Are You Talking, or Are You ‘Yapping’?

Have you ever been told you have the gift of gab? Did your school report cards suggest you pipe down in class? Perhaps you’ve been called a chatterbox on an occasion or two?

If you answered yes to one or more of those questions, you might be a yapper.

Terms like yapper, yap and yapping have become popular on TikTok in recent weeks. To yap, in modern parlance, is simply to talk … a lot, often about something of little importance.

“In the internet context, I would say somebody that’s a yapper is somebody that talks too much or is an over-sharer,” said Taylor-Nicole Limas, a 27-year-old influencer and self-proclaimed yapper in Chicago. “Somebody that just keeps on talking to fill the air. If it gets quiet, they just don’t stop talking.”

Users might post a video of themselves yapping, talking at length about a given topic — perhaps something they feel moved to rant about or a subject in which they are an armchair expert. Or someone might be called a yapper in the comments of a video (whether the speaker intended to yap or not).

Being labeled a yapper isn’t necessarily a compliment, but on a platform built on talk, it isn’t an insult either.

Some creators have cheerfully embraced the moniker. Last summer, the TikTokers @bag_and_cj became known for videos in which they react to other TikTok videos with rambling commentary. The duo was named Yip and Yap by their fans. (An occasional third participant is known as Yop.)