TikTok Users Have Another Meaning for Larp Outside of What It Means in Real Life

You don't have to be well-versed in TikTok vernacular to know what "larp" means. Or, maybe depending on its definition, you do. Outside of TikTok, the word is used in all capital letters to describe live action role-playing as "LARP." But what is the meaning of larp on TikTok? Apparently, it means something else if you see it in a video or in a comment to describe another user.

Why can't some words just remain what they are outside of social media? No one really knows. But what we do know is that there are now multiple meanings of the word larp thanks to some users on TikTok. Like most TikTok lingo, there's no sure way to know who started it or why, but now, it's a whole thing.

According to one user on TikTok, when you use larp to describe someone on the app, it's an insult. It's a way to say that the person is being fake. That goes along with the meaning behind LARP in real life. But apparently, TikTok had to take over the acronym and make it an actual word used on its own.

"Larp or larping is just another way of calling somebody a poser," the user explains in his TikTok. "Basically. It's just like saying they're performative and they don't talk about something that they actually like. It took me a while to figure out what it was 'cause I kept seeing it on TikTok, but I never, like, really understood. But yeah, it's just like another way of calling somebody performative."

You might see someone being accused of larping in the comments under a TikTok or even on another social media platform. Although they probably aren't accusing the person of LARPing in the modern-day medieval festival sense of the acronym, the meaning is rooted in accusing someone of being something they aren't.

Another TikTok user shared in his video that "the word larp has just become a way of calling somebody performative, having a performative online persona." In that case, larp can be used to describe any number of TikTok creators whose online personality doesn't quite line up with who they are in real life.

Outside of TikTok, LARP is used to describe the live action role-playing that individuals do in instances where they dress up and physically portray fictional characters. In many cases, it's characters that they made up themselves in their own LARP game with friends. According to LARP Portal, LARPing involves "community storytelling." Unlike the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, LARPing involves actually dressing up and acting out scenarios.

An experienced LARPer on a Reddit thread replied to a post asking what LARPing actually is. They explained, "It is basically a big game of improv theater, where you are writing your own role. Most events have a specific setting and a main plot. And that's basically it." So, it does differ in some major ways from what larp means in a TikTok format.