Can your favorite movie genre spawn a similar use of verbage and phrases in society?
Yes, I would argue it can. Growing up in the 1980s I watched as others of my peers actually emulated the bone-headed characters from the dopey Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure movies. And more recently, I can remember how catchy Cuba Gooding Jr.'s and Tom Cruise's, "Show me the money" phrase was in society from the movie, "Jerry McGuirre". Even in romance that movie scored with the line, "You complete me," which Tom Cruise's character said to Rene Zellwegger's character.
Okay, but what about rom-coms? How do they figure into a person's vernacular.
Vernacular: native or commonly spoken expressions or phrases.
Personally, I don't see many people these days mimicking things they heard from the movies. Comicon has a reputation for people dressing up like superheros or other characters from the movies, but in talking about that we're starting to get off base.
I'm talking about how movies can affect people and influence the interactions they have with other people.
Like in the instance of the romantic comedy. Now there's a genre with great potential to influence society, right? Hope you said right, because that's one of the key reasons to watch a rom-com in the first place--to get influence romantically. And since this genre is typically known for being dialog heavy, it only follows that people might borrow rom-com dialog and adopt it as there own.
But I don't see any of this in action around me. Maybe that's because right now the rom-com genre is relatively weak. But it's more due to our complex and fractured society.
But as for me myself. I've found two rom-com movies which have affected my vernacular, a.k.a my speach. But they don't come from the traditional side you'd think I'd be influenced by, the romance. Rather, it's been some memorable supporting characters and the interaction in scene which have rubbed me the right way and stuck with me.
The first movie that got me, and delivered a line that stuck with me and became part of my vernacular/my way of speaking came from "While You Were Sleeping" (1995: Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman). And it came from the exchanges the doorman (as BRILLIANTLY played by Bernie Landis) at Peter Callahan's guarded apartment and Jack (Bill Pullman's character) and then again with same doorman's exchange with Ashley Bartlet Bacon (Ally Walker's character).
Jack: "I'm with her."
Doorman: "So?"
Jack: "She's Peter Callahan's fiancee from 252G."
Then later Bernie Landis' doorman character has another memorable exchange, this time with Ashley Bartlet Bacon attempting to enter Peter's apartment on her own.
Doorman: "Excuse me, miss. Guests need to be announced."
Ashley: "You're new here."
Doorman. "Yes."
Ashley: "I'm Peter Callahan's fiancee in 252G."
Doorman: "You're not Peter's fiancee."
Ashley: "Huh?"
Doorman: "Huh?"
So as a result of watching "While You Were Sleeping" from a memorable exchange from a minor character, "So" and "Huh?" entered my vernacular. "So" to express my unimpressed, what else you got to justify your position, when someone thinks they have delivered an acceptable explanation. And "Huh?" as a sarcastic shine on when someone's explanation is clearly not enough for me to buy their line of thinking.
I've also gleaned another clever phrase that I've used from time-to-time from that scene in "The 40 Year-Old-Virgin" (2005: Steve Carell, directed by Judd Apatow) where Andy (Steve Carell's character) goes in to get his chest waxed, and his friends coax him along. I just la-ove Jay (Romany Malco's character) exit line. Do you remember that?
Jay: "That's it. I've got a weak stomach. I don't think I can take any more of this."
Then as Jay is leaving the message parlor:
Jay: "You got it, Andy. You got it."
Thus the blow-off line, "You got it" entered my vernacular as a way of expressing faux confidence that someone can handle a situation, when in all actually I just want outta Dodge.
So there's the rom-com's contributions to my vernacular: "So", "Huh?" and "You got it."
Now I pose the question to you, has any lines from rom-com movies moved you to the point where you actually found yourself using them in your own conversation exchanges?
- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA
Comments