locals
Locals is fandom slang for people outside a group who don't know its in-jokes, and plain English for people who live somewhere. Context tells you which.
By Cal Hewitt, Gen X · Researched from public sources ·
What it means
If someone online calls you or your group locals, check what's around the word, because it carries two unrelated meanings. In fandom talk, especially Stan Twitter and the pop and K-pop spaces next to it, locals means people outside that community who don't know its references, running jokes, or who's who. Know Your Meme describes it as slang for someone behind on social trends who acts like a generic, off-brand internet user, used the same way as normie. Say "you're such a local" to someone in a fandom context, and you're telling them they're outside the group and missing the shared reference. Locals is also just standard English. Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary defines the plural noun as people who live in a particular place or district, the sense in a text like "ask the locals for a good taco spot" or a news story about locals reacting to a road closure. The two senses share a word, not a meaning: "the locals were asked about the new stadium" is about residents, while "the locals do not understand why this is funny" is almost certainly about people outside a fandom. The words around it do the work. Stans, a fandom name, memes, or someone not getting a joke point to the online sense. A town, a venue, tourism, or "residents" point to the ordinary one. The Daily Dot describes Stan Twitter users mocking people who wander into their part of the platform, so calling someone a local there usually reads as dismissive, though a lighter line like "the locals found it" can be more of a heads-up than an insult.
See the quick definition in the locals dictionary entry.
How to use it
“the locals found this and now i have to explain everything”
A niche post reached people outside the fandom. More resigned than furious.
“lol you're such a local, that's from 2019”
A direct dig, telling someone they don't know the community's history.
“ask the locals where to eat, they'll know”
The ordinary sense. Just means people who live there.
“locals only, no exceptions”
Surf culture's own phrase, warning outsiders off a specific beach. A different meaning entirely.
Where it came from
Locals as fandom slang traces to Twitter, specifically the split between Stan Twitter and less specialized users, by late 2017. Know Your Meme's entry on the term includes a tweet from November 9, 2017 already using the word, one day before Madisonblegh posted the Urban Dictionary definition that's often pointed to as the term's start. That entry describes locals as generic Twitter users from someone's own area, a term alternative and pop-punk communities used for people outside their scene, and frames it as a less offensive way to say normies.
The visible spread happened in March 2018. Know Your Meme records @touchnick using the word on March 10 in a post about the suspension of the meme accounts @Dory and @Girlposts, a March 11 post from @samsgh_ that gathered more than 11,000 retweets, and a March 13 post from @NathanTriska about keeping the word away from locals that picked up 60 retweets and 300 likes within half an hour. The Daily Dot published an explainer on the term on March 12, right in the middle of that burst, describing a divide between "Stan Twitter" and "locals Twitter."
The word itself isn't new. Merriam-Webster traces ordinary "local" through late Middle English and late Latin localis, from the Latin locus, meaning place. The fandom sense borrows that idea: treat a niche community like a place, and the people outside it become the locals.
No single person is credited, the origin is commonly reported.
Where it's popular
Stan Twitter and neighboring pop, K-pop, and celebrity-fandom spaces, plus the pop-punk and hardcore Twitter scenes where the earliest examples also turn up. Fanlore's K-Pop Stan Twitter wiki also lists locals as the name for outsiders to that fandom culture, though it's a crowd-edited fan wiki rather than a dictionary.
The ordinary, place-based sense isn't tied to any online community. It's standard English wherever locals means residents, from travel writing to local news.
How it caught on
- November 9, 2017Know Your Meme's entry on locals includes a tweet already using the term, one day before the widely cited Urban Dictionary definition.
- November 10, 2017Madisonblegh's Urban Dictionary entry defines locals as generic Twitter users from one's own area, used by alternative and pop-punk communities for people outside their scene.
- March 10, 2018@touchnick used the term in a post about the suspension of the meme accounts @Dory and @Girlposts, per Know Your Meme.
- March 11, 2018A post from @samsgh_ using the term gained more than 11,000 retweets, per Know Your Meme.
- March 12, 2018The Daily Dot published an explainer on the term, describing a split between "Stan Twitter" and "locals Twitter."
- March 13, 2018A post from @NathanTriska about keeping the word away from locals earned 60 retweets and 300 likes within half an hour, per Know Your Meme.
- May 2, 2024The Daily Dot quoted a Taylor Swift fan using locals for "basic people who simply like what's popular" and can't handle a demanding album, showing the term still active in fandom talk.
Common mix-ups
An older reader who sees "the locals don't get it" is likely to read locals as literally people from a town, since that's the meaning most adults know. Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary defines the plural noun that way: people who live in a particular place or district. Words nearby settle which sense is meant. Stans, a fandom, memes, or someone missing a reference point to the outsider sense; a town name, tourism, or "residents" point to the ordinary one. "Locals only" is a separate surf culture phrase warning outsiders off a specific beach, and it isn't related to the fandom sense.
Test yourself
Local or a local?
0/21. A tweet says "explaining this meme to the locals again, smh." What's it most likely about?
2. According to Know Your Meme, where does the fandom sense of locals trace to?
Related slang
Questions people ask
What does "locals" mean in slang?
In fandom and Stan Twitter slang, locals means people outside a particular internet community who don't know its references or in-jokes. Know Your Meme describes it as someone behind on social trends who acts like a generic, off-brand internet user, used the same way as normie.
What does "locals only" mean?
Locals only is a separate, older surf culture phrase: a warning that a beach or a break belongs to the people who surf it regularly, aimed at newcomers. It's about territory, not about knowing a fandom's slang, and it isn't related to the Stan Twitter sense of locals.
What do local people mean?
In everyday English, local people, or "the locals," means people who live in a particular place or district, per Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. That's the sense in a line like "ask the locals for a good taco spot," and it has nothing to do with a fandom.
What do you call locals?
It depends which locals you mean. For the fandom sense, people often say normie, non-fan, or outsider. For the everyday sense, resident or people who live there covers it. Normie is the closest slang match, though it gets used across many online subcultures instead of just one.
Who first used "locals" this way?
No single coiner is documented. Know Your Meme says the term was already circulating on Twitter before the widely cited November 10, 2017 Urban Dictionary entry, including a tweet from November 9, 2017, one day earlier, which rules out treating that entry as the origin point.
Is it an insult to call someone a local?
Usually, yes. The Daily Dot describes Stan Twitter users mocking people who wander into their part of the platform, and Know Your Meme's examples show locals being unable to decode fandom slang or blamed for ruining things for real fans. It isn't a slur and there's no rule about who can say it, but it's rarely a compliment.
Know Your Meme's entry on locals includes a tweet from November 9, 2017, using the term a full day before the Urban Dictionary definition many people point to as its start.
- https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/locals
- https://web.archive.org/web/20241103025853/https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/locals-twitter/
- https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/local_2
- https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/local
- https://dailydot.com/taylor-swift-fans-gatekeeping-after-latest-album
- https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Locals
- https://fanlore.org/wiki/K-Pop_Stan_Twitter
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