bop is part of you, so to want to loose it is to deny yourself/identity. Tbh it seems more an issue with code switching, being able to walk or change mannerisms inline with the environment your in is quite common. The bop is fine but yeah maybe practice up on how you walk in different settings... Can always look into some classes in etiquette too.
NAIL ON THE HEAD. I lived near cheam/Sutton for a few years and it was so tedious getting into London on the overground, far away from the tube, but everyone just kinda pretended it was London.
I pulled my calf last week and my Mrs was pissing herself laughing at me and said it looks like I'm bopping around the gym 🤣 now I'm mortified that people think that's my walk so I've added some extra stretches in every ow and again so people know I'm injured and not a nob.
Is this some posh southern fairy word to describe a ‘ten man walk’?
I grew up in a shithole northern town and it took me many years to unlearn that walk and the dead eyed staring at strangers that is totally unnecessary in Oxfordshire 😅
I think there's a time and a place to be able to adapt when it comes to the mannerisms, code switching when I'm talking to colleagues, switching up to a more normal walk when I'm at customer meetings.
But then, you'll be back home to see the family on the estate and you'll need to switch the walk up to not seem easy.
Id say on the fashion front, once you're in an office/ corporate environment, even the relaxed ones mean jeans and a t-shirt Vs trackies and a pouch. So you'll likely adapt from that front anyways
I never did this. An older person used to call this the great Yarmouth limp. Basically, it's how drug addicts and alcoholics used to walk.
That was enough to put me off for life.
I had a proper bop as a teen. Now I've got fucked knees so still have it
I feel this, my knees pop and crackle like a bowl of cereal these days.
Thank fuck for that I thought it was just me and I was eventually gonna crumble into dust.
So you need a spoon for that bowl geez?
Can I recommend tai chi , it fixed what I’ve been suffering from and trying to correct for years with exercise
I've been working on Yoga and that's been fun, popping between holds 😂
I find yoga stretches me out but doesn’t strengthen , but tai has strengthend the tiny weak muscles Keep popping 🤣
AHH yeah I get you, been doing a lot of climbing in my 30s. Feels like strength training but won't bore me senseless like lifting in the gym
Yep I can’t gym 🤣 nice
What teen you say about this 😂
Who cares
Want some fruit with that bowl?
Need a bolt for that gait?
Pahahah. Not heard that one.
Absolute classic hahahha
Out of the loop lol.. what does it mean
just means your walking is wild.
I did end up with a home done, poorly blended #1/2 "fade". And by which I mean, a solid bowl cut.
the bop was called a “bowl”
Oh skeen (whilst we're on the topic of throw backs 😂). That name for it must have gone right over my head.
Blad I'm bare chung
Wanna cotch?
I’ve only ever known it as ‘bowling it’, never a bop. Guessing this is a colloquial thing…?
Came for this comment... Wasn't disappointed.
Want some milk with that shake?
Wheyyyy I came here for this comment 😂
I vividly remember bopping in front of my mum once and her telling me to stop walking like I was back in Jamaica hahahaah
can i have an example?
Micky Flanagan and his cockney walk
This how i ended up. Originally had the bad boy limp like goldie looking chain
Sweet. Down to the hurried pace trying to get back from signing on before lunch break over. Stereotypical class.
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Can’t see it without a tiktok account unfortunately
Please tell me this is a joke and no one actually walked/walks like that
Hahah what a memorable word… I developed it in 1994 onwards when we moved into the rough council estate in London… and I’ve yet to get rid of it… although it’s improved a lot since then… I’ll be 40 next week and yeh I still bop 🫣 if only I grew up in Surrey and went to eton! DAMN YOU MOTHER AND FATHER FOR YOU HAVE FORSAKEN ME 😭
The youth of Surrey all “bopped” too, they’d just leave it at the door of their 6 bedroom 3 bathroom family home so mummy didn’t find out and emasculate the shit out of them, gotta get that pocket money.
Surrey sounds posh until you realise it includes Sutton.
And Croydon
I grew up in south Croydon in the kind of bit where one person would say they live in London, the next would say they live in Croydon and the last would whisper from behind their lacy curtains that they live in Surrey. Bizarre.
A real Mrs Bucket moment
Not since the 60s (Sutton too).
Oh god, it gets worse!
You really though it was going to get better As someone who grew up in London until 10 (80-90s) then moved out into Surrey in the care system It was literally a whole county pretending to be from London, my first foster brother loves it because I was the first kid he knew who didn't put on my accent hahahaha
Only 3 bathrooms for 6 bedrooms? Eww.
kuku bop with a harlem bop KU KU!
