How TV Has Affected The English Language

[Kromm]

If you can think of ways in which TV over-all, or perhaps specific shows, characters or maybe even specific episodes left a permanent stamp on the English language, then lets speak about it here. Slang and informal expressions are perfectly acceptable, as long as what's discussed is truly widely used.

For example saying that someone "MacGuyvered" something to get it working is a stock piece of American slang that's pretty much universally understood. 

Trends are okay to talk about too, by the way. 

[Shannon L.]

The only one I can think of that I still hear quite a bit is "Not that there's anything wrong with that" from Seinfeld.  There were others over the years, but I don't know if they're used as much anymore ("Master of your domain", "blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada", "I'll be in my bunk")

[mahidevran]

What a perfect place to make my first post. I study linguistics; this is my jam. 

One of the more fascinating recent studies (2013) examined phonological shifts among working-class Glaswegian youth, influenced the popularity of London-based series -- in particular, Eastenders. The full article may be read here (it isn't too technical, as far as linguistic publications go). And even if the study isn't of particular interest, the first section offers a brief summary of broadcast media's impact on language change.

[GaT]

The only thing I can think of right now is Rachael Ray & her stupid abbreviation speak that has somehow trickled into the vernacular. Words like "sammies" instead of sandwiches, "EVOO" instead of extra virgin olive oil, "Delish" instead of delicious, etc. All of them extremely annoying. 

[Irlandesa]

I think Seinfeld added a lot of Seinfeldisms to the language.  It's not that the show invented all these phrases but I do think their usage increased...and in specific ways...due to the show.

"Yada yada yada," "shrinkage," "Not that there's anything wrong with that...etc."

[atomationage]

18 hours ago, mahidevran said:

the popularity of London-based series -- in particular, Eastenders.

Yeah, that article was way too technical, but I do think EastEnders has had a big influence in the UK, and especially in UK shows.  TOWIE, The Only Way Is Essex, has magnified that.   The people on that show compared themselves to EastEnders characters.  I got upset a few years ago when a family came to Hollyoaks, which is set in Chester, that clearly belonged on EastEnders.   Thankfully, they're now mostly gone.   David Beckham is also from Essex, and Russell Tovey, so it's an accent we're hearing more and more. 

[GreekGeek]

TV Land has compiled a whole list of catchphrases: http://www.foxnews.com/story/2006/11/28/tv-land-lists-100-greatest-tv-catchphrases.html

I'm sure there are plenty that have been left out; it includes "Would you believe..." from Get Smart but not "Sorry about that, Chief!" 

Quote

The only thing I can think of right now is Rachael Ray & her stupid abbreviation speak that has somehow trickled into the vernacular. Words like "sammies" instead of sandwiches, "EVOO" instead of extra virgin olive oil, "Delish" instead of delicious, etc. All of them extremely annoying. 

I agree they're annoying, but I think "delish" has been around much longer than RR. For some reason I associate those types of abbreviations with the 1920's: "Just a sec. Don't be ridic. [ridiculous]" (Abbreviations in general don't belong to any specific time, though.)

Specific words and phrases aside, popular belief has it that TV flattened out a lot of differences in regional speech/accents. Has this ever been demonstrated scientifically?

[Enigma X]

1 minute ago, GreekGeek said:

Specific words and phrases aside, popular belief has it that TV flattened out a lot of differences in regional speech/accents. Has this ever been demonstrated scientifically?

I am not sure if there is a scientific study on this (I would love to read it if it is), but i keep hearing this. This actually saddens me.

[mahidevran]

"Delish" as apocope is first attested in the written corpus in 1920, and has rapidly increased in frequency since the late 1990s. I'm inclined to say Rachael Ray and her use of slang is more reflective of popular trends, in which her show is part of a larger feedback loop, than a pioneer of the term herself.

2 hours ago, GreekGeek said:

Specific words and phrases aside, popular belief has it that TV flattened out a lot of differences in regional speech/accents. Has this ever been demonstrated scientifically?

1 hour ago, Enigma X said:

I am not sure if there is a scientific study on this (I would love to read it if it is), but i keep hearing this. This actually saddens me.

Indeed, its popularly assumed that broadcast media has led to widespread systemic language change, including dedialectalisation, but such statements misrepresent a complex topic (and ignores sociolinguistic concepts such as register!) So while television has been linked with these trends in some cases, I wouldn't say regional varieties have been "flattened out" because of it, not by a long shot.

