Om telolet om (Indonesia)

[Roderick Smith]

December 23 2016 - 'Om Telolet Om': How an Indonesian bus horn took the world by storm .
"What does om telolet om" mean? American DJ duo The Chainsmokers, who have 729,000 Twitter followers, tweeted at 1.22am on December 21.
Dutch DJ and electronic music producer Oliver Heldens tweeted that when he read it he thought of omelettes or eggs.
But in social media-obsessed Indonesia, there was not a kid with a smartphone who did not know about the om telolet om meme that was taking the world by storm.
Put simply, telolet is the onomatopoeic word for the uniquely melodic sound of the horns some intercity bus drivers in Java have installed.
Children have long held up signs urging drivers to "Om Telolet Om" (Uncle, honk your horn, Uncle) along Indonesian National Route One, (Pantura), which passes through five provinces in Java.
But it has become an obsession in Indonesia since a video of children lustily beseeching drivers to honk their horns in Jepara, a regency in Central Java, was uploaded onto Facebook.
"I think that's how people try to kill the time because Jepara lacks places of entertainment," Kusumodestoni, an information technology lecturer at NU College of Technology and Design in Jepara, told Fairfax Media.
But now the children of Jepara have created entertainment for the world.
Tech blogger Aulia Masna suspects there was an organised plot to spam DJs on Twitter and Instagram with cryptic Om Telolet Oms.
"After a while, they would say: 'What is this?' and DJs started looking up YouTube," Mr Masna says.
Musicians included Dutch music producing duo Firebeatz started putting out dance remixes of bus horns.
Billboard wrote that it had found a video clip of the telolet noise and it did sound quite like an electronic arpeggiator. "Perhaps it could make a sampled appearance in the next festival anthem."
By the afternoon of December 21, Om Telolet Om was the number one trending tweet in the world.
"It's incredible, it's hilarious," says Mr Masna.
"When you think you got 2016 figured out this comes at the end. A lot of people are happy this is happening after all the depressing events of 2016 we get this to close it up."
You know something has jumped the shark when not only the mainstream media starts writing about it, but the Indonesian Transport Minister announces a bus honking contest in three weeks time.
And of course the virus has infected politics.One of the tickets in next February's gubernatorial elections, former education minister Anies Baswedan and Sandiaga Uno, posted an "Om Telolet Om" video on YouTube.
"Do you think I am your uncle," the 47-year-old Anies asks after being urged to "Om Telolet Om" by his running mate.
http://www.theage.com.au/world/om-telol ... thazu.html
explanation: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrQ-Ymmv1Ws
a concentrated collection: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrW6cOujEUQ
Om is an Indonesian derivation from the Dutch oma & opa (grandmother & grandfather)

Roderick