One of the most used slang in Malaysia at the moment is poyo (pronounced Poe Yoe). It is so popular even the non-Malays understand and use it. Poyo is used by almost every generation in Malaysia from children, teenager, young adults to adults.
When a person is labelled as poyo or called a poyo, he/she is assumed to be a kind of show off, an attention seeker or an over enthusiastic person. It has also been overused to the extent of labelling an exaggerator, an over reacting or over excited person as poyo. Poyo is often used with negative intentions, which I think is wrong and should not be that way. Someone who is outspoken is often called a poyo, those proactive and brave students in class are also often labelled as poyo. I think this word has been misunderstood, overused and misled from its original meaning. Lets see how this word is derived and coined.
Online Urban Dictionary has stated that poyo might originated from the video game character Kirby.
* Kirby (カービィ Kābī?) is the main protagonist of Nintendo's Kirby video game series created by Masahiro Sakurai at HAL Laboratory. The Kirby series is one of Nintendo's many well-known game franchises, spanning nearly twenty games since 1992. Kirby is described in his games as a small pink puff ball, who is a citizen of Dream Land (プププランド Pupupurando?, lit. "Pupupu Land") on the planet Pop Star. Kirby has a positive attitude, and helps to save Dream Land through the use of his unique powers. Although (or perhaps because) he appears cute and innocent, many commercials and ads have showcased this as a contrast to his extreme fighting skills when he takes on the abilities of an enemy. Kirby is a character of few words and rarely speaks in-game. His dialogue is largely limited to appearances in some games' instruction manuals, and brief comments such as "Hi!" or "Poyo!".
* Since he first appeared in Kirby's Dream Land, Kirby has received positive reception. GamesRadar listed Kirby as one of the most lovable blobs, calling him one of the cutest things to appear in a Nintendo game, yet also calling him nothing in the way he defeats his enemies. He ranked sixth on IGN's top 10 veteran Super Smash Bros. characters, described as the "pinkest badass ever made."
* summarized from Wikipedia
Urban Dictionary also said that many believe it may also be a form of poyopoyo which is Japanese for toddling.
* Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki (ポヨポヨ観察日記 Poyopoyo Observation Diary?) is a Japanese manga series created by Rū Tatsuki about a spherical cat named Poyo and the family that adopts him. The slice of life stories only have very mild continuity between them, and can be taken as stand-alone episodes. Episodes often deal with regular day-to-day interactions between family members, occasionally showing how family members celebrate holidays or deal with everyday inconveniences like rainstorms. At first, younger brother Hide dislikes Poyo (Hide is younger brother of Moe, Moe found and adopted Poyo), but as the stories continue, we see that Hide has grown somewhat attached to the family pet.
* summarized from Wikipedia
The series revolved around situations people encounters when living with a cat. From reviews about this series on the net, I assumed that Poyo is a little cat who can be really cute and whacky without being annoying. (note : whacky or ludicrous means so foolish, unreasonable or out of place to be amusing.)
From the above notes, I think it is believable to say that poyo as used in the Malaysian slang is derived from either the Nintendo video game`s character Kirby who likes to say "Poyo!", or from Poyo the cat in the Poyopoyo manga series. As underlined above, Kirby has a positive attitude, unique powers, appears cute and innocent, has extreme fighting skills, rarely speaks/only give brief comments, loveable, and at the same time a badass. (note : badass is a tough, aggrasive or uncooperative person; internetslang defines badass as a cool and confident person.); while Poyo the cat is a spoilt brat who can get away with anything cutely, a little bit annoying at times, but loveable and well accepted. Maybe somebody who is an avid fan of Kirby and/or Poyopoyo, took the word poyo and used it on someone, when he couldnt find an exact word to describe that person`s character or action, hence he used poyo derived from the character in those two series, as elaborated above.
Okay, with the above observations, from my point of view, poyo is for some people to describe other people, when they themselves do not dare to do what that 'poyo' person does, and when they feel jealous towards the 'poyo' but at the same time impressed by him/her. So they labelled him/her poyo. It is a kind of that love hate feeling. It is different from hating or disliking somebody who is a show off. A poyo does it subtlely, and he/she is not showing off. He/she is just showing his/her true self, and having the guts to face whatever the consequences are. Well that is what poyo is to me.
"Ini semua poyo! Hahahaha.."
"These are all poyo! Hahahaha.."