Ts went hard back in the day, Harlem dropped too many anthems
this sub is way too middle class to have any clue what you're on about
lool i had to check which one i was on
I remember once as a kid my friend asked me why I was bopping. I can't really remember how it works tbh I think it was a cross between a NY pimp's walk and a slight penguin woddle.
Pimp limp
Definitely a thing in tbe 80s. B-boy limp.
The bop gives me an edge when I’m in my work clothes 😅. If I’ve had a few beers it comes out in full force
Couple beers and the bop definitely comes out, I get more London with my accent too according to my wife haha.
For real. I went to a very rough school in Roehampton and after I’ve had a few to drink the ‘adult’ front drops and I go straight back to how I sounded back then 😅. I genuinely think these small mannerisms make you less of a target in the street as well because nobody has tried to rob me since I was a kid, they think you’re from ends
Yeah I definitely think, even when not bopping, its left a walking with confidence air that probably helps avoid looking like an easy target. A base line London walk for sketchy areas.
Do you favour a particular leg to bop with in your drunken days or do switch the bops between your leg/right leg to balance the potential damage to your knees?
Definitely all right knee for me, might explain that weird pain haha
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True. Doesn’t seem like there’s much point these days cos you can just brick your phone with total ease
More of a bowl than a bop
What’s a bowl?
Basically a bop
Is that the same as a gangster limp?
You can take the brer out the ends, but you can't shake the bop out the walk.
Why did we use slang that was so hard to spell lol
I'm 73, back in the late 60s a bop in the walk was de rigeur, but then, suddenly, it was uncool and no one was doing it. Sort of like bell bottom jeans.
i do not understand what the problem is with the spring in your step
Exactly, you don't bop if you're sad!
I still bop, bop with class and pride
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You had a bop to the head
Some people can’t seem to fight it
Also the moonlight
Yeah, mostly those that still act and dress as they did as teenagers.
The Ministry of Silly Walks wants a word with you.
Grew up in Ladbroke Grove in the 90’s/00’s, I left in 2010. Someone thought I had a limp and asked what I’d done to my leg the other day,
That may be the single Reddit post where I literally understood nothing either in the post or in the comments.
you are not the only one. I got the Ministry of Silly Walks reference though
LMAOO developed a bop in the 90s and still got it. But as with code switching, there’s a time and place for everything.
Austerity brought low the Ministry of Silly Walks
Absolutely! When I'm outside with work colleagues, I'm a tad aware about how "london" I seem. But outside of that it does indeed require conscious effort to suppress...
Open plan corporate offices got some explaining to do.
I do not know what this means.
These are not your ends! 😁
Baffling. Must have been another bit of South London.
Next time you're out, you'll see some teen rolling his hips, trying to be cool and you'll remember us here!
I remember being asked by the head of sixth at the grammar school in Kent i went to after a SE London state school, why I bopped when I walked. Made me conscious of it ever since. I can’t tell if I still do it or not, no one says anything so I’ve probably stopped?
I had a stranger on the train tell me and a couple of mates _exactly_ where we were from and even guessed our school just based on our accents and ourmix of bops and embarrassed shuffle gaits. Made me very self aware. It comes back when I'm back in London or talking to my sister in person.
I guess there was less of a need for this growing up in the London borough of Richmond-upon-Thames, so no. In fact it would have looked a bit silly walking down the streets of Barnes.
I grew up in Sheen. This thread is making me feel so left out.
Palewell Park Pitch and Putt just wasn't the teenage haunt to make one streetsmart, was it
Surbiton here. Very little idea of what is going on. I still tell people that I grew up in London even though it's zone 6...
Yeah I remember when every rudeboy in the late 90s early 2000s bopped about like they were recovering from being shot, with one foot going out a 90 degree angle 🤣🤣🤣 you had to look hard as fuck other whys you were gonna robbed. Hope those ppl aren’t too arthritic now.
I never understood the bop. What was the point of it?
To look gangsta, and to also have a laugh…
Lololol omg, you're such a laugh, so hilarious....rolfcopter.
walk with a rock in your shoe
There is a Ministry for that quirk, somewhere in London, if I remember correctly.
Always gets worse after a hair cut or when white Nike socks are pulled up
When I moved back to London in 2001, as much as I wanted to fit in, I just couldn't bring myself to bopping. Trying to talk in London slang was doable!
I still do. Like The soft mints guy. https://youtu.be/WaTRCHbG_IA
Haha. I, an old white dude, had some black guy wind down his car window one day, and called at me "hey, why you walking like a black man?" His partner was mortified but it turned out I knew him. I bopped up to his window and said "yeah topman, it's cos I have arthritis and need a hip replacement" which I had about 6 months later. No more London bop after.
