1790s Best: “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters” Runner-up: “Liberté, égalité, fraternité” 1800s Best: “Tell it to the Marines” Runner-up: “England expects that every man will do his duty” 1810s Best: Dipsomania Runner-up: Balkanization Completely forgotten
I may be one of the few who never forgot "Will it play in Peoria?" because I have an obsession with old timey language, theater jargon, and the questions of adapting a work for multiple audiences.
That one jumped out at me! I feel like I know it from an I Love Lucy episode or something along those lines. 🤔 Does it mean, “Will this idea fly in middle America?”
Basically, yes! And not even necessarily about whether or not something is acceptable to the provincials - Peoria, IL was a fairly common stop for touring vaudeville shows and asking if New York jokes will play to an audience states away was good business sense. But also, Peoria has a funny sound and since it was a common stop it could become a reference in comedians' routines, so it became the butt of a bunch of jokes, and that phrase stuck around both because of its sonorousness but also because you can use it to make jokes at the expense of both middle and coastal US culture. It's a quip that both suggests that the yokels don't appreciate good art and that also your new project is too avant-garde to be commercialized.
Oh gosh. Now I feel an urgent need to know some of the whys and wherefores behind several of these. I wonder if it's too much to hope that, having done the research to find them, you also have insight into their origin or use that would make for future offerings?
there’s a meta-category on Wikipedia (neologisms by decade) that has articles for most of these if you want to chase down some rabbit holes! And I may do more in-depth examples soon…
Hobo is my favorite word (and ideology) of all-time!(!!) Thank you so much for your rich, well-researched service to our popular culture and its many-armed canons.
I may be one of the few who never forgot "Will it play in Peoria?" because I have an obsession with old timey language, theater jargon, and the questions of adapting a work for multiple audiences.
And we MUST bring back "Oh! You Kid!"
That one jumped out at me! I feel like I know it from an I Love Lucy episode or something along those lines. 🤔 Does it mean, “Will this idea fly in middle America?”
Basically, yes! And not even necessarily about whether or not something is acceptable to the provincials - Peoria, IL was a fairly common stop for touring vaudeville shows and asking if New York jokes will play to an audience states away was good business sense. But also, Peoria has a funny sound and since it was a common stop it could become a reference in comedians' routines, so it became the butt of a bunch of jokes, and that phrase stuck around both because of its sonorousness but also because you can use it to make jokes at the expense of both middle and coastal US culture. It's a quip that both suggests that the yokels don't appreciate good art and that also your new project is too avant-garde to be commercialized.
Oh gosh. Now I feel an urgent need to know some of the whys and wherefores behind several of these. I wonder if it's too much to hope that, having done the research to find them, you also have insight into their origin or use that would make for future offerings?
there’s a meta-category on Wikipedia (neologisms by decade) that has articles for most of these if you want to chase down some rabbit holes! And I may do more in-depth examples soon…
this is the kind of content I dream about
Fantastic! "End of history, girlfriend, Great American Novel" are all phrases I expect to see regularly on the GuyInYourMFA Twitter account.
Obsessed with the idea of people using "simp" (I assume short for simpleton?) In 1900
I thought it was short for "simper"?
Brill!!!
My family has always used an extraordinary number of Popeye references considering how old it is
There were no heterosexuals before the 1860s. People reproduced by budding.
I refuse to believe Balkanization is that old
I was taken aback too!
the best of the 1910s being faggot oh my god i'm cackling
Hobo is my favorite word (and ideology) of all-time!(!!) Thank you so much for your rich, well-researched service to our popular culture and its many-armed canons.
"No, you first, my dear Gaston" is so pleasingly pitter-pattery to say
Posts like this are absolute catnip to me! 😁 tysm Danny 👏🏼