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The Daily OrangeCatchphrase: College vocabulary influenced by pop culture
By Brittney Davies
Posted: 2/23/09, 2:53 AM EST Section: Feature
"'Yadda yadda' was already a phrase though ('Seinfeld') gets credit for it, but it existed long before that," said Thompson.
Even "do'h" can be found prior to its fame (the Oxford English Dictionary notes that it can be found in a 1945 BBC radio transcript and in the 1952 book "Jennings & Darbishire" by Anthony Buckeridge), but it wasn't until 2001, after the show made it popular, that it was incorporated into the dictionary.
The TV origins of many other trendy words and phrases have also been misattributed.
"Let's hug it out," for example, is thought to be a classic product of "Entourage." But according to urbandictionary.com, the phrase was uttered on a "Friends" episode a few years before Kevin Connolly and Jeremy Piven were on TV together.
There are rumors in online forums that the phrase "That's what she said" has been around since the '60s, but before it made its way unto "The Office," it was heard in a 1992 "Saturday Night Live" skit of "Wayne's World" ("I'm getting tired of holding this" ... "That's what she said!").
Words from TV infiltrating into the English language is nothing new, Thompson says.
"You had new words being developed in the age of radio and early television that of course spread across the entire demographic," he said.
According to Thompson, there currently seems to be no specific demographic using these words and phrases most often; it just depends on the shows' audiences.
While catchphrases from TV easily enter regularly used English, it's not as easy for words and phrases made popular by movies to do the same.
"The advantage of TV is that it plays over and over and over again," said Thompson. "A movie gets released, gets talked about, people hear it, and then it doesn't go away, because obviously it continues to play on DVD and cable and all the rest of it, but the reason 'truthiness' manages to make its way into the vocabulary is because (Stephen) Colbert keeps using it, and it's on four nights a week, and it's on week after week after week."
Even "do'h" can be found prior to its fame (the Oxford English Dictionary notes that it can be found in a 1945 BBC radio transcript and in the 1952 book "Jennings & Darbishire" by Anthony Buckeridge), but it wasn't until 2001, after the show made it popular, that it was incorporated into the dictionary.
The TV origins of many other trendy words and phrases have also been misattributed.
"Let's hug it out," for example, is thought to be a classic product of "Entourage." But according to urbandictionary.com, the phrase was uttered on a "Friends" episode a few years before Kevin Connolly and Jeremy Piven were on TV together.
There are rumors in online forums that the phrase "That's what she said" has been around since the '60s, but before it made its way unto "The Office," it was heard in a 1992 "Saturday Night Live" skit of "Wayne's World" ("I'm getting tired of holding this" ... "That's what she said!").
Words from TV infiltrating into the English language is nothing new, Thompson says.
"You had new words being developed in the age of radio and early television that of course spread across the entire demographic," he said.
According to Thompson, there currently seems to be no specific demographic using these words and phrases most often; it just depends on the shows' audiences.
While catchphrases from TV easily enter regularly used English, it's not as easy for words and phrases made popular by movies to do the same.
"The advantage of TV is that it plays over and over and over again," said Thompson. "A movie gets released, gets talked about, people hear it, and then it doesn't go away, because obviously it continues to play on DVD and cable and all the rest of it, but the reason 'truthiness' manages to make its way into the vocabulary is because (Stephen) Colbert keeps using it, and it's on four nights a week, and it's on week after week after week."
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MPH
posted 2/23/09 @ 8:57 AM EST
To Sarah Trad: We're sorry that you're too good for TV watching and that you are only influenced by your friends. As a film major, you will need to pay a lot more attention to pop culture and society to make it in a demanding and economically-unnecessary field. (Continued…)
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