Wicked Gnarly, Dude!

I have a fondness for bad slang.

I once told a magician that he had better check himself before he wreaks himself. I said that in 2007 or so.

Which is what made it funny.

To be fair, he started it. He kept using old-slang. But he did it with no irony.

And I am not down with that.

Many of you have seen by now that our weekly vocab challenge is called Word Up, Yo! This is not a coincidence.

We were watching a movie I hated, The Wackness, which is set in the early 90s. I can't be bothered to remember when exactly, because I really hated that movie. What I do remember is the main character officially breaking up with a girl who had spurned him. What did he say exactly?

"Peace Out. Peace Out Forever, Yo!"

And I laughed and laughed and laughed.

I'm laughing right now in fact.

I love words. Even slang ones because they can so perfectly get your point across. I pepper them lightly into my conversation (or word salad, if you like). Where other people fumble to find the words they want to say, I am literally overflowing with words.

And I like to use them precisely.

However, there is one word that has become something of a personal affliction of mine. That word is dude.

Dude, you're so right!
Dude, I am not going to put that caterpillar in my mouth.
Dude, do not make you tell me one more time.

Or of course the classic "Dude?" As in, Dude, what are you doing? But because Dude is such an elastic word, you don't have to say the rest of the sentence. Your tone implies it. (Infers it? Damn me and my claiming to use language precisely. I'm pretty sure it's imply. And then you infer my meaning from what I've implied. Huh, long tangent.)

This is a word that has no meaning to me because I let it have all meanings. It is omnipresent, it is taking over my life.

In fact, my father has even requested that he be referred to as The Dude rather than Grandpa. Which quickly made me make a Big Lebowski joke. Anyone for a White Russian?

My dad is not a huge Lebowski fan though.

And that is uncool.

Dude.