How Brands Ruin Slang | Otherwords

[@kimberlyterasaki4843]

AKA the “how do you do fellow kids” effect

[@jonathan0225]

🤣

[@archtansterpg4246]

I think this is pretty much the best explanation for why it feels cringy, even when brands use it in kind of the right contexts.

[@kyburton]

This show always reminds me how well PBS has transitioned onto the internet. I feel the same kind of cozy-smart after an episode of Otherwords as I did watching PBS on TV as a kid in the 90s. Great job, team.

[@undefined7141]

To bad.

[@daxxonjabiru428]

@@undefined7141 Not doing it. No.

[@danielmcelroy4505]

💯💯💯

[@jeremyhennessee6604]

Very much agreed. Overwords is an overall well done, informative /thought-provoking channel that serves a very important educational function. I WISH that I'd had short vids like THIS (and the equally well done Crash Course Videos that the Green Bros. put out) as a younger person. Ty for your service Otherworld Producers/Host.

[@Helelsonofdawn]

PBS got wack they barely complained about racism 2015

[@Martial-Mat]

Any brands' relationship with me is formal: they want to exploit me. We are not friends so any time they attempt to imply ingroup intimacy, it just annoys me, and turns me off.

[@ooooneeee]

Same. If they were my friends they wouldn't bullshit me.

[@shockofthenew]

Yep. Literally the only kind of advertising that doesn't immediately fill me with rage at this point is something like "here is our product, it's a well-made product which is very useful, it's created ethically and is less expensive than you might think! Maybe consider buying?" which is like.... 0.001% of ads.

[@Martial-Mat]

@@shockofthenew Agreed.

[@WellingtonCordeiro]

Seriously I go from not caring about their existence to actively detesting everyone behind that brand and their disgusting attempt to look like authentic people/content online.

[@Martial-Mat]

@@WellingtonCordeiro Yeah, I feel as though they are just insulting our intelligence. If they have so much contempt for us, why should we feel anything but contempt for them?

[@yoink6830]

Finally! Scientific proof that brands on Twitter are cringe.

[@nobody764-j9n]

Totes

[@wrench246]

fo sho

[@samtepal3892]

Boppy

[@oldcowbb]

frfr

[@AdarshKumar-nj7rp]

No cap

[@llsilvertail561]

And then there's a whole nother layer where people use older slang ironically/metaironically, but brands aren't doing that

[@llsilvertail561]

​@@markdavis7397 Oh definitely. I don't remember what the actual words for them is, but it's something like an infix (putting "whole" in the middle of "another" to change the meaning) plus linguistic re-analyzation I think it's called? (where the original way "another" came about was "an" + "other" but, bc "an" is only used in front of a vowel and "whole" starts with a consonant, instead of dropping the "n" sound to become "a" + "whole" + "other" which seems more formal (for lack of a better word), it was said as "a" + "whole" + "nother"). At least, that's what my limited linguistics knowledge leads me to believe happened lmao.

[@llsilvertail561]

@@markdavis7397 Ohhhh. I misunderstood what you said lmao. That's definitely very interesting.

[@himanbam]

@@markdavis7397 Interesting, I was not aware of this. The Merriam-Webster website gives some examples like: "For discrecion is a vertue the whiche without fautynge leadeth a man to the ryghte waye inclynynge or wauerynge no more on the one syde than on the nother…." -Thomas Paynell, The Assaute and Conquest of Heuen, 1529 I suppose it is hard to know whether the usage of "a whole nother" is a carry on from this earlier usage, or if it is something more informal like "un-fr*ckin-believable" where they add a word in the middle of another word for emphasis. And then there is a question if "another" comes from "an other" or "a nother" in the first place.

[@AuntieDawnsKitchen]

23 skidoo, dude

[@frigginjerk]

@@llsilvertail561 Tmesis? Is that the term you're thinking of, for that infix thing? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tmesis

[@hardyworld]

I'll never forget when McDonald's unleashed an "I'd hit that" advertisement campaign. My friends and I were all horrified at what they were suggesting we do to their food and couldn't imagine they'd been able to put together the entire advertisement campaign without anyone telling them what they were saying.

[@user-dd5eh5lu3o]

Men have been documented having sex with food, so I guess it's legit.

[@orangy57]

the mcchicken vine

[@funlover163]

Well you ever seen Burger King's "wake up with the King"? You ever yknow wake up with the King? It was probably meant to be lewd

[@AlyssaNguyen]

It's likely they were told by an unpaid intern who was subsequently ignored. 😂

[@CortexNewsService]

I don't remember "hit that" but I do remember them using "get jiggy with it."

[@eliscanfield3913]

I'm reminded of the slang word "bling." I knew it was gonna die soon when I heard grannies talking about adding bling to their quilts. They weren't trying to appeal to adolescents, either.

[@cobracommander8133]

My bling is on fleek, no cap - NOW BUY MY PRODUCTS!!!!

[@--Paws--]

My older coworkers do this too well with other words. They're really old too and they all seem to speak that way. It sounds genuine when they say it too.

[@pvtpain66k]

Deez quilt is on ice, bae. They be dripping all over your face.

[@rmdodsonbills]

I feel like "bling" might be one of those that makes it into standard English. A little too early to tell, but when grannies are using amongst themselves, that's a sign right there.

[@Fireberries]

@@rmdodsonbills Yeah I think bling has been around quite long enough for it to become one of those words within the next five years. Personally, I'm hoping groovy will become as common as cool. I just want everybody to sound like hippies lol

[@BryonElliott]

In addition, I use words like "groovy", "zoinks", "jinkies", and "nifty" frequently just because I like them. There are histories involved with each of those words that I enjoy continuing to be a part of. 🙂

[@Hallows4]

I've never heard "zoinks" or "jinkies" used outside of Scooby-Doo. Do they have broader histories, or are they original creations that have just become part of the lexicon?

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

@@Hallows4 Same here, apparently, the term jinkies comes from the '30s. Although from my minute of Googling, I think that zoinks was a Scooby Doo creation completely.

