In another thread I asked for examples of “hip” phrases to (mis)use to drive my teenagers wild. Wondered if folks would like to share any particular catchphrases - either current or out-of-date - that have a regular place in your vocab.
Personally, I have long realized that I use the word “cool” far more frequently and in far more capacities than most folks of any age.
Humiliatingly enough, I can’t seem to expunge “Dude!” from my vocabulary. I use it way, way too much, and I don’t even notice it. People make fun of me.
“Awesome” and “cool”, which seem to have stood the test of time over the generations, are permanent components of my vernacular. At the other end of the scale, “lame” is my common word. I’ve also taken to saying “limp” in hopes that it may catch on. “Man, that is soooo limp!”
Cool. Dude. Bummer. Awesome. Sucks. All are pretty timeless.
On the other hand, "Bitchin’ " pegs me as having been in High School in the late 70s/early 80s.
Fortunately I’ve successfully dropped “Make butt” and “radical” (too dated) and “That’s so gay” (un-PC)
I say “right on” way too much. One time I got a fake award of a right angle measuring thingy from a group I was working with because my answer to any request was “right on.”
“De Dee De”, as made famous by the tragically unfunny Carlos Mencia, seems to have replaced “Well DUH” among the 19-22 year olds I work with. Other popular sayings among them: calling everybody “dork” or “retard”, and “what’s up chickenbutt".
I like to mock them by adding “and stuff” and/or “or whatever” to every conversation I grudgingly have to conduct with one of them. For example: “As soon as I get my project schedule ‘and stuff’ done, I’ll check on your TPS report or ‘whatever’. Yeah… I’m not really hip or cool.
This was around in the late 70s, at least in Southern California. It was a way of expressing disapproval of some thing or action. If someone did something stupid, embarassing, or otherwise uncool (“pulled a boner” to use a earlier slang term) you’d call them on it with a “Make butt, man!” In other words, “That’s stupid, don’t do it again, you’re embarassing me in front of the cool kids/hot chicks/whoever”. Alternately, it was used to razz someone who made a mistake. Your friend wipes out while trying to show off a new skateboard move, you’d laugh in his face with a loud “MAKE BUTT, DUDE!”.
If a movie/class assignment/other activity seemed lame or dorky, “this makes butt”.
And I dunno if it counts as slang, but ‘‘Fuck yeah’’ is a regular part of my vocabulary.
So is ‘‘Fuck that shit.’’
I use the ‘‘F-word’’ a lot, come to think of it…