I had some high school friends in the early 00s who spoke to each other entirely in references. They quoted movies, their jokes came from stand-up specials, etc. They cracked each other up, and most other people just let them do their thing. They weren’t “cringe” or unpopular, but there was a certain amount of humoring them.
A friend of mine ended up marrying one at 18 and then divorcing eventually. I spoke to her recently, and she said he’s basically still a teenager. Maybe that’s unrelated?
Hell I’m over 30 now and probably half of the communication that happens between my main friend group and I happens via Monty Python and LOTR references.
It’s just ingroup/outgroup stuff which kids are very sensitive to, particularly thanks to us shoving them in massive assemblages of other kids. And adults are always, by default, outgroup.
It’s because kids are treated like property of adults/their parents so they have to evolve basically slave languages to communicate outside of their captors
I think this is fair. I’ve noticed a fair amount of new, and to me, nonsensical words and phrases in recent years. Perhaps the only thing that has changed is that I’m just older and out of touch. And that’s fine with me if that’s the case.
If this stuff sticks around and becomes part of the vernacular, I’ll adapt to it. If it’s just a current trend, then no need to.
I got my daughter some Percy Jones (Jackson? The novels that put the greek pantheon in stories set in this day) as novels for her to read with me during bed time reading time a few years back and holy shit @ the number of references just peppered through the thing. I’d have to spend 5 minutes explaining things for her to fully understand each paragraph, even ignoring the tough words to sound out. Maybe she was just too young (she was 8, just when her reading really took off), though I probably would have missed a lot of them when I was a teenager. Especially the ones referencing life in NYC.
It came off as pretentious, like the author wanted to show off knowing about a bunch of things more than he wanted to tell a story. It was exhausting and we didn’t get very far into the book.
None of the references were internet ones, from what I recall.
Meh, I don’t think it’s really getting worse. There always was some kind of thing all the kids said until it was overused and the next thing happened.
I had some high school friends in the early 00s who spoke to each other entirely in references. They quoted movies, their jokes came from stand-up specials, etc. They cracked each other up, and most other people just let them do their thing. They weren’t “cringe” or unpopular, but there was a certain amount of humoring them.
A friend of mine ended up marrying one at 18 and then divorcing eventually. I spoke to her recently, and she said he’s basically still a teenager. Maybe that’s unrelated?
Some people just peak in high school.
Not!
Hell I’m over 30 now and probably half of the communication that happens between my main friend group and I happens via Monty Python and LOTR references.
It’s just ingroup/outgroup stuff which kids are very sensitive to, particularly thanks to us shoving them in massive assemblages of other kids. And adults are always, by default, outgroup.
It’s because kids are treated like property of adults/their parents so they have to evolve basically slave languages to communicate outside of their captors
Whatever… you’re not even my real dad
I think this is fair. I’ve noticed a fair amount of new, and to me, nonsensical words and phrases in recent years. Perhaps the only thing that has changed is that I’m just older and out of touch. And that’s fine with me if that’s the case.
If this stuff sticks around and becomes part of the vernacular, I’ll adapt to it. If it’s just a current trend, then no need to.
Will Ferrell movies come to mind, Super Bad, Hot Rod, Napoleon Dynamite
Cool, Farout!. Heavy.
I got my daughter some Percy Jones (Jackson? The novels that put the greek pantheon in stories set in this day) as novels for her to read with me during bed time reading time a few years back and holy shit @ the number of references just peppered through the thing. I’d have to spend 5 minutes explaining things for her to fully understand each paragraph, even ignoring the tough words to sound out. Maybe she was just too young (she was 8, just when her reading really took off), though I probably would have missed a lot of them when I was a teenager. Especially the ones referencing life in NYC.
It came off as pretentious, like the author wanted to show off knowing about a bunch of things more than he wanted to tell a story. It was exhausting and we didn’t get very far into the book.
None of the references were internet ones, from what I recall.