You should probably familiarize yourself with a language before publicly using its terminology. But this thought apparently didn’t occur to political commentator and Fox News “Nation” contributor Tomi Lahren, a popular Donald Trump supporter. A video of Lahren using the Hindi word for owl went viral on social media Tuesday after Lahren used the literal translation of the word as opposed to understanding the cultural significance of it.
"Trump 2020 is all about Keeping America Great because President Trump is wise like an owl, or as you guys would say in Hindi - President Trump is wise like an Ulloo. I hope I said that right," Lahren said in the video. While her pronunciation wasn’t too bad, what she failed to understand is that in both Hindi and Urdu, as well as other widely spoken South Asian languages, the term “ullu” or “ulloo” is used as an insult. So while “ulloo” translates to owl its cultural significance is not the same, an “ulloo” isn’t someone wise in India—it’s someone foolish.
South Asian Twitter users were quick to notice the mistake. Many took to reposting the video agreeing that they also believed Trump is an “ulloo.” Lahren’s attempt to relate to Indian Trump supporters was a great fail; instead of being praised for her attempt to speak Hindi she became a hilarious and viral “ulloo.” Her video garnered views not only on social media but messaging platforms, finding its way to the infamous Whatsapp news base as an American failing to understand cultural nuances. While the original clip recorded and shared by Lahren has since then been deleted from her social media, it exists in reposts worldwide.
According to The Independent, Lahren first gained national attention as a conservative host on TheBlaze. She was frequently praised by the right for segments in which she criticized liberal politics, but in 2017, she was suspended from TheBlaze after expressing her support for abortion an interview on The View. Following that incident, she began working for the Great America Alliance, a group dedicated to supporting Trump, The Independent reported.
While Lahren is being credited as the “ulloo” who failed to realize she called Trump an idiot or “jackass” in some translational slang, South Asian comedian Ali-Asghar Abedi claimed on Twitter that it was actually his idea.
“In case it wasn’t clear, I’m the person who pranked Tomi Lahren, and I did it via @BookCameo. Best $85 I’ve ever spent,” Abedi wrote on Twitter.
In an article written for The Independent, Abedi alleged he pranked Lahren to think she was calling Trump wise. “Lahren thought she was calling Trump wise but ended up insulting the man whose presidency her entire career is based on,” he wrote. “Maybe her brain was fried from taking the President's advice about ingesting bleach. Or maybe she was easily duped because she's lacking in intellectual curiosity and only offers arguments that a toddler would call reductive. Either way, waging $85 that she wouldn’t bother to research the meaning of “ulloo” felt like a safe bet.”
It’s true even if someone paid Lahren to say the word “ulloo” a quick Google search of what it means would find variations of the word in phrases all yielding to negative results. An incident like this reminds one of the times as a child people would give you the wrong meaning of a word in a different language or the viral tattoos of people who think they have one inspirational phrase written when in reality their tattoo says “pizza” in Arabic.
Abedi cited other political commentators who allegedly fell victim to the same pranks including Ben Shapiro, Jesse Watters, Mark Levin, Sarah Palin, and Kimberly Guifoyle. It goes to show that research is always key and blind trust, which many Trump supporters have, isn’t always the answer— when in doubt, fact check.
In the end, I’d say Lahren’s $85 investment was a great one. It may not have looked well for her but it provided South Asians some well-deserved comedy. Besides not many will disagree that Trump is indeed an “ulloo.”