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Speaking Like Totally Teen - TV Tropes

️Thu Oct 13 2011

Speaking Like Totally Teen

(aka: Get A Load Of That Square)

"By using current slang terms, Dunbar is trying to tell his children, 'I'm 'hip' or 'down', and you can talk to me about anything,'" Mayhan said. "He is unaware that his stilted speaking style, belabored references, and frequent incorrect usage of terms leave his children more confused than reassured."

Having characters speak in Totally Radical slang is often annoying. It can be excruciating when the slang is outdated, misused, or just spoken wrongly. But sometimes, the other characters find it just as phony as the audience does.

This is when a character starts speaking like a Jive Turkey in an attempt to sound cool or relevant, and comes across as neither to other characters, who react with disdain (often Totally Radical disdain).

Characters prone to this include Valley Girl, Surfer Dude, and the Aging Would-Be Hipster.

Not to be confused with Like Is, Like, a Comma. In-universe examples only, please! Instances of the audience reacting this way go under Totally Radical.

Examples

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Advertising

This Tim Horton's commercial for tea that is "steeped". A woman is under the impression that "steeped" is a slang word after being told that her tea has been steeped. Needless to say, she goes around saying the word to everyone.
A Wendy's commercial featured a bunch of customers with Totally Radical reactions to their spicy chicken sandwich, then showed a "behind the timeser" calling their sandwich "da bomb!" and shouting "Raise the roof!" to his deeply unamused friends.

Anime & Manga

In Chapter 115 and later in Chapter 154 of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Ishigami tries to fit in with Tsubame and the other "normies" by using slang, but Onodera points out that what he picked up is outdated and makes him sound like an old man. It also doesn't help him understand Tsubame speaking in absolutely incomprehensible terms.
Pokémon: The Original Series: The English dub has Jessie and James use outdated teenager slangs and mannerisms to trick Ash and friends to board the cruise ship St. Anne. James called the cruise "Totally Radical," with Ash wondering who uses "radical" anymore.
In Millennium Snow's first volume, Chiyuki says that what Toya did for that little child was "dreamy." Toya reacts by yelling "No one uses dreamy anymore!"
When Naruto has a near-death experience, he meets the fabled Sage of Six Paths in limbo. At first, the Sage speaks in an ancient style that confuses Naruto. Recognizing that times have changed and his speech-style is outdated, the Sage tries this trope. That just makes Naruto annoyed, and the Sage eventually manages a more normal dialect.

Comic Books

I Don't Need Your Civil War has Captain America driving a getaway truck shouting "The pigs are on our tail, homie!" and Luke Cage muttering to himself "Note to self: never teach Cap slang ever again."
Mary Marvel in I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League:
Fire: Whoa, whoa, back up. "Crash in my crib"?
Mary Marvel: Too street?
Fire: Next to you, Laura Bush is too street.
Mary Marvel: That's what Booster said. Not in so many words, but —
Fire: Booster?
Mary Marvel: Booster Gold? Y'know — our teammate?
Fire: Yes, I believe I've heard of him. Now what exactly did our dear teammate tell you?
Mary Marvel: That I was too... retro. That I needed to... how did he put it? Get down with my boogie parts and —
Fire: That's enough.

Films — Animated

In the Inside Out short Riley's First Date?, Riley's mother tries this during an attempt to casually ask about the eponymous date ("So, what's the dealio with Jordan? O-M-G, he is awesomesauce, fo'shizzy!"). Riley's Disgust is so, well, disgusted she just walks away from the console.
In Shrek the Third Shrek uses slang to try and "relate" to Arthur, who just freaks out further and screams "Somebody help, I've been kidnapped by a monster that's trying to relate to me!"

Films — Live-Action

10 Things I Hate About You, Walter Stratford very awkwardly injects slang in his speech while talking with his teenage daughters. Nobody calls it out, but it's clear it's just as embarrassing for them to hear as it is for the audience.
Walter: I've got news for you — I'm down, I've got the 411, and you are not going out and getting jiggy with some boy, I don't care how dope his ride is! (Bianca leaves in frustration) Momma didn't raise no foo'.
In an interesting inversion, Marty uses an awkward imitation of 50's-era teenage slang to get out of 'trouble' in Back to the Future, when he accidentally calls his future father 'Dad'... "Dad... daddy... daddy-o."
In Eighth Grade the kids are made to watch a sex education video whose middle-aged presenter promises "it's gonna be lit", to widespread cringeing in the audience.
In Enchanted, Robert's girlfriend Nancy tries to be hip with his daughter, Morgan...
Nancy: What do you say, you ready to kick it?
Morgan: Kick what?
Nancy: Why do you still have your PJs on?
Morgan: It's been pretty busy around here.
In A Hard Day's Night, when George Harrison is brought to a fashion designer (unaware that he's the real deal) to preview some clothes.
Designer: Now, you'll like these, you'll really dig them. They're fab and all the other pimply hyperboles.
George: I wouldn't be seen dead in them. They're dead grotty!
Designer: "Grotty"?
George: Yeah, grotesque.
Designer: (to assistant) Make a note of that word and give it to Susan...
There's one scene in The Last Dragon where Bruce Leroy is trying to infiltrate a group of shady factory workers by pretending to be cool. While practicing his intro, he repeats the line "Hey my man, what it look like?" in various tones and enunciations.
In the live-action Scooby-Doo (2002) movie we discover that monsters are possessing humans and being taught to blend in by watching videos of people using expressions like "what up, dog", "yo Red" and "y'know what I'm sayin G". This backfires because it makes them stick out even more.
Inverted in Son in Law when Grandpa Walter, after looking askance at Crawl's endless stream of slang throughout the movie, unexpectedly cuts the film's primary antagonist down to size with a flawless slang soliloquy and instantly becomes the coolest grandpa ever.

