Talking In Code

One of the things I always love about a good Big Brother season is how these small groups of people, locked in a house with no outside exposure for weeks, start to develop their own lingo and culture. Those of us observing them for hours on end actually understand what they mean, much to our horror. To everyone else, they look absolutely... bonkers. Even more so than usual.

Talla's Talk Show - another weird cultural aspect of the house. Yes, that's a lint roller.

So far I've noticed the following inside jokes making the rounds on the feeds:

"Integers!" : I'm still not entirely clear what this stands for or where it started, but it seems like they're using it as a swear word replacement. Someone suggested on Twitter that it referred to "baby steps", but that didn't seem to work in the contexts where I heard it. It also seemed to be associated with AJ for some reason, so we may not hear too much of it from now on.

"Jillbot" : House nickname for Jillian, used mostly by the boys, especially Peter.

"Lalla" : Early house nickname for Talla, though it's fallen out of favor lately.

"Jumper": A term coined by Topaz to refer to Talla's game. "She's not a floater, she's a jumper." She hasn't defined what it means, but you can figure it out.

Gary also has a variety of multiple personalities, of course, though they've been subdued in the last few days.

Then there are the strange inside jokes that make the broadcast shows out of context, perplexing viewers who don't understand the strange subcultures the houseguests have created. One of my all-time favorite examples is from when Eric Stein decided to "pet the cat" behind Julie Chen during a BB8 live show, which made total sense - if you were watching the feeds.

Rehearsing for the nomination ceremony (seriously)

Alec's nomination speech last week fell into that category. Why on earth did he nominate AJ for being too close to Topaz? Mostly because they all thought it would be funny. He and AJ planned it in the Head of Household room the night before.

That said, I think we all know that when the feeds come back up after this four-day blackout, we won't have any clue what's going on for some time. A lot can happen in four days, and it seems like even more is happening than usual right now. Will we even recognize the place tomorrow night?