[@vogelvogeltje]

@@Hallows4 Zoinks, Scoob!

[@The420033]

"Nifty" is a delightful word

[@angelcaru]

@@The420033 "Nifty" is a nifty word

[@zalphinian]

I remember being a kid and there being a *super* fine line between an adult who could use our slang and be "cool" and one who just made it cringe. As an Adult in my 40's now, I'll still use new slang words if they are part of a large culture I'm a part of like gaming, but I tend to stay away from more youth associated slang. It's important to know you *don't* want to be that cringy adult who's trying too hard to remain "Young and Hip!" I'm middle age, and that's okay.

[@user-dd5eh5lu3o]

Middle aged is the correct term, not "middle age" since that doesn't actually mean anything pertaining to your years on earth. If we're all going to get insane about how people use words, let's at least use the language correctly and save the damned suffixes and adverbs.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

@@user-dd5eh5lu3o Yes, when used as a modifier that's correct. Middle age would be the time period if that's what somebody is interested in talking about without being more specific about whom they're referring to other than by general age.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

One of the best things about being middle aged is that I don't need to keep up with the slang like I did when I was younger. But, I have found that if I am going to use it, that it's generally best to do so in an ironic way of pointing out that I've been around the block a few times rather than trying to pretend that I'm a hip or with it. To quote Grandpa Simpson "I used to be with ‘it’, but then they changed what ‘it’ was. Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary. It’ll happen to you!"

[@striderstache99]

I'm middle aged and I am also black and live in a fairly predominately black city with income inequality issues. So I use the slang I use because we all use it. It's interesting to me to see white folks co-opt our slang and then decided when that slang term is "over" or when they think someone is too old to say some slang word. I just know being middle aged in my community does not preclude me from my usage of slang relevant to my community.

[@Taricus]

I'm middle-aged and I just say whatever I say. I'm not too concerned about it LOL!

[@t.miranda176]

Some years ago I worked at an advertising agency. It was owned and operated by a guy in his late 30s. While most of the employees were in their early twenties. And when we were working in online campaigns targeted to people around our age we went to extreme lengths to avoid using slang because it seemed desperate to us, but the agency owner would usually show up and literally force us to use “cool words” (his words, not mine haha). And those campaigns usually bombed. They did have lots of traffic though, but not the kind we needed to make brands grow. So the point is, behind those silly tweets there’s usually a community manager in his early twenties with a manager with zero understanding of younger generations pushing to make them sound “cool”.

[@MaryamMaqdisi]

Finally it makes sense to me, thanks for sharing

[@demetri2716]

Very accurate on how larger crowds can be so late to certain slang terms. We used to say “Simp” back in middle school in like 2008 and the internet only just discovered it a few years ago

[@Tadfafty]

I found a magazine from 1921 using the word simp in the same context as contemporary slang, so its nothing new.

[@ChaiKirbs]

@@Tadfafty that is actually a totally different piece of slang! simp, as popular from the 1920's on was short for simpleton :) funny that "simp" happened to develop as a slang word two separate times, almost a hundred years apart!

[@Tadfafty]

@@ChaiKirbs I thought current simp was a shortening of simpleton. It has the same meaning, right?

[@malxire]

@@Tadfafty not even close, this is one of those cases were urban dictonary actually works

[@studioyokai]

​@@Tadfafty pretty sure it's derived from "simpering" as if you're a "simp" for X person or character that seemingly translates to "I am so weak for them oh my god, they are far too attractive, if they stepped on me I would thank them and ask for more". Which, simpering as a descriptive verb or whatever the label is, tends to be like showy obsequiousness. Like adulation or brown-nosing, fawning etc. The interesting thing to me though is "simp" is no longer just a noun and has been verbed; "I simp for X" tends to refer to the active or habitual state of being a "simp" for X. Granted, there's a potential by proxy implication that X person is so attractive they make you stupider because you're too busy internally flailing and fawning over them... but that's a side implication more than the core meaning from the uses I've seen. At least on Tumblr and I think Twitter, in media fandom circles.

[@MONET8iAM]

The funny thing about “on fleek” is that, I’m not sure how serious Peaches was when she said it, it sounded so ridiculous that people started to jokingly say it. Then non-black people and companies were like “oh is that the new slang? Let’s use it!”

[@MonkeyAndChicken]

Yeah, there have definitely been a number of gag slang items invented on the internet to purposefully troll older generations. The brief craze about "jenkem" from the 90s comes to mind.

[@LadyAstarionAncunin]

They should have ran Peaches a check. This is why some of us get mad when black folks be online defining our slang and how to use it. Just so non-black folks on social media can call our language "internet language."

[@MONET8iAM]

@@LadyAstarionAncunin exactly!!

[@pptenshii]

@@LadyAstarionAncunin literally 😭

[@LukeBunyip]

*Gig* was part of the rock n roll cultural lexicography for decades before it's widespread use as a descriptor for short contract work by professionals.

[@stikcler]

Ugh. I hate it when non musicians use "gig".

[@Lucius1958]

@@stikcler What about carriage-makers and boatbuilders?😉

[@shrimpshufflr7745]

@@stikcler that is a weird thing to hate ngl

[@urieldaboamorte]

the fact that I forgot it was widely used because in recent years I'd only see drag queens using it. I'm 100% pulling the ESL card here I'll take no accountability for this

[@elfarlaur]

@@stikcler Interesting take for a comment on a series all about the evolution of language.

[@dlxmarks]

I will always cherish the memory of McDonald's 2005 "I'd hit it" double cheeseburger banner campaign.

[@JosephDavies]

Same. Can't forget that one.

[@user-dd5eh5lu3o]

Some men did.