I apologize in advance as I don't know of any non-technical literature focused on this particular topic, but this article (2014) is a good introduction to the subject and includes a review of recent scholarship (skip to p.21 if you're uninterested in theory and frameworks). A more technical read, which references the trend in Glasgow, as well as a study in rural Japan, can be viewed here.  Sections 1.1 and 1.2 of the EastEnders article in my previous post also provide an overview of studies.

[AimingforYoko]

Didn't The Simpsons coin the word "meh"?

[roamyn]

That stupid "What's uuuupppp?" Even tho I believe it started in a commercial, that's still TV.

'Daisy Dukes' used to identify really short shorts.

"24/7", which may have first been spoken by Sports Center.  There's some difference of opinion on this one.

[DearEvette]

Naw 24/7 was a term used way before Sports  Center.  It is a case of popular street terminology , usually coined by Af-Am tenagers being used and popularized on tv.

Jumping the Shark is a tv specific reference turned into an actual idiomatic term.

'You go, girl' was popularized by Martin Lawrence's show Martin.

[Hybridcookie]

Apparently Buffy was the first show to use "Google" as a verb.

https://books.google.ie/books?id=IXiYi-dQenEC&pg=PA48&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false

[supposebly]

Considering that language change tends to start with teenagers, i.e. the younger parts of the population, I seriously doubt TV writers are actually starting a lot of changes. IMO, they tend to reflect what's already in use and may play a role in spreading certain types of uses wider.

[Cherpumple]

11 hours ago, AimingforYoko said:

Didn't The Simpsons coin the word "meh"?

And don't forget "cromulent" and "embiggen".

Another example: the term "catfish" has certainly caught on quickly, after being coined in the documentary and TV show of the same name.

[Guest]

Craptastic is another that Simpsons created.  That is one I use a lot.

[roamyn]

51 minutes ago, Cherpumple said:

And don't forget "cromulent" and "embiggen".

Another example: the term "catfish" has certainly caught on quickly, after being coined in the documentary and TV show of the same name.

I've never heard of any of those. 

[Constantinople]

Another way TV can affect language is to sanitize the language of the past when it omits language that would have likely been used by the characters in a show set in the past.  Slate recently published an article titled How '80s Is the Slang in Stranger Things.  The author discussed the slang most commonly used in the show, most of which were insults.  As several commentators pointed out, variations of gay, fag and homo were commonly used as insults at the time and all would have been used more often that douchebag, the first term discussed in the article.

For example, in Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982) -- I presume, or hope, this movie needs no further introduction -- Spicoli dreams he's being interviewed after having just won a surfing competition

Quote

 

Stu Nahan: Hello everybody! I'm Stu Nahan, and I'd like you to meet this young man. His name, Jeff Spicoli. And Jeff, congratulations to you. Things looked kind of rough out there today.

Spicoli: Well, I'll tell you Stu, I did battle some humongous waves! But you know, just like I told the guy on ABC, "Danger is my business!"

Stu Nahan: You know, a lot of people expected maybe Mark "Cutback" Davis or Bob "Jungle Death" Gerrard would take the honors this year.

Spicoli: [laughs incredulously] Those guys are fags!

 

I'm not advocating TV shows should be 100% authentic in that regard, but it's what I most notice when asked about TV affects language.

[anna0852]

I'm okay with sanitizing the insults. I think if they were left accurate, the producers would find themselves dealing with a tremendous backlash. 

[AimingforYoko]

20 hours ago, Cherpumple said:

And don't forget "cromulent" and "embiggen".

But unlike 'meh', those aren't official words, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary.

[kili]

"Twilight Zone" Everybody knows what you mean when you say "I feel like I've entered the Twilight Zone" and I don't think that was a phrase with that particular meaning before the television show.

[Kromm]

On 9/5/2016 at 10:34 AM, AimingforYoko said:

Didn't The Simpsons coin the word "meh"?

I'm older than that show by a bit, and heard it as a kid.  So I'd say not.

I believe it is a Yiddish expression, so... it probably goes back centuries.

The Oxford dictionary apparently actually has this in it, and the entry also perpetuates the Simpsons myth of the origin. To be fair though they say "popularized" not "created".

And really that makes sense. Like most comedy writers, the Simpsons team was lousy with Yiddish-influenced people (who even if they didn't speak it had heard all of the expressions from grandparents). 

[Kromm]

On 9/5/2016 at 11:13 PM, ParadoxLost said:

Craptastic is another that Simpsons created.  That is one I use a lot.

