We used to do that in college too. It’s a pretty obvious one, especially if you were in college in the Reagan era. This could be a political point of view or even liking the “wrong” pizza toppings.
I’m convinced that my gaming group in college (early to mid 80’s) started the phrases “just for sh*ts and grins” and “<something> is toast.” I’d never heard either of them anywhere else before my group started using them. I suspect I’m probably wrong, but it’s fun to think that those were our fault.
One that I think is amusing is that a few years back my spouse came up with “prehensile rectum,” which we thought was (a) very funny, and (b) a combination of words one would never see together in any context. AFAIK my spouse has never posted this phrase anywhere, and I know I haven’t. So imagine my surprise when somebody turned up with those exact same words as a username (either right here on the SDMB or on Fark–I can’t remember).
I also coined the term “twatwaffle,” or so I thought until I saw this (though I am certain I never saw that site, and I’ve been using the term for years).
Heh, I’m impressed. Okay, I guess I didn’t. But it seems a lot of people were quite taken with the word in that thread.
We were using “( ) is toast” in the late 70s in high school. It was with my DnD group, so I wonder if the term was being spread through gaming.
I haven’t started anything but as far as I can tell a group of acquaintances that lived in the nearby town of Milpitas started a number of phrases like, “Farm out!” and “Right Arm”. Obvious plays on “far out” and “right on”. This would have been back in the late 70’s early 80’s. Not that they’ve caught on like wildfire or anything, but since then I have heard it here and there, even on the radio recently.
Also, they were the first people that I ever heard use the adjective “Hella” as in, “That’s chick is hella fine!”
I just posted in GQ about a Cuban phrase that translates as, “It flings the mango” which means something is unbelieveable. Depending on the responses I get, I might start using that (in English) every chance I get.
And I am not just flinging mangoes here!
I invented the jelly doughnut.
[Dr. Evil]
My father invented the question mark.
[/Dr. Evil]
Mrs. Evil Captor invented “loosie” which is used to describe bondage (usually as seen on TV or in the movies) that it is in danger of falling off if the “captive” does anything to unsettle it, like move in any way. Or manacles that are twice as wide as the wrists inside them. Or gags that the wearer has to clench between his/her teeth to keep them in place.
I append “flow” to common swear words (shitflow, cuntflow, crapflow, etc.)
The problem is that there’s never been a “I started that” moment because it never really got started. But if it is. . .maybe you can trace it back to me. The only other dope examples of “shitflow” were in threads like this one where I cite it, so even I don’t use it in writing very often. But, that’s not surprising. I use it as exasperation, like when my team gets scored on or something.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=319348&highlight=shitflow
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=253213&highlight=shitflow
Just for the record. . .
Also, “thick as a dick” is something I’ve been known to say and thought I invented. Googling it turns up what seem to be foreign misspellings of “thick as a brick”, some gay porn sites, and a couple examples of someone using it like me.
When I was younger, I came up with the expression “yeah, and I piss out of my ass” for “yeah, right.” But again. . .hasn’t really caught on. Googling turns up zippy.
(believe me, I could give you a laundry list of stupid shit I say that will never catch on, but these are just the ones I like)
LOL! This was satirized–or perhaps “mocked” is a better word–in an episode of South Park a while back.
My clique (in the 70’s) started using “he’s History” (as in, he’s gone, finished, kaput- now part of History. It started as “he’s now part of the History books” and devolved into just “he’s history”). A few years later, I started hearing others use it. Of course, in this case, it could well have started by others independently.
Next, is something I know I made up independently, but it’s so obvious that others likely also did- the little mantra in the Movie “Dune” changed to “It is by caffiene alone that I keep my mind in motion; the caffiene gives the shakes: the shakes are a warning; it is by caffiene alone that I keep my body in motion” (use mind or body as fits). I saw it on a T-shirt a couple years ago at a SF convention. So, although I was the first I had heard to run around and give dudes the giggles using that little mantra, there certainly could have been other dudes who independently also “invented” the joke phrase.
My GF was using these in 73-74.
It was pretty old by then (the phrase, that is) and around that time it was in Ann Landers.
hh
I came up with the term “slangfroid” to describe the act of being cool and content with one’s lack of accomplishments in life by thinking or claiming to have invented a popular phrase.
People who aren’t just deluded about it but outright lying have “slangfraud”.
And, yes, I realize that the “sang” in the original term “sangfroid” doesn’t rhyme with “slang”… but then I figure the vast majority of the people posting here thinking they invented these common phrases are so unaware of the use of words and phrases around them that they won’t know the difference.
Seriously folks, of this long list of claims here only maybe a couple of them are potentially legit, the rest are just ridiculous. This is one of these times I think where the posters’ egos are overruling the opposition to ignorance that attracted them to this site in the first place. Come on, people, use your heads.
Well I’m 90 per cent sure I invented the word “Britishism” as far as this message board goes… I started a thread about words that british people use and called them **“Britishisms” ** and still see that word pop up now and then.
I used to smoke weed with a group of acquaintances which included a guy named Gilbert. Gilbert would never pass the joint unless the next person asked for it or reached for it, so when everyone started to get high and would forget that a J was going around, he’d sometimes get to smoke far more than his share. I started saying that a person was gilberting the joint if they didn’t pass it, it caught on, and I started hearing it from people I’d never met.
I think Hugh Hefner had you beat by a few years in the lounge appreciation department.
A friend of mine used to say fuckle sometimes. I don’t think it had any specific meaning other than fuck. It was probably the inspiration for me calling the tine on one of those little lobster/crab forks a dickle when explaining proper shelling technique to a friend. Now, all things that are small, narrow and short are dickles if they don’t have a name already.
I also lay claim to bloodfart which I first used in '96. It’s kind of my joke band name. It’s in a screenplay I’m writing as well.
At work, I pioneered the term “frequent flyers” to mean people who are constantly in Court.
Hef had me beat in many departments.