[@DavidCruickshank]

On the subject of not understanding Slang, The american military didn't understand the Wizard of oz meaning behind "friends with Dorothy" so they launched a massive manhunt to find "Dorothy" so they could get her to expose all the gay military personal. Of cause all they did was waste time and money trying to find a fictional person 😅

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

That alone must have given whichever gay activist started that a case of the warm fuzzies. It's almost as good as the US Navy giving the Village People the use of the deck of one of their ships in exchange for rights to use In the Navy for promotional use. I have to laugh every time I think of thinking they could use a Village People song for that, with or without permission.

[@kadebrockhausen]

"You have some queer friends, Dorothy." "The queerness doesn't matter, as long as they're friends."

[@EvTheBadConlanger]

...I feel like I have seen you in many online communities before, but I can't quite put my finger on which ones ( other than this one ).

[@georgeascunce3142]

I know I’ve gotten old once I’ve had to have urban dictionary ready so I know what the hell people are talking about

[@babywigeon]

same-and I regret reading most of the definitions I find on there 😭

[@MrFleem]

Troll entries, man.

[@rmdodsonbills]

I hear ya bro. And you don't even look that old ;)

[@ThatShaggyMatt]

Erica: "By using slang in different context, we can move it along the line from slangy to non-slangy." My brain: "Wait, could 'slangy' be a slang term for cool? It could be. 'yo that's slangy'. Yeah, that could work."

[@karlingram8471]

@Matt Culbreath I'm going to try it out on my teenagers later I'm going to be like that's Slangy

[@pandoraeeris7860]

You've got about five days to use it before Subway makes it unslangey. Go!

[@rmdodsonbills]

Stop trying to make "slangy" happen! :)

[@karlingram8471]

@@rmdodsonbills it's going to be SO SLANGY 🤣

[@robinsparrow1618]

you be slangin it?

[@kid14346]

Using uffda for Midwesterner is like ancient... at least to my area. I don't know of a word that replaced it specifically, but I do know my region specifically says "Ope!" for all kinds of things. Bump into some one? "Ope! Sorry didn't see ya there." Need to get someone's attention? "Ope! Hey! Overhere!" Drop something on the ground? "Ope! Jeez!" or the most famous... "Ope, lemme sneak right past ya dere." for when ya really gotta sneak right past someone der to go get the ranch dressin' for yer pizza.

[@natmorse-noland9133]

I still use "uffda" a lot, personally. "Uffda tuffda" if I'm feeling spicy.

[@kid14346]

@@natmorse-noland9133 As I said it might be my particular location that doesn't anymore. The Midwest actually has quite a lot of regional accents themselves. I suppose that is what happens when your region is going through a vowel shift.

[@object-official]

No one in my Midwestern town uses uffda

[@stephgreen3070]

I still hear uff da quite a bit. I’m not sure if the younger kids say it though. My teenagers say it, but then will catch themselves and kind of make a joke out of it. I don’t even notice when I say it, it’s so ingrained in my speech pattern.

[@WillowLavender]

Sidenote: The ballroom scene isn‘t *just* queer in general, but specifically a big part of black & latin american queer culture. While people not of these groups participate, it was built by them & these terms originate from them too!

[@AskMiko]

Also the slang they used came from black women and teen girls.

[@user-dd5eh5lu3o]

While all the rest of the English language came from whom, exactly?

[@gb.510]

@@user-dd5eh5lu3oscythian horsemen

[@otsoko66]

@@AskMiko more often the other way around. And some words (like "zhoozh") come from British gay slang (polari). It's always more complicated.

[@porcorosso4330]

​@@user-dd5eh5lu3o German, Latin, Celtic, French?

[@whatalsaid]

“Pancakes on fleek” made me genuinely laugh because of how cringey it was.

[@allanshpeley4284]

Thank you for saying "cringey" and not "cringe". "Cringe-worthy" also works.

[@coyotech55]

I didn't know what that meant, but it sure didn't sound tasty!

[@rmdodsonbills]

When I was a young man, "gig" was specifically a short-term job in music. Or at least I never heard it in any other context. But the word was pretty old by then, so who knows.

[@user-dd5eh5lu3o]

I still have a gig bag for my guitar from Sam Ash.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

It was even into the '90s and early '00s. In fact, I don't really remember it being commonly used for short term jobs more generally until Uber and the like decided to profit off of technically not slave labor.

[@jharris0341]

Gig line.

[@allanrichardson1468]

The term “gig” probably went “viral” in the 1990s and 2000s because full time permanent jobs that paid a living wage were scarce, being replaced by short term jobs, or “gigs.” In the 1980s, many technical jobs were “outsourced” to contracting outfits, who would hire people and place them in the offices of their clients. A kind of slang developed in which we (I was one of those for a few years) referred to ourselves as “wh**es” (because we weren’t “married” to a company), and the “headhunters” managing our accounts would drop by occasionally to talk to our supervisors and us, so we called them (informally) our “p*mps.” After a certain amount of time, we were often offered a regular job with the company we worked at.

[@MarigoldFoxMama]

Didn't even notice it was a PBS production until about six minutes in. This show is amazing!

[@kab6754]

I'm at a point in my life where I know I can't/shouldn't use new slang. So instead I admire it from afar because it's really cool to watch

[@user-dd5eh5lu3o]

Slang is seen as uneducated because it does not adhere to academic English rules.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

You're never to old to use slang, it's just that as you get older, you're typically more associated with the mainstream establishment and any slang you're using is probably going to have been around long enough to be accepted. That being said, sometime before I hit 30, I was too old to use the slang of highschool and college students without it sounding cringe. I could use the slang of the internet from kids that age and it generally sounded fine. But, with nobody knowing how old the people doing the typing are, it's not surprising that it didn't sound too bad. Personally, I don't use slang unless it's something that is regularly used in a community that I'm a part of. And the line between slang and just industry specific communication isn't always that big of a leap.

[@MrGksarathy]

@@SmallSpoonBrigade Same. I use slang from the communities I'm part of, mainly the online anime and breadtube communities, and I think it's fine.

