When I was in Melbourne earlier this year for the Sticky Zine Fair, we were staying at a friends house. We spent the evening watching My Kitchen Rules, probably because we could talk over the top of it and nobody would get upset. Anyway there was this brother /sister team from the Sunshine
Coast. My friend (who is gay) was getting really upset with the brother and all his mincing around, playing up to the camera. My friend said that he must have gone through some kind of slang dictionary to find non offensive exclamations of frustration. Now I know people (I must admit I kind of do it too) who make up sayings hoping that they get taken up by everyone and you can feel that somehow you’ve influenced how people talk.
Last month I was teaching some teenagers how to make some handmade notebooks, and there was a bunch of girls who were friends all sitting together. I had taught them something and was approaching them to say to come up and see how to do the next stage. One of the girls was not quite getting there and trying to rush, and her friend said “Calm the Farm!” And all I could think was how many people would be upset that this little half-wit of awfulness had now influenced that language of our youth.
There is no justice.
Nicholas Beckett Visionary 