Top 10 Words Invented or Popularized by TV Shows

  • 2 months ago
TV has added some gems to our lexicons! Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for slang phrases we only use because we heard them on TV.

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00:00She wants to say hi, she's with her new boyfriend.
00:01What's he like?
00:02He's nice, bit of a close talker.
00:04A what?
00:05You'll see.
00:06Welcome to Miss Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for slang phrases
00:09we only use because we heard them on TV.
00:12Biggins?
00:13I never heard that word before I moved to Springfield.
00:16I don't know why.
00:17It's a perfectly cromulent word.
00:2010.
00:20Cowabunga
00:21Howdy doody.
00:22For some reason or other, unknown to me for a long time,
00:26the word caught on long after the show left the air.
00:29He used it profusely because everybody loved the sound of it.
00:33No, it did not originate with Bart Simpson.
00:36It didn't even come from the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series.
00:40This unusual word goes all the way back to Howdy Doody,
00:43where it was a favorite expression of an extremely dated character named Chief Thunderthud.
00:49Oh, cowabunga, doggone, I should've guessed that.
00:51Yeah?
00:52Howdy Doody writer Edward Keen came up with the nonsense word,
00:55which he pronounced, cowabunga, as a greeting or an exclamation.
01:00Somehow, it became popular among surfers in the 1950s and 60s.
01:04Michelangelo, the ultimate surfer dude, naturally adopted it in the late 80s.
01:09Gee, Michelangelo, I didn't know you could drive.
01:12I can!
01:14Cowabunga!
01:16Just two years later, it appeared in Season 1 of The Simpsons,
01:19and quickly became one of Bart's many catchphrases.
01:23Thanks mainly to these two cartoons, it survives in the popular lexicon to this day.
01:27Whoa.
01:31Whoa!
01:32Ooh, cowabunga!
01:33Number 9.
01:34Five-O, Hawaii Five-O.
01:45The use of this slang term to mean the police is a fascinating example
01:49of how a word can evolve.
01:50The title of the show simply refers to Hawaii being the 50th state. In fact,
01:55it was only inducted into the union nine years before the show premiered.
01:59Ben? Duke?
02:01Get over to the Kahala Mall. He's using a public payphone there.
02:06We're on our way, Steve.
02:07Hawaii 5-0 was a pretty big hit. It lasted 12 seasons and continued to air in syndication
02:13for years after the original show ended. It shouldn't be a surprise then that it had an
02:17impact on fans' vocabularies. However, young people who know that the word
02:215-0 refers to the cops might be surprised to learn that it came from this old-school TV show.
02:26Are you going to talk to Tim? Why, will he tell me something different?
02:32No.
02:32Number 8. Debbie Downer. Saturday Night Live.
02:35This phrase is so familiar, it feels like it should be older than it actually is.
02:39People have been using the word Downer to mean something depressing for decades.
02:43But the name Debbie Downer, to refer to a negative person, didn't appear until 2004.
02:49Always there to tell you about a new disease, a car accident or killer bees.
02:54You beg her to spare you Debbie, please, but you can't stop Debbie Downer.
02:58SNL invented the character of Debbie Downer for a sketch. She became a somewhat regular feature
03:03on the show, popping up a handful of times over the next 20 years, always played by Rachel Dratch.
03:09Usually, when I come to houses, not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse.
03:14You should check those houses for carbon monoxide. It's an odorless killer.
03:21It's such a useful phrase, since we all have a Debbie Downer, or perhaps a
03:26negative Nancy in our lives. It's no wonder it caught on.
03:30Oh, look guys, I just caught the bouquet. You know who else loves flowers? Honeybees.
03:37Too bad they're on their way out.
03:47Although this term has been around for a long time, it soared in popularity starting in 1995
03:52thanks to Elaine, Jerry and a suspicious label maker.
03:56I think this is the same one I gave him. He recycled this gift. He's a regifter.
04:03Or maybe he liked your gift so much he decided to get me the same thing. Perhaps it's an homage.
04:10Seinfeld had a knack for coining hilarious new ways of describing everyday things. For instance,
04:15we're willing to bet this was the first time someone used yada yada in this particular context.
04:20I met this lawyer, we went out to dinner, I had the lobster bisque,
04:23we went back to my place, yada yada yada, I never heard from him again.
04:27But you yada yada'd over the best part.
04:29No, I mentioned the bisque.
04:31In this season six episode, Tim Whatley gives Jerry a label maker,
04:35and Elaine suspects it's the same one that she gave Whatley for Christmas.
04:39She accuses Whatley of being a regifter, and he eventually fesses up.
04:43He did indeed regift the label maker.
04:45You don't have the label maker, do you?
04:47Uh, no.
04:49I knew it! You're a regifter!
04:51Let this be a lesson. If you're going to regift someone,
04:54let this be a lesson. If you're going to regift something,
04:57make sure the original gifter and the giftee don't know each other.
05:01Number six, jump the shark.
05:03Happy days.
05:04Fire up the boat.
05:06I'm jumping the shark.
05:07This expression is a colourful way to describe the moment
05:10when something that used to be good starts to go downhill.
05:13It originates from an episode when Fonzie accepts a challenge to jump over a shark on water skis.
05:18So, Prince Valiant, are you ready?
05:22Are you actually gonna do it?
05:23Yeah, are you?
05:25Yeah.
05:25Fans broadly agree that the show was clearly out of ideas and started to decline after that point.