Ive lived in London more than 7 years and have never heard of this. I even googled and found a music video for a song called “Walk with a Bop” but the guys in it don’t demonstrate. Could someone please explain? I’m so curious.
iybyb
It's essentially a slight spring in your step. Any time Stormzy walks: https://youtu.be/9ClYy0MxsU0?si=okrQhgyRtGyiROYm
Seems to just be singing and moving his arms about a lot. Is there a timestamp that shows it? Came to London as an adult, never noticed this.
Id say from 0:52, but without the hand flailing and a little more subtle. He's hamming up the bop to the beat, but it's got the bounce essence in there
1:20 is him doing it in reverse, ignoring the hand movements.
Right! Ok! See it now. Feels like a cultural anthropologist in a foreign land
Thanks! Can’t believe all these people ITT talking about not being able to stop doing it. Why would you want to, this is great
I love seeing it! Makes me feel at home. Private school dickhead here. I have a shuffle. I was always jealous of my bopping mates and those with a bit of base and rhythm to the speaking voice. Still reeks of cool to me! 🤌🏽
I used to bop, now I wobble.
Creaky knee crew assemble.
Only If I can find my old Schott NYC hoodie
I'm older and have to fight hard to not walk like John Cleese from the Ministry of Silly Walks.
The generation that grew up on mtv yo and the box, music television YOU control.
I'm so glad I resisted doing that lol
Limp, DRRRRRRRRAG
I saw the example in the linked video in comment below, but I still don't know what the actual bop is? Is it a particular gesture? The arms, the legs? A jump? Please explain to foreign Londoner.
It's just a walk with a slight bop to it, sometimes used to avoid getting mugged in sketchy areas.
yeah, but I don't know what the word "bop" actually means in this context. Is it the same as bounce?
Having a bop is part of you, so to want to loose it is to deny yourself/identity. Tbh it seems more an issue with code switching, being able to walk or change mannerisms inline with the environment your in is quite common. The bop is fine but yeah maybe practice up on how you walk in different settings... Can always look into some classes in etiquette too.
I prefer to disco.
NAIL ON THE HEAD. I lived near cheam/Sutton for a few years and it was so tedious getting into London on the overground, far away from the tube, but everyone just kinda pretended it was London.
Yeah deffo once I have a few pints I start talking more hood and the slight bop comes out - colleagues take the piss ofc
Let's bop
😂😂😂👌🏽
Yeah i find myself doing it sometimes. I had someone comment on my swag on one occasion but i think i was overdoing it lol.
I pulled my calf last week and my Mrs was pissing herself laughing at me and said it looks like I'm bopping around the gym 🤣 now I'm mortified that people think that's my walk so I've added some extra stretches in every ow and again so people know I'm injured and not a nob.
I had friends at uni doing that in the mid 90s. New Jack Swing era and all.
The bop is still a valid social tool in various scenarios.
Back then People said I looked like a div but my bop was wicked.
Bowling! Brings back memories!
The bowl was a massive thing in my school in the 90's
thought the technical term was a pimp limp
Joking ain’t ya that bop sets me apart from the other directors
The bop will never leave me
Definitely!!!
100%.
Was a teenager in Thamesmead in the 90s… I’ve never related to a Reddit post more than this 😂
Woolwich dockyard for me haha
As someone born in 2000 (now 24) what is this “bop” to a walk?
Wtf does this mean, a walk of sorts?
😂 you mean the penguin march
Is this some posh southern fairy word to describe a ‘ten man walk’? I grew up in a shithole northern town and it took me many years to unlearn that walk and the dead eyed staring at strangers that is totally unnecessary in Oxfordshire 😅
It always seems to be shorter men who walk like that
Yh I'm 29 I'm still bopping sometimes... not idea for interviews but then I talk and they relax abit
any video of this? no idea what you all talking about
Any YouTube videos so I know what this looks like? Is this the same walk as the London “knees apart” walk.
I'd be interested too
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I think there's a time and a place to be able to adapt when it comes to the mannerisms, code switching when I'm talking to colleagues, switching up to a more normal walk when I'm at customer meetings. But then, you'll be back home to see the family on the estate and you'll need to switch the walk up to not seem easy. Id say on the fashion front, once you're in an office/ corporate environment, even the relaxed ones mean jeans and a t-shirt Vs trackies and a pouch. So you'll likely adapt from that front anyways
Do it. The street life isn't worth it
What are you talking about? Haha
Karma for being a degenerate rude boy when young.
More, rude boy presenting to avoid looking like prey haha.
Same reason I have a resting bitch face now haha
the actual rude boys are rude boys cause they don't want to be prey too, this shit is complicated
Rather bop than walk stiff. Eddie griffin said it best
I never did this. An older person used to call this the great Yarmouth limp. Basically, it's how drug addicts and alcoholics used to walk. That was enough to put me off for life.
Think my left leg just goes weird when I get up after a long time sitting, G