[@TheLaughingDove]

I just go full chaos brain. Use slang anachronistically, chaotically and aggressively. Mix and match everything you've heard into an appalling mess and glory in its chaos.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

@@MrGksarathy TBH, I have a feeling that if you didn't do it, that would sound weird and make people cringe. A lot of it is identity, but a lot of it is experience. If you haven't got the experience to know what a word really means and how to use it, it's going to sound strange, no matter what the intent is.

[@Devlin20102011]

I think it’s important to note that slang is inherently exclusionary. It’s not just used to tell others you’re “in their group”, it’s used to exclude others from your group, since it’s often started by kids the excluded groups are typically authority figures. That’s why it’s cringey when parents use it, not just because it’s become broad, but because the people designed to be excluded against, are using it.

[@coyotech55]

And that's why it changes so fast. You have to change your code as soon as it gets decoded. That was probably true back in the stone age, too!

[@sherbertshortkake6649]

Honorable mention to the Squid Research Lab and their marketing. They're just some Japanese game developers that made the game "Splatoon", but in the English speaking community their marketing was iconic for how 'groovy' these supposed 'scientist' personalities spoke. To this day their English spokespersons are still going strong with uncomfortable levels of hype, corny jokes, and flowery puns that the fanbase has fallen in love with.

[@curiousworld7912]

One of my favorite books, (though, not its author's favorite work) 'A Clockwork Orange', has the most inventive uses of slang I've ever come across. Burgess came up with a slang, mixing bits of Russian and formal, old-English, which at first was hard to follow. But, it caught on quickly, as the use of a word or phrase would describe or relay adjectives, verbs, nouns, etc., giving the reader an understanding of the narrator's thoughts and meaning. Through repetition, it became hardly noticeable. On a very different note; I've read that the writers of the film 'Clueless' invented a slang, so as not to 'date' the film. I'm not certain of this, but I remember the slang from the film worked its way into public usage.

[@goldenheart3887]

Nadsat! Yaaay!

[@curiousworld7912]

@@goldenheart3887 You're either a Burgess fan or a Kubrick fan (or both), but either way: I salute you. :)

[@stevesmith291]

Anthony Burgess invented the Russian-based slang for the book for that same reason -- because he didn't want it to sound dated. An example that I think does Burgess one better is the short story, "One Night in Television City," by Paul Di Filippo, which appears in his collection, Ribofunk. Di Fillipo pays homage to Burgess by situating a scene in a "metamilk bar."

[@curiousworld7912]

@@stevesmith291 Huh. I've not heard of this story, but I'll certainly be looking it up. Thanks. :)

[@stevesmith291]

@@curiousworld7912 The stories in the 1996 book Ribofunk take place in a future dominated by biotechnology.

[@DomCOuano]

I got a marketing degree. Then I did marketing jobs. At many points, it felt like clients and employers were asking me to make up new taglines and catch phrases eeeeeeeeeeeevvvvveeeerrrrryyyy weeeeeeeeeeeek. And so I don't do marketing anymore lol.

[@UgUg15]

Part of this for me is doing the “work.” Slang is associated with groups and those groups have culture. You need to be embedded within that culture to be part of the group and subsequently use the words. In other words, you need to do the work. When these brands jump straight to using slang trying to show affinity without having done the work, it only exacerbates their “otherness” from the group. It’s the reason why I, as a Black person, never/still don’t say words like “cap”, “op”, “trill”, etc. While from certain perspectives, I do have access to those words, they are heavily associated with specific cultures such as rap culture which I personally just don’t engage with. So it just comes off as inauthentic for me to try. But as someone who’s frequently online and gay, I have said things like, “sis”, “b*ssy”, “shook”, etc. Those words don’t feel foreign to me bc I’m constantly engaging with that culture. Doing the work. Edit: If you read this and think I’m saying you’re barred from using certain words, read it again. The only thing I said was that it comes off as inauthentic. That’s it. You are free to say whatever you like. Just know that if you speak and get certain reactions, you can’t act brand new. Language has ALWAYS been inherently exclusionary to a certain degree and just because you’re just finding that out doesn’t mean you get to be mad at me. Let everybody start calling your SO “bae” and “honey” and “my boo” and see how long you want certain words to remain only for you.

[@daintycaked]

Also, if you aren't part of that group and use the slang of that group, typically you use it incorrectly or in the wrong context.

[@IDontWantThisStupidHandle]

This is ridiculous, and I actively avoid slang as I usually find it ridiculous-sounding. No one should be barred from using any non-offensive term, regardless of what "group" they belong to. People REALLY need to stop trying to control what enters other people's minds and come out of other people's mouths. We'd all be a lot better off for it.

[@shockofthenew]

@@IDontWantThisStupidHandle It's not that you're not 'allowed' it's that other people will feel you're inauthentic, disrespectful, and probably trying to manipulate them. You're also likely to use the slang incorrectly and say things you didn't intend or which don't make sense (as brands often do). It's like a 50-year-old who tries to talk to a bunch of 13-year-olds in 'teen slang' or a white person who starts trying to use AAVE when talking to black people, or an upper class person who starts self-consciously affecting working class slang when talking to a workman. You're 'allowed' to do that... but your intended audience isn't going to enjoy it.

[@urieldaboamorte]

Linguistics is the only science that allows us to have a well written pragraph with "b*ssy" in the middle of it. I love it.

[@user-dd5eh5lu3o]

BTW you're not allowed to call anyone "sis" because that's what my sister called me in the 70s and I'm pretty sure we were using it before you were around.(See how STUPID this argument is?)

[@BacadoTheSkoggy]

sometimes slang doesn't just rephrase other words though. i still use "lowkey" and "highkey" even though they're both kinda past their due just cause they really efficiently convey something that's otherwise hard to communicate. like it's easier to say "i lowkey hate them" than "I hate them but only in a way that isn't very severe or serious and it's also not obvious on the surface"

[@Peecamarke]

I feel like “Woke” is one of the more egregious examples of co-opting slang from a minority group. Black folks use to use that term to uplift each other but so many groups that criticize black culture/media have co-opted that word to a negative connotations against black people and media

[@julienthijs1271]

I didn´t know "woke" was originally a Black community term. That´s so interesting ! As a mixed-race black/white gay man, i´m always sad to ear "woke" used as a derogatory term for anything minority related. Then again using minorities´s own langage to create scapegoats is nothing new.

