Slang is Fun.
My latest fun slang phrase is "you hot." It means you're crazy, messed up. I know I've posted this before, but, well, there it is.
This post is not about fun slang. It is about dumb slang. '80s slang. One in particular that, when I think of it, makes me shake my head in wonder.
The '80s was an innocenter time, when folks had to says things like "Girls Rock Your Boys" instead of "*u** That *i***." But the '80s also gave us leg warmers and Manimal. And it was in the '80s where, every Tuesday and Friday night, cheerleaders could be heard chanting:
"All right, all right, all right!
Decent, decent, decent!"
Decent? As in "not bad"? This is the best variant of "cool" we could come up with? Pitiful. Granted, we did say "sweet", which has stuck around. But can anyone come up with a less-super superlative than "decent"?
Lame, lame lame.
Perhaps consolation can be found in the lyrics of the song "New Slang", by The Shins:
God speed all the bakers at dawn may they all cut their thumbs,
And bleed into their buns 'till they melt away.
Yes, yes. God speed, people. God speed.
2 comments:
A personal confession re: slang.
In the early 90's I tried to learn some slang of (essentially) the 70's from the 1980 film "Airplane".
You know the part. (a later scene includes Mrs. Cleaver . . . ?)
15 years later I can still recite most of the lines and I privately enjoy it.
When heard the lines may be impressive, or at least almost interesting. When written phonetically from memory, well, I don't know -- draw your own conclusions.
examples:
"Knock yourself a pro, slick. Gray-matta back na perform us down, now take T.C. bein'"
"I say hey, sky. Sutha say I wanna see, pray to J I dun same-o, same-0"
"Shiiiiiiiiii . . . "
Golly!
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