05:31However, the phrase jumping the shark didn't enter the popular lexicon until nearly 10 years later,
05:36when college students John Hain and Sean Connelly
05:39used it to describe other shows that had declined in quality.
05:43And I explained how he was in college, and they used to talk about when shows turned bad.
05:48And jumptheshark.com is something he started, and he sold it to TV Guide.
05:51Since then, it's been applied to everything from politicians to sports teams.
05:55The Simpsons even used it in a couch gag, poking fun at their own show way back in season 14.
06:02Number 5.
06:03Nimrod.
06:03Looney Tunes franchise.
06:05I'll warm up the party a little for him.
06:10Nah, I couldn't do that to the little Nimrod.
06:13The name originally comes from the Old Testament,
06:15where Nimrod, the great-grandson of Noah, is described as a mighty hunter.
06:20But if you're a viewer of a certain age,
06:22you probably use it to mean a stupid or foolish person.
06:26That's because the Looney Tunes franchise accidentally changed its meaning.
06:30How am I ever gonna catch that screwy duck?
06:33Precisely what I was wondering, my little Nimrod.
06:36There's some debate over which character said it first,
06:39but this 1948 short appears to be the earliest usage.
06:43Daffy uses it to mock Elmer Fudd, who, of course, is not a mighty hunter.
06:48However, young kids watching the cartoon mistakenly thought it meant someone unintelligent.
06:53Bugs Bunny used it in a similar sense for Yosemite Sam just a few years later.
06:58Now, the derogatory meaning is the only one many people are familiar with.
07:02Obviously, I am dealing with inferior mentalities.
07:06Number 4.
07:06Friend Zone.
07:07Friends, a show that's such a major cultural touchstone,
07:10is bound to influence our vocabularies in some way.
07:13Over the years, Friends popularized many expressions,
07:16invented a few new ones, and turned others into hilarious inside jokes.
07:20Joey alone is responsible for some of the best ones.
07:23Oh, please.
07:25Hey, how you doing?
07:30In Season 3, he introduced the 1970s-era phrase,
07:34going commando, to a new generation.
07:36And way back in Season 1, he explained to Ross why he and Rachel would never be together.
07:42Why not?
07:43Because you waited too long to make your move, and now you're in the friend zone.
07:50We don't know for sure whether Friends actually invented the term
07:53friend zone, but its popular usage only took off after that 1994 episode.
07:58I made a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in the friend zone.
08:04Oh no, I'm in the friend zone!
08:06Number 3.
08:07Googled.
08:08Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
08:09Can you imagine a time when this word wasn't totally ubiquitous?
08:12Google it!
08:14Don't!
08:16Bye!
08:18Google it.
08:19Google it.
08:20Now.
08:20The Google search engine went live in 1998,
08:24and it quickly outpaced its competitors in popularity.
08:26Within just a few years, people began using the word as a verb.
08:30This episode from the final season of Buffy
08:32is believed to be the first time it was used in that sense on TV.
08:36No real info here.
08:38Have you Googled her yet?
08:40Willow, she's 17.
08:42It's a search engine.
08:43As you can tell from Xander's confusion, the word wasn't yet as widespread as it is today.
08:48Buffy the Vampire Slayer was known for inventing and popularizing all kinds of new slang.
08:52That makes it no surprise that it was the show that brought us this historic pop culture moment.
08:57This is normal teen stuff.
08:59You join chat rooms, you write poetry, you post Doogie Howser fanfic.
09:05It's all normal, right?
09:06Let's see what other sites there are.
09:08Number 2.
09:09Spam.
09:10Monty Python's Flying Circus.
09:12Don't make a fuss, dear.
09:13I'll have your spam.
09:14I love it.
09:15We have early internet message board users to thank for this one.
09:18The practice of flooding a chat room or other forum with unwanted text
09:22became known as spamming sometime in the late 1980s.
09:27Old archived chats from the time period reveal that the usage was inspired by a 1970
09:33Monty Python sketch where cafe patrons won't stop chanting the word.
09:47Since then, the term has evolved to refer mainly to junk mail.
09:51Although the makers of spam, Hormel, didn't mind Monty Python poking fun at their product,
09:56they didn't like its association with unwanted emails.
09:59In 2003, they sued software company SpamArrest for trademark infringement.
10:05After a lengthy legal battle, Hormel lost its suit and the word spam lives on.
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10:35Thanks to its popularity and incredible longevity,
10:37this show may have contributed more to our vocabularies than any other.
10:41In fact, a single scene in a season 7 episode gave us M. Biggin and
10:47Cromulent, both of which were coined by Simpsons writers.
10:57"...a noble spirit, M. Biggin's the smallest man."
11:02The words have since been added to major dictionaries,
11:05and M. Biggin has even shown up in scientific journal articles.
11:10The first known use of the word yoink comes from a season 4 episode.
11:14And of course, we can't forget Homer's famous catchphrase,
11:17which has since become synonymous with the character and the show.
11:21Don't! Don't! Don't! I mean, woohoo!
11:25We could go on and on, but we think you'll agree that this is already a perfectly cromulent list.
11:32Good! God, he is fabulous!
11:34He's embiggened that role with his cromulent performance.
11:37Which bits of TV slang can you not stop saying? Let us know in the comments below.
11:41No, no, no. I'm not in the zone.
11:43Oh, Ross, you're mayor of the zone.
11:45Do you agree with our picks? Check out this other recent clip from Ms. Mojo,
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