who/what is a grasshopper?

i have seen ‘grasshopper’ used on these boards a few times and i have not a clue what its supposed to mean. who or what is a grasshopper?

like a student NM

– Last Updated: Dec-26-07 6:15 PM EST –

actually a message. this was a common phrase in the old kung fu movies; term used by "the wise master."

Yer must be a young whippersnapper
Not ta know about “Grasshopper”.



Reference - Kung Fu…



FE

(Old Fart)

don’t go there FE
me and young danny been around this block before :wink:

i get it
the master speaking down to the student. you refer to someone as a grasshopper when you think you are the master and they are your inferior.














































From the TV show Kung Fu

Observe Grasshopper

– Last Updated: Dec-26-07 6:43 PM EST –

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068093/

Just Showing Our Age
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kung_Fu_(TV_series)

JENKS

Here I splain to U

– Last Updated: Dec-26-07 7:57 PM EST –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCyJRXvPNRo

But wouldn't the ants just eat the grasshopper having that much more food for winter?

Whoa…1972-75
But I think you can still find it playing on cable.

Not quite
It isn’t that the student is “inferior”. We are all students sometimes. It’s often used to indicate that the student is not quite as wise as they think they are…

Predates kung-fu
At least the movie.



It is one of Aesop’s Fabels



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ant_and_the_Grasshopper

yeah yeah

– Last Updated: Dec-26-07 7:59 PM EST –

but that dude WAS a grasshopper. Lazy, live for the moment grasshopper, not like the hard working, industrious, but often unenlightened grasshopper, needing just a wise saying or two from "wise master." Now if the Aesop grasshopper had been advised by the wise old ant how to prep for that mean, cold winter, AND LISTENED, he would have been a grasshopper thru and thru(and possibly gotten his own TV show.)

it is not used condescendingly
in the Kung-fu TV show, but rather with amusement at the enthusiasm of youth.

Grasshoppers are good luck in China.

Kaps

Grasshopper…
…when you can take the pebble from my hand, it will be time for you to leave…

“that was too fast … best 2 out of 3?”

so you have assumed the role
wise master. you and fat elmo. thats interesting.

Not me’…
Ah’ jus’ liked de Kung Fu TV series, before yer time hence de “young whippersnapper”.



FE

call somebody a grasshopper
and you are calling yourself a master. is that the way it works?