S03E71 A Quick Primer on Gen Z Slang (No Cap!)

Ever wonder why the words 'radical', 'gnarly', and 'tubular' make you think of fluorescent leg warmers, while 'rizz', 'finna', 'bussin', and 'yeet' subtly conjure up images of TikTok dances? Hold on tight as we embark on a rollicking journey through the high-energy world of slang. We'll be navigating through its intriguing evolution from 80s jargon to Gen Z's cryptic vernacular. While we laugh over our attempts to fit in with the young'uns, we also appreciate how slang has consistently served as a potent social bonding tool, breaking down barriers and promoting authentic self-expression.

We'll be serving up delightful anecdotes and insightful linguistic analysis, as we wrestle with understanding the transformation of slang and its enduring societal impact. We reminisce about the heyday of 80s slang, before diving headfirst into the realm of today's teen lingo. From the once-popular 'choice', 'epic', and 'bazillionaire' to the current favorites like 'no cap', we examine how some of these seemingly ephemeral expressions have surprisingly become part of everyday American English. So join us in decrypting the secret code of Gen Z's language, and who knows, you might even pick up some fresh new words to impress (or confuse) your friends with!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Do you know what sus means?
Okay, if you know that one, howabout riz or finna or fits?
These are all current slangwords.
My wonderful Gen Z kids useSlang.
Vocabulary has been present fora long time, when humans first
develop language.
I wouldn't be surprised ifthose primitives started messing
around with words and creatingslang right away.

(00:25):
Slang helps identify members ofa group who use these special
words and phrases together.
It creates an informality andan intimacy between people who
know what these words mean.
I recently spent some timetraveling with my two kids and I
overheard them using many slangwords when they were talking
with their friends, and some ofthese words were cute and funny,

(00:45):
but when I tried to use them insentences I got a lot of eye
rolls and shaking of heads.
Clearly, my attempt to usetheir slang words was not
appreciated at all.
It was as if I had taken theirclothes and tried to wear them.
It was inappropriate anddefinitely extremely awkward.
Well, it wasn't that long agothat I was in their shoes.

(01:06):
Okay, maybe it was a long timeago, but yes, as a Gen Xer, we
also had our own special slangwhich did not sound right,
coming out of older mouths andnot to brag, but a lot of our
slang still exists today as partof everyday American English
and I still think it's a lotbetter than the older boomer
slang that faded away or atleast should have, such as hip,

(01:29):
groovy, far out, or can you digit.
So let's go through some of theslang words from the 80s and
then run through some of theslang words today.
Who does it better, you decideFor my fellow MTV compadres
radical, gnarly, tubular thesewere all 80s terms derived from
surf speak out of California.

(01:51):
Gnarly waves were particularlydifficult to surf and if
something was radical or tubular, it was amazing or awesome.
Surf speak got mixed in with alot of valley girl slang, which
were words used by white uppermiddle class young women living
in the San Fernando Valley nearLA.
So the classic phrases likegrody to the max totally or gag

(02:12):
me with a spoon, and the classicup speak popularized by movies
such as fast times at RidgemontHigh and Clueless, where people
finish their sentences where itsounds like a question.
Choice, epic, bodacious,bitchin' and fresh these are all
terms for good things.
Choice is sort of like therecent slang term on fleek those

(02:36):
leather boots are.
So choice, same with epic,bodacious, bitching and fresh.
Anything fabulous, great orawesome could be described with
any of these words.
Or, as they say in the movieMean Girls, it's so fetch.
Is it too late to try to makefetch a thing?

(02:56):
Let's finish off our quickreview of 80 slang with a bunch
of words that have made it intothe normal everyday American
vocabulary.
You may be surprised that JenExcer started using these words,
which then caught on in themainstream.
One uses, or at leastrecognizes, these words today,
including bogus, veg out, buttload, buff, chill out,

(03:19):
bazillionaire, wannabe andfoodie.
Alright, on to today's freshestGen Z slang.
How many of these terms do youknow?
Riz?
Riz is short for charisma, asin she's got serious.
Riz Riz isn't being hot,although that can be part of it,
and it isn't about being cool,although that can be a factor.

(03:42):
Riz is what we used to callgame, as in he's got game.
It also can be used as a verb.
As to Riz, someone up meaningto charm or flirt with them.
Fits or fit clothes, or shortfor outfit.
I need new fits.
Or maybe I'll send you apicture of myself trying on some
new clothes and I'll ask for afit check.