[@melanopygus]

that's fox news for ya

[@shockofthenew]

As a white person I remember first hearing the word woke during the Ferguson protests in 2014 in the context of people 'waking up' to structural racism and taking it seriously. It was a new one on me at that point... then just a few short years later it was being misused all over the place by non-black people to mean "anything related to social justice or diversity (which I don't like and think is stupid)."

[@mikedelhoo]

It's sad in a way, but also a bit amusing when right-wingers try to make being socially conscious sound like it's somehow a bad thing.

[@BusterDarcy]

It’s bizarre how they can take uplifting words like woke or social justice and just say them as if they’re bad and no one in their group feels even the slightest bit of cognitive dissonance or, like, you know, embarrassment.

[@blurelic4]

I loved this episode. I'll also add that slang that starts out as in-group language or from a specific community can also become very niche for a specific time-period. It may enter the general population's usage but it can also age you or identify your era. I think about how "CRUNK" "BLING" "OFF THE CHAIN" denotes the late '90s and early 2000s. They started off in hip-hop culture and African American Vernacular English but then were popularized. But if i use "CRUNK" in 2023 I am definitely dating myself. LOL. However, when I am with my peers who grew up in that timeframe--especially in high school or undergrad--the context is not cringe or dated. We understand each other, there's a bit of nostalgia, and it is okay to use.

[@mariowalker9048]

Crunk was widely used in the early-mid 00s as the way kids use lit. Phat was another popular hiphop term from the late 90s that nobody says anymore. When Lil John phased it the word crunk did to.

[@CerebrumMortum]

Aamazing vid, as usual. But I do want to shed light on a counter-phenomena: brands who *are* using slang *correctly*. Sometimes the social media account, while managed full time, is really and honestly managed by "one of us", and it's also addressing us specifically. This is very common in highly-niche products. I am personally familiar with Computer Gaming and Roleplaying communities, where product companies will often hire people who are in the game as social media managers. Paradox Interactive, for example, is a superb example of a brand whose social media account uses slangs, memes and in-group lingo, but does it right.

[@CerebrumMortum]

@ghost mall it is cringe! Slang is naturally an in-group reference, which means it is mesnt to be used by members of a small defined set of people. When Corporates become big enough, no amount of "community hire" will make it authentic. We can empathise with a person, even with a small group. We can't empathise with a large amorphic amalgamation of people, which is why we can empathise with "the workers of a local store" but not with "the supermarket chainstore". Slang just can't work for large Corporations. Even if they're the worlds most diverse and community-aware, they are still just "too big to slang".

[@Caterfree10]

I love y’all so much for explaining the REAL origins of the slang term Woke. Might get KZbin premium specifically to download this and make a clip of that section for jerks who use it as a substitute for the N slur. Not that it’ll stop them, but hope springs eternal or something.

[@shawnholbrook7278]

For a very small donation, I get PBS straight from the website. That let's me get all the science, social, musicals, and new stuff like: The Great Outdoors with Baratunde... I think it's called passport. They have an app.

[@Caterfree10]

@@shawnholbrook7278 but can I download the videos there? I don’t really use the website unless there’s a PBS documentary I want to watch that’s not airing again anytime soon.

[@Richard_Nickerson]

Woke is being used as a substitute for the N word? I have never seen that.

[@Richard_Nickerson]

@@Caterfree10 There are ways of downloading KZbin videos without paying anything. It doesn't count as pirating if you're using it for legitimate fair use reasons. It's available to watch for free, it's not as if you're just going to repost it or plagiarize it. Plus, that feature *used* to be free to everyone before premium was ever even a thing anyway. Hiding it behind a paywall after years of being readily available is just BS, and I see no problem in circumventing BS.

[@Caterfree10]

@@Richard_Nickerson look at how conservatives use it as a pejorative, especially when black people are involved. It’s absolutely being used as a substitute for the N slur among other slurs.

[@thetux459]

Okay, whoever decided to use "Fetch" in that extended example deserves a round of golf claps.

[@MONET8iAM]

Also, as a Black person, it’s uncomfortable to have co-workers speak to one another with such fluidity, and then when they speak to us Black employees, they try to connect with us by using our lingo. It’s so weird. During that wave of people getting sick with all kinds of viruses, my manager said to me “people do be getting sick”. I agreed, but there’s been this surge of non-Black people saying “be” in an ironic way. Regardless of them being ironic, the phrasing is just wrong, and it’s funny because it was explained to be used like that in my linguistics class. I don’t know about years ago when “Ebonics” was coined, but in my almost 30 years of life, we never used “be” like that. It’s used as something being a common occurrence, not something that is currently happening.

[@fthurman]

I'm not black, but I grew up in an area where present continuous "be" was common and accepted, thus, it's native to me; similarly, I have several other linguistic factors commonly associated with AAVE. (As a very young adult, I lived in an entirely different country and picked up (and retained) several linguistic features from there as well.) Now, as an older adult, much of all of that is so fossilised in my idiolect that I don't recall which is what, making it difficult to intentionally code switch for folks. I've had someone actually say "it's weird how fluid it sounds when you say that" - the that referring to one of those attributes, and only then do I realise. I then worry that the person thinks that I'm "putting it on" for them, and I'm embarrassed.

[@mikelundquist4596]

Y'all be cool... right on.

[@leyenda6149]

No lie. Or when an employee decides to use swear words in their pitch to you that they never would've done with a non-Black prospective customer.