Literature

In American Psycho, Patrick Bateman tries to use black slang in a nightclub to show that he isn't just some boring yuppie:
"I stick out my hand at a crooked angle, trying to mimic a rapper. "Hey," I say. "I'm fresh. The freshest, y'know... like, uh, def... the deffest." I take a sip of champagne. "You know... def."
To prove this I spot a black guy with dreadlocks and I walk up to him and exclaim "Rasta Man!" and hold out my hand, anticipating a high-five."
In Richard Powell's Don Quixote, U.S.A. the rebel leader's second-in-command Eduardo is an ex-copywriter who tends to use ad agency lingo to punch up his speech. At one point he starts explaining one of his plans to the narrator.
"...You with me so far?"
"With bells on," I said, showing that I too could speak in the vernacular.
"Your slang is with it like high-button shoes," Eduardo said admiringly...
In one of the Ms. Wiz books, the three Paranormal Operatives get a job as substitute teachers at the school and open an assembly doing a rap song. All of the kids look blankly at them in disbelief except for Class 3 who recognise Ms Wiz and join in with the song.

Live-Action TV

In Doctor Who S36 E3 "Thin Ice", the Doctor attempts to use teenage slang on a group of orphan children he'd bonded with. Bill finds it cringeworthy, and it's additionally Played for Laughs given that they're in the late 19th century and some of the slang he uses hasn't come into parlance yet.
In one episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, Robert picks up some street slang and starts saying things like "That's wack." Raymond points out: "We're Italian, 'whack' means something totally different to us."
Farscape's Aeryn's initial attempts at incorporating English into her speech are an interesting example. She tries to use English to be more relatable to John but he just gets annoyed and demands that she stop using English when she invariably butchers the language.
Joey does it on Friends when he tries to act like a nineteen-year-old for a role. "Playing Playstation? That's wack. Playstation is wack. 'Sup with the wack Playstation 'sup?"
Hannah Montana had a dentist greet Miley with a lot of outdated '70s slang.
In Happy Endings, Dave does this a lot in a season 2 episode, mostly about playing basketball with Brad and then all throughout the episode. He even lampshades how lame he sounds, and Brad asks him to stop.
Dave: Yo son, you ready to take the rock to the hole? Wassup son, we're street on this son!...*lowers his head in shame* I swam as a kid.
- This continues throughout the episode. "You ready to ball it up, son?" "I know my hip hop, son!" "You know it. And 1 son! And 1! *Holds his hand out for a refused fist bump*...I'll get you inside"
In Mr. Mayor, Neil tries to speak with his daughter Orly using internet slang. Orly thinks he's having a stroke.
Never Have I Ever: Mr. Shapiro's attempts at this are a rich source of Cringe Comedy.
Mr Shapiro: Genocide is not 100. And systemic racism is not litty. As we travel through all of humanity's most horrific atrocities, I want you to feel shooketh. Thank you. Trust. [dabs in front of his students]
Radio Enfer has Jocelyne Letendre, the school's psychologist. She talks like this to try to connect with the youth and fails badly at it, practically creating some sort of weird language that only she can understand (the youth lingo of the 1990s in Québec was mainly made up of Gratuitous English). However, she became an Ensemble Dark Horse mainly because of that lingo. Being rather over-the-top helped too.
One episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures has Sarah Jane attempt to pick up teenage slang, with hilariously cringeworthy results. Maria has a "No. Just… No" Reaction.
In one episode of Scrubs Carla tries to bond with a teenage patient by using the phrase "T.M.I." After a couple of seconds of the teen staring at her blankly, Dr Cox breaks the silence with "Okaaaay. Joshua, I'm going to have a quick word with your parents, so you stay here and chat with Nurse Early Nineties Catchphrases."
- Dr Cox tries to talk to a 16-year-old patient with the following speech. It's one of the rare times he's not being sarcastic.
  "Hey, Lindsey. What's up, girlfriend? It must be totally awesome to have the same name as that Lindsay Lohan".
On Succession, Kendall often tries to use incongruous slang-y language in business settings, which then always backfires...yo.
In Vecinos Arturo López Pérez uses outdated slang whenever he tries to talk with anyone under 20. And punctuates it with a "como dice la chaviza" (as the young'uns says), which is in itself an outdated phrase.