This is another "maybe". I think again its a case of popularizing vs. creating. Although in this case it didn't have the formal roots I believe "meh" has in an actual culture. "Craptastic" is just a natural compound term that I think has probably been around for almost as long as the practice of informally compounding random words with certain stock suffixes has been (that whole practice of adding "tastic" or "tation" or "geddon"--a more recent one admittedly).  Although I actually think one of the actual places I recall seeing it before The Simpsons was... from Matt Groening's Life in Hell comic strip. So... it's kind of a deferral to the same person, potentially. 

Edited September 7, 2016 by Kromm

[DeLurker]

truthiness

[spaceytraci1208]

I hated Clay Davis from The Wire with a passion...but he forever changed the way I say "shit" lol

[Archery]

I was reading an article (on Grammarly, maybe) on how "conversate" is not a word, it's converse.  And I felt very old.  Because I am almost certain that the word "conversate" originated with The Fonz on Happy Days. As in, he would say to Richie Cunningham, "Conversate with me." I have a very clear memory of that.  And that was in the mid-70s.  I've been using it (ironically; I know it's not a word) ever since. 

[3pwood]

If Kingfish in Amos & Andy didn't use "conversate", he should have.  I can't take words like that seriously -- "incentivize", "weaponize", "monetize" -- I always hear them in Kingfish's voice.  Ignorant, grandiose, lazy -- funny coming from him, but not otherwise.

[riley702]

On 9/5/2016 at 10:34 AM, AimingforYoko said:

Didn't The Simpsons coin the word "meh"?

How about saying "Ha-HAH!" in that specific sing-song Nelson sort of way.

On 9/5/2016 at 1:43 PM, Hybridcookie said:

Apparently Buffy was the first show to use "Google" as a verb.

https://books.google.ie/books?id=IXiYi-dQenEC&pg=PA48&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

On 9/8/2016 at 1:35 PM, DeLurker said:

truthiness

Go, Buffy!

[roamyn]

It probably doesn't affect anyone else, but I find myself saying "you're in my spot", in a robotic way, ala Sheldon Cooper, whenever someone sits on my side of the couch.

[Shannon L.]

I can imagine that from now on, if a big mistake is made on live tv, it will be referred to as having been "Steve Harvey'd" or a "Steve Harvey" moment. 

[HunterHunted]

On Thursday, December 01, 2016 at 9:03 PM, 3pwood said:

If Kingfish in Amos & Andy didn't use "conversate", he should have.  I can't take words like that seriously -- "incentivize", "weaponize", "monetize" -- I always hear them in Kingfish's voice.  Ignorant, grandiose, lazy -- funny coming from him, but not otherwise.

I love these words because I don't think there are good succinct substitutes for those concepts. Apparently, they have appeared in written form since 1960, 1957, and the late 1800s respectively.

I don't like conversate, but I'm not pressed by it either. I grew up in Pittsburgh so I'm used to weird vocab. When people tried to explain Uber and Lyft to me, I just replied that they're apps for a jitney.

[blueray]

Not so much English changing, but I sometimes find myself saying "bloody hell" after watching a British TV show.

[topanga]

On 9/5/2016 at 10:05 PM, supposebly said:

Considering that language change tends to start with teenagers, i.e. the younger parts of the population, I seriously doubt TV writers are actually starting a lot of changes. IMO, they tend to reflect what's already in use and may play a role in spreading certain types of uses wider.

I'm waiting for a TV show to incorporate the phrase, "Cash me outside. Howbow dat?"  

On 9/6/2016 at 8:14 PM, kili said:

"Twilight Zone" Everybody knows what you mean when you say "I feel like I've entered the Twilight Zone" and I don't think that was a phrase with that particular meaning before the television show.

And for a while, people used to ask if they were being Punk'd when they were in a crazy situation. 

[St. Claire]

1 hour ago, topanga said:

And for a while, people used to ask if they were being Punk'd when they were in a crazy situation. 

I still say it, although I never watched the show. I think it's because I am middle-aged and decidedly uncool. It's this generation's version of the "Am I on Candid Camera?" I used to hear from my parents or grandparents.

[Ohwell]

7 hours ago, topanga said:

I'm waiting for a TV show to incorporate the phrase, "Cash me outside. Howbow dat?"  

Unfortunately, I heard a football player say it a couple of days ago at the NFL combine.  We are all doomed. 

[Archery]

On ‎3‎/‎8‎/‎2017 at 1:20 PM, topanga said:

I'm waiting for a TV show to incorporate the phrase, "Cash me outside. Howbow dat?"  

Not a fan of Dr. Phil's but I love his totally dismissive, "Siddown, siddown," as he waves her back to her seat with his index card.