While having a conversation with Dave Wastall the other day on IM, a familiar scenario played it’s self out. Dave said something that was mildly funny; Nothing that actually made me laugh out loud but enough to make me smile. I wanted to express my moderate joy, however I did not know how. So I resorted to what we all resort to.

“Lol”.

I have nothing against “lol.” I use it all the time, in fact I have been known to say it on (many) occasion. The issue was that I did not ‘laugh out loud’ and therefore this was an incorrect phrase to use.

So I consulted with Dave and he came up with a suggestion to use in this situation: “heheh”. This is does not have the loudness of ‘haha’ but keeps the subtlety of ‘lol’. “heheh” is the sound you make when you quietly chuckle to your self. Try it. Say “heheh”. You see what I mean? An accurate description.

Please Note. This is not to be mixed up with the slightly feminine and childish (and maybe a little camp?) ‘hehe’ or even worse ‘tehe’. That extra ‘h’ at the end makes all the difference.

So from now on, I shall use “heheh” as my new “lol”. Unless I actually do laugh. Then I will use lol. Obviously. Thoughts?