[@pptenshii]

@@fthurman sameee. i grew up around aave constantly despite not being black (im white hispanic) and i can really relate with what a lot have said in this comment section about aave and how weirdly its been adopted by people recently. i frankly dont mind whoever uses it but it oftentimes becomes so unrealistic and honestly just unnecessary that i get when ppl dont like when others who didnt grow up around aave start co-opting it cause its "cool gen-z speak" or whatever

[@Taricus]

I say "do be..." and "he be..." etc., but I always do it to be cutesy... It would be weird if a manager said it to me, unless it looked like he was just trying to be silly and not be taken seriously. If I did it, I would either be trying to look adorable or silly.

[@falcoskywolf]

Well put. Slang tends to have one of two fates once it hits a wider audience: either it filters into the common vernacular and ceases to feel like slang (such as "cool, awesome,") or it gets rejected entirely as a fad- and a brand sucking up to their users by ineptly appropriating slang is one of the fastest ways to kick it to the Out category. It's one thing if it gets used long enough and authentically enough that it becomes an Everybody Word like cool, it's another if anyone tries to force it. TV shows turning it into a catchphrase will also clobber it. ("Cowabunga," anyone?)

[@SutasSjet]

I'm in my mid 30's and it's fun trying to piece together Z's slang. Context clues do some of it but otherwise I end up needing an interpreter.

[@glasscardproductions4736]

Okay, I'll give you the current version of the litmus test. (This will not sound comprehensible if you know it all, but it's likely you don't, so this should work.) 'Oh! Oh! Jail for OP! Jail for OP for a thousand years! Thou hast insulted mine Blorbo! I shall send thy little meow meows to Eeby Deeby! This, I say, is not based af! I shall burn your glup shitto UT AUs! Your MCU ABO fic on AO3 shall be flamed like the horse in the plinko!' Yes, I regret even typing this, but I must test you.

[@xlown8561]

@@glasscardproductions4736 even as a gen z I still don't understand half of this

[@glasscardproductions4736]

@@xlown8561 Okay, here's the translation, but if anyone wants to try the test, don't read this yet. 'Oh! You are deserving of terrible mockery, for you have insulted my favourite fictional character whom I constantly point out in their canon media! For this crime, I shall envision your favourite problematic fictional characters who are mostly compromised of older men who have committed reprehensible atrocities being tormented in Hell! I do remark that your treatment of my favourite fictional character is unfair and unforgivable! I shall insult and degrade your work of literature known as Fan-fiction concerning your affinity for merging the topics of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the genre of typically intimate universe rules known as the Omegaverse which you have posted to the public website known as Archive Of Our Own.'

[@R8Spike]

@@glasscardproductions4736 i get like 90% of that

[@glasscardproductions4736]

@@R8Spike, either you're on the really unhinged part of the more popular social medias, or you're on Tumblr.

[@a3kargo]

I literally got a cheezits ad that uses "pog" during this video. Couldn't have been better timing

[@davidmacdonald9159]

hearing "the extremely online" instead of "chronically online" caught me off guard a little bit

[@artistlovepeace]

This person is telling you the truth. You can trust her. She's genuine.

[@raynitaylor1912]

The interesting thing about gamer slang is that itself seems to be cross generational and builds upon itself.

[@Mordalon]

It's also often limited to specific games' communities. People online using "F" without knowing it's a reference to Call of Duty are always surprising.

[@pjk9225]

I liked the juxtaposition of the explanation of "accountant" @7:29, paired with the next sentence "so if a faceless corporate accountant..."

[@herodaresfire4512]

I tried using some newer slang, describing some food as "bussin." But my daughter promptly informed me that people don't say that anymore.

[@t4squared]

They do, but it’s more adults using it. I wouldn’t really want to hear a kid using this word anyway, because it has sexual connotations behind it

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

That's one of the reasons why it's not really worth it as an adult to try and use slang. By the time that you pick up on how to use it, it's already dying and you just look like a poser.

[@mikelundquist4596]

Kids need to learn to reed and right good English two.

[@herodaresfire4512]

As do you.

[@catsnorkel]

​@@herodaresfire4512 whoosh

[@GeahkBurchill]

This reminds me of an article I read in Vice back in the 90s, when it was still a skater magazine without color printing. I think the article was called something like, ‘How Slang Stays Ahead of Advertising’ and it was about how slang is specificity created by youth culture as a differentiator and constantly evolves in order to maintain independence from the adult world. And nothing is more ‘adult world’ than ads.

[@WellingtonCordeiro]

I dunno why but I have a strong aversion to ads that try to use slang or appear like real content. Like on TikTok/Instagram I find myself actively hating the brands that advertise because they try so hard to look like the content I care for and it's just sleezy and disgusting.

[@PanteraRossa]

I recently rewatched the underrated Wachowski's Speed Racer and started bringing back "cool beans" in texts and it really confused some people.

[@markadams7046]

I remember the first time someone referred to me as their homie. For a brief second, I thought they were calling me homely. I still didn't know what they meant, but because of the context, I figured it was a good thing.

[@TheJohtunnBandit]

Embracing slang both cutting edge and antiquated has been working out for me. Something like "This song totally slaps, its pretty nifty that it's only one cat laying it all down."

[@katherinealvarez9216]

I remember this one mayonnaise commercial that was about how rebellious and original it is to use miracle whip.

[@AlfredoGomez-kp4cf]

I remember they went as far as sponsoring the game skate 3 to, I assume, keep up that rebellious image

[@dalekman8945]

Great episode - great series! Please make more!

[@NicdeGroot]

Many, many moons ago I recall a JCPenny exec saying they wanted to get Jiggy with their customers ... this has been going on a long time.

[@C_M_R]

(4:59) Bread bae was one of a few things: 1) a play on Salt Bae 2) a line that is missing punctuation 3) a reference to a meme ( I was able to find bread bae memes from 2017, which was prior to this tweet.)

