I'd like to think I haven't completely aged out of using much of the slang terminology today's youth employs. Words like cool and awesome are timeless, right? Or maybe my teenaged niece and nephew are just humoring me? Either way, I can embrace some newer terms because in my head I can make sense of them.
Take sick, for example: I, myself, have often exclaimed that something is so great, so adorable, or so fantastic that it's actually gross. It's true, I told a colleague last year that it's gross how great she always looks, and everybody got that that was a compliment, albeit perhaps kind of an angry sounding one, but that's my humor. When something is so great, it surpasses the whole goodness scale and swings around to the awful side, then you've really got something amazing on your hands. (Ah, flashbacks to the 80s when bad meant good dance in my head.) So it isn't much of a stretch to say that to be sick is a good thing. That Aston Martin is sick. That fight scene was sick. I get it. I may not use it for fear of being called an old lady trying to act hip, but I get it.
Now let's look at the word I keep hearing every damn place lately, epic: To be epic means to be grander than the usual in size or scope, so I guess one's musical performance could be called epic because it was such a huge song...? But must everything good be labeled epic? Must it?! I get that we're a society of hyperboles, where anything stated as it actually is isn't exciting enough for us anymore, but come on. Everything can't be epic.
Did you see the game? It was epic.
Catch that new Pink video? It was totally epic.
My dog just took an enormous poo. It was absolutely epic.
No, no, none of this is epic. It's all normal stuff that happens all the time. If someone makes a run for a touchdown and crosses the entire field in 5 seconds, if Pink actually killed people with her singing, or if your dog's poo outweighed the dog, itself, that might be epic. Please stop using this word to describe every little thing in the entire universe. See? I love exaggerating, it's how I communicate, but I can't take it with this word for some reason. I just can't. Sorry.
So please, stop it.
I don't know when this happened...when I became this crotchety old lady, angry at the youth culture for their ridiculous choice of slang words. If I suddenly become afraid of technology, please send help.
That is all. Tune in next week for a strongly-worded letter to Showtime admonishing them for making the up-coming season of Dexter the final one. And one to HBO, too, for making me watch the entire first two seasons of Game of Thrones last weekend. Stupid fantastic show.
Happy New Year.
Come on, Game of Thrones is a little epic, right? ;-)
ReplyDeleteOnly because it actually fits one of the definitions, my friend!
DeleteI'm with you 100% on this post. "Epic" needs to go. Along with "swag." While I don't use "sick," I get a sense of giddiness whenever I hear it being used. That, and "rad." The 80's will never be dead to me.
ReplyDeleteNor to me, my friend. It's the only kind of music I can dance to because awkward and rhythmless is easily disguised within the swing of Wham!
Deletehaha Exactly!!
DeleteSo...much...to...say...
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I understand the need to use the word "sick" - I'm from California. It's in our dictionary.
Secondly, people use hyperbole far too freely as of late. There is a certain skill involved in frequency of hyperbole insertion into conversation, and this skill is becoming a nonissue which really irritates me. Use the hyperbole sparingly, people, that's what makes it funny. Plus epic? A word that should be reserved for the Lord of the Rings trilogy or A Game of Thrones (which, by the way, I am so glad you watched - no one I know has seen it and it's KILLING ME that I have no one to talk with about it. <--appropriate hyperbole).
Thirdly, I am in mourning right with you over the final season of Dexter. These are dark days we're living in.
Having gone through 2 entire seasons of Game of Thrones in one weekend, it's awful waiting for the next now. I am spoiled. It's funny because I'm not one who loves dragons all over the place, but Khaleesi is my favorite character, and dragons had a central role in my earliest stories as a child. Perhaps I'm a closeted dragon lover..
DeleteThank you for this post. I say the same thing to my high school students nearly everyday. "Class, dropping your textbook on the ground and making a huge noise is not epic, it is annoying. Say that after me, annoying."
ReplyDeleteSome days I seriously think about unfriending my now adult, former students for "epic" and "YOLO" and "that was the best movie I've ever seen." Context is extremely lacking.
I do what I can, Chris, and thank YOU for stopping by. Can't we just stick to "cool" and "awesome" (which I admit, is also kind of annoying, but I say it), with a little "sweet" thrown in for flavor?
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who has a problem with "awesome." To each his own.
ReplyDeleteTWO seasons of Game of Thrones?? I just finished the first. Anticipating dragons. (FYI, you MUST be a dragon lover because that girl's hair leaves SO MUCH to be desired.)
NO MORE DEXTER?! I'm SO behind!!
Sorry my comments are so non-writing oriented. You've hit a nerve, I guess. *Also the Empire Records post...now I MUST watch.
Very well said, and I couldn't agree with you more. I had the rare opportunity of seeing a night sky loaded with thousands of stars while sailing in the middle of the Pacific on the flightdeck of a darkened ship. That was epic. The movie "Epic?" Not even close to living up to the true definition of the word. Thank you for posting this!
ReplyDeleteVery well said, and I couldn't agree with you more. I had the rare opportunity of seeing a night sky loaded with thousands of stars while sailing in the middle of the Pacific on the flightdeck of a darkened ship. That was epic. The movie "Epic?" Not even close to living up to the true definition of the word. Thank you for posting this!
ReplyDelete