Grace Zhao Week 2: A Dictionary Full of People
It started during a random rehearsal, when a few of us decided to gang up against one of our friends to convince him that he had missed something important. I don’t even remember how the joke started, but pretty soon we were all fully committed to it. We kept looking at each other, trying not to laugh, while adding little details to make our story more convincing. Our friend was getting increasingly confused, which obviously meant we HAD to keep going.
Eventually, he was on the verge of giving up, uttering the phrase “Say on God” as a last Hail Mary to get us to admit to our scheme. We paused for a second, then immediately burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. He said it in such a specific way, and for some reason, that was the funniest thing any of us had heard all day. We all started copying the ridiculous way he said it; every time someone said something questionable, someone else would respond with “Say on God.”
It became a joke that doesn’t need any explanation. Once everyone knows the original story, it can be brought back at any moment. The strange part about it is that these types of inside jokes don’t really get left where they happened; they follow you. A phrase from one rehearsal can show up weeks, even months, later in a completely different conversation. A singular word can remind you of a person you haven’t talked to in a while.
At some point, I started using “Say on God” in my daily life. I honestly have no idea when or how it happened, but it made me realize how much my vernacular is influenced by people around me. I pick up phrases and expressions from friends and loved ones, making them meaningful because of who I got it from.
In that way, I think my identity is made up of little pieces of the people I identify with. Not in the sense that I become exactly like them, but the people who matter to me will always leave something behind, whether it be a joke, habit, or a certain way of saying something. “Say on God” is a pretty insignificant example, but whenever I say it, I know it represents a small part of a friendship that somehow made its way into the way I speak.
I use that phrase too! I’m fairly certain that “say on god” is sort of like telling someone to swear to god that whatever they said is true; it can even convey surprise in some contexts. The thing is, I didn’t really pick that up from a specific person. This happens with a lot of Gen Z slang, like “no cap”, or “mid”. As new terms get invented and enter the community, they spread rapidly. For me, I usually learn these terms through context clues of what someone says, and if this happens with several people, I naturally start using the term too. I think that connects back to your previous post about groups and their own little jargon. In this case, the group would be everyone defined as Gen Z, and the jargon would be what is commonly referred to as “Gen Z slang”. However, there are plenty of inside jokes going on in my closer friend group, which include some words that we coined ourselves, so I completely agree with your point on how friendships can make subtle changes in your vernacular.
ReplyDeleteIt was really interesting the way you described how the phrase “Say on God” found its way into your life, especially the fact that it happened completely unintentionally. This reminds me of the phrase “say wallahi” that wormed its way into society through a livestream, somehow becoming a go-to phrase that I hear almost every day. I also really liked the line about how “a singular word can remind you of a person you haven’t talked to in a while,” turning something as simple as slang into evidence of people you have built relationships with. This also reminds me of a phrase my 8th grade band teacher said, which was (wait for the context) “when in doubt, pull out.” Although the context behind this was regarding tuning an instrument (pulling out your mouthpiece makes your instrument go down in pitch), obviously the other connotation behind the phrase can be understood. It isn’t a phrase I use on a daily basis ( its pretty clear why), but it still brings me laughter at times.
ReplyDeleteGrace, the commentary and significance you can bring to something as trivial as “Say on God” blows my mind! But it really is true, huh? Once the story behind a joke gets established, it becomes a recurrent part of that community—for a lack of a better word—culture. I have also experienced that in my life, particularly within my family, a good 90% of our conversations consist of phrases (i.e “beep” or “yurr”) that would likely fail to have any semblance of sense to other people.
ReplyDeleteI also found it comedic how you phrase your friend’s efforts as a last “Hail Mary,” even with the relatively low stakes on the line; it made it seem much more urgent than how it probably played out in real life. And I, too, find myself scheming against my friends for the safe of, well, trolling them. It’s these small moments in our lives that inevitably create the slang that echoes across the digital halls of our group chats and slips into our part of speech—anyway, this is all just to say that you should keep at those pranks! You never know what new and invaluable inside joke will be formed...