[@LeoOrientis]

What interests me is how this pattern of new language elements emerging from groups who are generationally or culturally isolated suggests a lot about how languages themselves emerge in the first place. In the era of recorded video, sound, and mass communication, we have the pattern that we see here: Differentiating language (eg, slang) appears - becoming temporarily edgy and cool - before then getting widely known and gathered into the mainstream. Or else seeming dated and getting consigned to the heap of quaint. (Then being ironically rediscovered one or two nostalgia cycles later.) However, imagine a community that is both geographically isolated, and has little in the way of recorded media. (Maybe not even the written word.) Now we see how languages emerge: If every new generation reinvents a slice of the language for itself, but also can't communicate with the people just across the lake, who are doing the same thing... People who maybe (until a generation ago) spoke the "same" language... Just add a few hundred years and you may already get to the place where the two languages become mutually unintelligible. What that means is: When communities are isolated, human languages will multiply. But if we have mass communication, then they will actually begin to consolidate. Hmm...

[@KristopherBel]

I have been watching "Whats My Line" a TV panel show from the 50s and 60s (availableon youtube) they have regular people come on and the panel interviews them to try to guess their jobs. One of my favorite things about the show is to see the slang used, they were often live, so a lot of slang still comes through. One or two I remember, young Lauren Bacall was on and she was asked about her boyfriend who she had been photographed with in the last few days, she exclaims loud and high-pitched "sheeeeeeeeesh" and it cracks everyone up. Felt like a rather modern moment. And one that feels strange and old fashioned is when one of the panel has some small idea a hint or what we may call an inkling of what the contestants do they might say "Oh I have a weenie!" Feels hilarious and incredibly old fashioned. But it's a great show for a lot of reasons and genuinely entertaining.

[@shaina8947]

literally every video in this series is amazing :)

[@tomcat5151]

Love this topic! I'm fascinated by how social media has transformed slang. It used to be so specifically regional, you could tell what street someone grew up on. Not so much anymore, though

[@kingmj87]

Ironically, I feel like this video's already behind the times. 1) It no longer takes most commercial brands multiple years to embrace slang because slang has become such a powerful cultural currency on social media that it has given rise to a "slang-industrial complex," wherein social media communities across the board are constantly hunting/exhausting slang at an accelerating pace, which brings us to perhaps the OTHER most important point left unaddressed here, 2) that the line between "authentic users" and "corporate brands" is steadily becoming completely indistinguishable, NOT ONLY BECAUSE COMMERCIAL ENTITIES ARE MIMICKING CASUAL USERS, but also because casual users increasingly approach their accounts like commercial entities (...and of course, virtually ALL of the influencers who have seized control of modern slang already DO operate like commercial entities). This means that even within in-groups now, slang is usually spreading completely inorganically, being forcefully manufactured for personal gain by whole communities wherein even the most casual users are becoming increasingly concerned with metrics, competition, targeting audiences, expanding their brand, and soullessly exploiting trends in order to increase their visibilitussy.

[@triceratops2653]

“That feels inauthentic AF.” 😂 lmao

[@spazbobstinkpants]

...and that is what makes Dr B the coolest. (also cute AF)

[@moo422]

Very fun video Dr B(ee's Knees)! Appreciate that you also included examples of slang outside of African-American Vernacular -- though I feel like a lot of advertising using slang are mostly trying to co-opt AA culture. Would also be interesting to examine the effect of reality TV on proliferation of slang, as they predate social media (by just a little bit) - as well as music.

[@Guitcad1]

I was surprised that you didn't mention the Megan Jasper "Lexicon of Grunge" hoax of 1992. The "grunge" movement had just taken the world by storm and Jasper was, at that time, a receptionist for Sub Pop records. (She eventually became CEO!) She got a call from a New York Times reporter, asking her about the kind of slang the kids in the Seattle grunge scene were using. Little did this reporter know that he had been referred to her, not because she was some "grunge" scene insider, but because she was an inveterate prankster. On the phone with this reporter, and right off the top of here head, she made up a whole list of fake "grunge" slang, like "wack slacks" (old ripped jeans) and "swingin' on the flippity-flop" (hanging out) and the reporter wrote it up and published it, uncritically, as a sidebar to his article.

[@kelzbelz313]

I didn’t know the guy who wrote A Fault in Our Stars and started Sci Show was also a slang lexicographer.

[@mikolajwitkowski8093]

I have always refused to use slang, I don't like how excluding it is. But that's probably because I have never felt a need to belong to and be accepted by a group.

[@jasonjimerson7046]

Brands using slang is like seeing Steve Buscemi trying to fit in with high school kids. "How do you do, my fellow kids?"

[@galvaton10000]

This ep was chef's kiss, doc B

[@elizabeth9505]

I absolutely love this show!!! I remember when I was in my undergrad we had a day where we went over slang throughout the ages starting in Old English 😂 I was also thinking recently that y’all would do an incredible episode on ventriloquism?!

[@6598102743]

Because slang has such a short lifespan it can be such an interesting way to follow the path of how you learn new words. I can think of so many words that were greek to me the first time I heard them, then maybe I’d look up the definition and kinda get it? But not fully, not with enough confidence to use it. But with a few more times-heard and a few more contexts-applied it can so quickly become part of your everyday vocabulary. With such a quick turn around that you can think back and remember all the steps so clearly.

[@youremakingprogress144]

Terrific episode. Highly informative and very entertaining.

[@opensourceq]

my favorite example of brands using slang wrong is when that taco bell exec talked about having the brand be "on cleek"

[@--Paws--]

I don't know some slang I've heard, and have somehow caught on, are from really old people like seniors and older coworkers. What they say sometimes are slang now but they've been talking that way forever by how each of them understands it. I think their grandkids or in my case, at work, this culture of speech spreads and gets revived. It feels like a game of telephone, with how some words change and are spread around.

[@smurfyday]

Every point of communication is a game of telephone

[@SUBMACHINEGOTH]

I never thought i would see "bussin" in a PBS video, but i'm here for it.

