Why kids call homeless people hobos

Mark Frauenfelder 10:23 am Wed Feb 9, 2011

Above is an episode of Kids React to Viral Videos in which some of the kids refer to the formerly-homeless "golden throated" Ted Williams a hobo. My two daughters and all their friends refer to homeless people as hobos, too. I have tried to explain that homeless people aren't generally hobos, but for some reason this word seems have stuck with kids. I never asked them where they first came up with the idea that homeless people are hobos, but it could be that they picked it up from a TV show for kids called iCarly. Or then again, the writers of iCarly may have picked it up from hearing kids say it. (Personally, I blame Hodgman and Apelad.)

Sociological Images has more:

Since one girl attributed her use of "hobo" to the TV show iCarly, Josh did a little searching and discovered that the show's official website contains a set of photos of the cast dressed up for a Hobo Party, complete with captions that make fun of or trivialize poverty and homelessness, including this first one that refers to the store "C.J. Penniless."

Trivializing homelessness: iCarly and "hobo parties"

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