吐槽

tǔcáo

verb HSK 7-9

Meanings

1 to roast (something)
2 to complain humorously
3 to gripe about

Characters

to spit out, utter

trough, groove; (here) the setup/straight line

Examples

HSK 4

我想吐槽一下今天的食堂饭菜。

Wǒ xiǎng tǔcáo yíxià jīntiān de shítáng fàncài.

I want to complain about today's canteen food.

HSK 7-9

网友纷纷吐槽这部电影的特效。

Wǎngyǒu fēnfēn tǔcáo zhèbù diànyǐng de tèxiào.

Netizens are all roasting the special effects of this movie.

HSK 7-9

别光吐槽，有本事自己上。

Biéguāng tǔcáo, yǒu běnshi zìjǐ shàng.

Stop just griping - if you can do better, try yourself.

Tips

history

吐槽 is borrowed from Japanese manzai comedy, where the 突っ込み (tsukkomi) comic partner interrupts to call out absurdities. Mainland internet adopted it via Taiwan around 2010, and it became standard vocabulary for humorous online critique.

Stroke Order

吐 tǔ

槽 cáo