[@southron_d1349]

Australians are noted for inventing slang. Despite being Australian, I use very little slang. I might say arvo or servo but not avo or ambo. On the other hand, there's a lot of jargon from hobbies. There were a lot of slang words in the video I've never heard of before.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

I liked the episode of the Simpsons where they went to Australia and the kid saw a bull frog and commented that he would have called it a chazzwuzzer. Not that bullfrog really makes that much more sense other than containing the word frog in the name.

[@southron_d1349]

@@SmallSpoonBrigade Bullfrog is a just a name given to some large species of frog which are deemed aggressive. A bull is noted for being bellicose. I suppose it makes some kind of sense but one might as well call them "wolf-frogs" or "bear-frogs". That would make about as sensbile as "bullfrog".

[@sheldonyawson]

A storied on Duolingo’s social media success would be really cool. They seem to defy a lot of what the video discusses in an interesting way!

[@realzachfluke1]

This was amazing, I'm so glad I watched it.

[@EayuProuxm]

2:43 - 2:58 Storied, stop trying to make fetch happen! It's never going to happen!

[@Ausaini17]

The thing about slang being a primary spoken language until very recently got me thinking about the word “chile” as in a child . I’ve heard that word all my life from family other black folk in my life but never saw it written until maybe two years ago and the internet decided it’s spelled like the country and not like “chil’ “ I found my opposite in A young white KZbinr or TikTok person who had seen the word before but clearly never heard it spoken who pronounced it like “chili”.

[@cobracommander8133]

I legit had no idea "cash" started off slang.

[@user-dd5eh5lu3o]

TONS of words started as slang, and we can't possibly be asking for permission from its originator to use our language today. Most of our common words come from French and other languages, anyway.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

Nearly every word in most languages started out as slang if you go far enough. Having a board that decides what should and shouldn't be a word is challenging at best. Apart from constructed languages that can be more or less fully formed from the start, languages had to evolve from the sounds that early hominids were making covering the needs that they had and evolving from there to cover things as more and more ideas needed a comprehensible way of expressing them.

[@anterrobang9298]

i personally vote we DO add ‘poison’ to mean good let’s start seeding unappealing slang words to brands so that they look even less cool

[@olagarto1917]

also "poison car" is an actual brasilian slang, here whe say "carro envenenado" and it means the car is modified for increased performance

[@anthonynicoli]

I love your outtakes, struggling with delivery. You are clearly having too much fun!

[@AlexMartinez-fu5nb]

My favorite algorithm avoidance is from Pointyhat, where "slave" is "intern"

[@Balijah]

love this series 🤙

[@uniformsyter927]

It’s funny messing with brands. Like if the NHL says “yyaaasss qqqueeennnn” do a little tolling and tell them that it’s a slur or something

[@christopherlaryck3333]

Maybe Frito Lay should have their execs watch this.

[@barryschwarz5960]

Mildly amused smirk (MAS) on screen "accountant" = "sex worker" and 2 seconds later she says "So if a faceless corporate account doesn't need these words to build relationships or communicates safely...."

[@s4623]

7:29 I work at a bank and I work with accountants every day 🤣

[@rmdodsonbills]

I run a small business and I'm my own accountant. Is that TMI?😂

[@theprofessionalfence-sitter]

Thank you, brand adverts, for destroying all the annoying slang!

[@TheCheat420]

2:50 Stop trying to make fetch happen!

[@MrLeafeater]

That was super keen! 23 skidoo, kiddo, you're good at this stuff!

[@adantigus]

Unfortunately, these brand accounts are rewarded for their crimes against slang because negative reactions still boost their engagement metrics for the algorithm. If anything, the people running them are probably being annoying and wrong on purpose.

[@AdamYJ]

This video was da bomb, homie! (I'm in my 40s, this is the best I can do).

[@Richard_Nickerson]

I LOVE throwing out an ol' "the bee's knees". Just as I sometimes call cars "tin lizzies" just to throw people off. One of my friends has always used "cat's pajamas" too.

[@stikcler]

23 skiddoo!

[@collin4555]

Well I think that's tops

[@Lucius1958]

@@collin4555 It's a bear!

[@devonmmi]

i am someone who is notoriously resistant to slang so when i finally actually use "new" slang it usually throws my friends off the other day i said "honestly slay" and they went "don't say that it's weird" and i was like "Y'ALL SHOULD BE PROUD OF ME ACTUALLY"

[@Shindetsuku]

I use bee's knees all the time, and I'm a millennial. Perhaps my archaic vocabulary discombobulates my interlocutors? :P

[@shawnholbrook7278]

😁🙋‍♀️ one of my favourite words is incorrigible. And my age group said, "If you can't dazzle them with your brilliance, baffle them with your (baloney). Also: I have a cornucopia of useless knowledge.

[@Lucius1958]

*"Then there was the time we wore 'I'm the Guy' buttons, and thought 'let's not and say we did!' was wit..."* - S.J. Perelman

[@EchoLog]

Advertising and politics are where ideas go to die.

[@TheNightTyrant]

Hail Erica 🙏

[@ItsNish101]

This is a point that I've raised many times in my line of work. Thank you for this.

[@hatsuharuboi]

Every group eventually develops slang... because of shared experiences and inside jokes and stuff like that... in professional groups it becomes "lingo"

[@BonaparteBardithion]

And when used outside of those professional settings it becomes "jargon". I mean, it's jargon either way. But when you're in the know it's just the local lingo.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

There's practical reasons for that. Unless the need grows beyond that group, there's little reason for their to be a convenient way of expressing it already in the language. It even works with sign languages if you're working in a place where it's very loud, there's a good chance that there will be agreed upon signs that pop up to cover things that aren't already covered by a more general gesture.

[@dasdiesel3000]

Very funny and keen admission that just by virtue of being showcased by PBS' Word Channel these words lose a certain amount of street cred 😂😂

[@ash3270]

Erica out here doin the lord's work.

[@mikeddh2018]

Delete this comment. They're gonna start saying it - incorrectly as usual - & then it'll be ruined for us.

[@blast4ce]

2000-2010's internet slang is something i miss every day