Ermahgerd
Where it came from
A photo that hit Reddit in 2012: a wide-eyed girl in a turtleneck clutching three Goosebumps paperbacks. It was actually a goofy snapshot of Maggie Goldenberger as a kid in the late '90s that a friend uploaded years later.
A girl stares dead into the camera with bug eyes, a mouth full of retainer, and three Goosebumps books gripped to her chest like treasure. The caption renders whatever she's saying in full retainer-mush: "Ermahgerd, mah fervrit berks!" ("Oh my god, my favorite books!"). The whole bit is taking a normal sentence and respelling every word the way it'd sound through a faceful of orthodontic hardware. "Gersberms" is Goosebumps. "Ferks yer" is for you.
It was everywhere in 2012. People ran their own photos and unrelated images through the ermahgerd filter, and for about a year you couldn't open a comment section without someone going "mah fervrit." The books and the retainer made it land — she looks completely, sincerely thrilled about a stack of R.L. Stine, and the photo never breaks character.
Very dead now. It's the kind of meme that instantly time-stamps you to 2012 if you use it unironically. Goldenberger, for what it's worth, was a good sport about becoming the face of garbled excitement and gave interviews about it. The photo's iconic; the format's been in the ground for years.
Search interest, over time
↳ data courtesy of google trends