(04:03):
Vibe check usually alighthearted way of checking in
on someone's emotional or energystate, as in.
Hey, what was that text?
Ah, it was just a vibe checkfrom Marcus.
Sometimes people will sendpictures of places or things and
ask for a vibe check, seekingyour opinion if something's
normal or if it's weird.
Bussen, really delicious ortasty Probably from the word

(04:27):
bust, as in it is so good itwill make you bust, or maybe
bursting with flavor.
People don't know for sure, butI do know when you say it I've
seen it said with a lot ofpassion.
I got some shake shackyesterday and let me tell you
that avocado burger was Bussen.
Mid, which is the oppositeaverage or mediocre, probably

(04:49):
short for middle or middling.
Make sure when you use thisword you have a completely
unenthusiastic tone of voice, asin did you watch last season's
Dancing with the Stars withPaula Abdul?
I did, but it was totally mid.
Or just say mid out of pocket.
This one's a little trickybecause you might already know
one or two meanings for out ofpocket, but there's a third

(05:11):
meaning, which is Gen Z slang.
The first conventional meaningis your own money or requiring
cash.
An example would be your healthinsurance doesn't cover
crutches.
That expense would be out ofpocket.
The second conventional meaningis used by business people and
journalists, meaning unreachableor unavailable.
So, for example, jill is out ofpocket today, meaning she is

(05:35):
out of the office or you can'treach her.
The current slang meaning ofout of pocket is describing
something that is completely outof character, inappropriate,
crazy, rude or wrong.
For example, jerry had sevenshots of Hennessy and then he
jumped off the ledge trying tofly.
He's way out of pocket.

(05:56):
Alternatively, if someone sayssomething disrespectful to you,
such as your dog is so ugly thathis face makes onions cry, you
might reply man, that's out ofpocket.
Yeet.
So yeet generally means tothrow, but the word implies
something that's thrown with alot of force and without much

(06:18):
care.
So, for example, dude, did yousee Scott yeet his cup at bill
when he beat him at MortalKombat?
Sometimes yeet can also be usedas a general exclamation like
yay or yippee, as in I can eatthe cookies you bake before we
eat dinner.
Yeet, fina, fina means going todo something like gonna.

(06:39):
The origin of Fina is probablya contraction of fixing to do
something like what you, Fina,do.
I, fina, get some Chick-fil-Aman.
Cap.
Cap basically means a liar orfalsehood.
The origin of cap possiblycomes from the same meaning as
to top someone as in to one upor to surpass someone.
So to cap about something wassimilar to bragging or

(07:03):
exaggerating about it, but nowit basically means to call
someone out who's lying.
For example, the Marvels is thebest MCU movie ever.
Cap man, it was mid.
Alternatively, if you want tosay something is the truth or
you're being serious, you woulduse the phrase no cap, as in

(07:24):
that avocado burger was bussinno cap.
Finally, sus salty bougie extra.
Let's finish this slang talkoff with four final words which
you probably know as they'vealready entered mainstream use
in a big way.
Sus Sus means suspicious orsuspect.
Originated from the multiplayerinternet game Among Us where

(07:45):
you have to guess who is theimposter in the group.
Example sentence would be hecalled in sick on the day we all
had to stay late for inventory,which was totally sus Salty to
be annoyed, angry or upset.
She was salty because herparents wouldn't let her drive
the BMW.
People think he comes from theconcept of someone crying salty

(08:07):
tears and bougie, so the wordbougie has actually changed
somewhat over time.
In the past, bougie meantsomeone who was middle class but
was trying to appear wealthy,and this meaning was derived
from the French word bourgeoisor bourgeoisie, which meant
middle to upper classmaterialism, and the origins of

(08:28):
this meaning date back to KarlMarx, author of the Communist
Manifesto, which include thebourgeoisie and then the
proletariats.
Now, in today's slang, themeaning of bougie has changed,
so it just simply meansappearing fancy, high end or
upper crust, usually with asarcastic connotation Like look
at you all, bougie with thatavocado burger.

(08:50):
And finally, extra, which meanstrying too hard, excessive or
overly dramatic.
Basically, it's not always niceto be called extra, it's
somewhat pejorative.
So, for example, every year forthe Christmas party, julian
always asks what everyone elseis wearing, but then shows up in
a tight dress and six inchheels.
I mean, she is so extra.

(09:12):
Alright.
So there's your crash course inGen Z slang.
I hope it was helpful.
Use these terms at your ownrisk, no cap.
And just a final warning, justwhen you think you've mastered
this Gen Z slang, there's awhole new crop of slang words
being created by the next group,gen Alpha, who are the children

(09:33):
of millennials born from 2010until now.
These eight to 13 year oldyoungsters have already started
to take over on the internetwith slang terms such as gyt,
scabiti, sigma and phantom tax.
It never ends, does it?
My weekly thankful is theability to give yourself grace.

(09:53):
I've been pretty good aboutreleasing this podcast every
Wednesday morning for the past39 consecutive weeks, but for
the past few weeks it wasstarting to slip, with the
episode releases getting pushedinto late Wednesday, then
Thursday and then finally, thedeadlines were starting to loom
really large for me.
Finally, I did a self vibecheck and I decided to give

(10:15):
myself some grace and take aweek break so I could catch up
and give myself a cushion ofrecording a couple more episodes
, so I could get back to asteady schedule.
I do this podcast for no otherreason than I like to share my
thoughts about topics that Ifind interesting and I hope
others will find to beinteresting as well.
I really appreciate everyonewho takes the time to listen and
, even more, provide feedbackand their own thoughts back to

(10:36):
me.
I've been a keep going on thispodcast until I can't do it
anymore, for whatever reason,and right now I can't think of
any reasons not to do it, solet's keep going strong.
Thanks again for listening and,as always, dm me at Botox and
Burpees podcast on Instagram orleave a comment at youtubecom.

(10:56):
Slash at sign Botox and Burpees.
Thank you.