WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.020 If you like dropped your keys right now or missed 00:00:03.020 --> 00:00:06.160 a train and just yelled out, ay caramba, you 00:00:06.160 --> 00:00:08.140 probably think you're just quoting a cartoon 00:00:08.140 --> 00:00:10.660 character on a skateboard. Right. A very specific 00:00:10.660 --> 00:00:14.320 90s kid. Exactly. It feels like this quintessential 00:00:14.320 --> 00:00:17.879 piece of 1990s pop culture firmly rooted in, 00:00:17.879 --> 00:00:20.920 you know, late 20th century television. But what 00:00:20.920 --> 00:00:23.679 if I told you that by shouting that exact phrase, 00:00:23.739 --> 00:00:26.940 you are actually screaming a heavily censored 00:00:26.940 --> 00:00:29.949 200 year old Spanish curse word? Wow. Yeah, it 00:00:29.949 --> 00:00:32.189 really puts it into perspective. Right. And not 00:00:32.189 --> 00:00:34.990 only that, but you are also paying direct, albeit 00:00:34.990 --> 00:00:38.549 accidental, homage to an 18th century flamenco 00:00:38.549 --> 00:00:41.850 dancer's giant ribbon hat. I mean, it completely 00:00:41.850 --> 00:00:44.009 shatters the illusion we have about the modern 00:00:44.009 --> 00:00:46.380 words we use every day. We tend to think of slang 00:00:46.380 --> 00:00:48.340 as something invented yesterday in a writer's 00:00:48.340 --> 00:00:51.020 room, but language is essentially a massive recycling 00:00:51.020 --> 00:00:53.420 plant. Which is exactly our mission for this 00:00:53.420 --> 00:00:56.520 deep dive. Today, we're taking a single incredibly 00:00:56.520 --> 00:00:59.579 dense encyclopedic entry, specifically the Wikipedia 00:00:59.579 --> 00:01:02.640 page for the exclamation, ah, garamba. And we 00:01:02.640 --> 00:01:05.579 are going to trace its bizarre, globetrotting 00:01:05.579 --> 00:01:07.819 evolutionary journey. It's a wild ride, honestly. 00:01:08.040 --> 00:01:11.439 It really is. The goal here is to show you how 00:01:11.439 --> 00:01:15.819 a seemingly throwaway catchphrase spans the mechanics 00:01:15.819 --> 00:01:18.540 of linguistics all the way to 18th century high 00:01:18.540 --> 00:01:21.519 fashion, to French comic books, and then to modern 00:01:21.519 --> 00:01:23.640 American animation. It's going to completely 00:01:23.640 --> 00:01:26.140 change how you view the casual words that leave 00:01:26.140 --> 00:01:28.579 your mouth every single day. It really highlights 00:01:28.579 --> 00:01:30.620 that there's no such thing as just a catchphrase, 00:01:30.680 --> 00:01:33.379 you know? Every syllable we use carries centuries 00:01:33.379 --> 00:01:36.000 of invisible baggage. OK, let's unpack this. 00:01:36.280 --> 00:01:38.719 Because before a phrase can conquer the globe 00:01:38.719 --> 00:01:41.239 and end up on a million graphic t -shirts, we 00:01:41.239 --> 00:01:43.200 have to understand how it actually functions 00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:46.040 mechanically in the human mouth. Right, the actual 00:01:46.040 --> 00:01:48.319 linguistic breakdown. Yeah, so the phrase is 00:01:48.319 --> 00:01:51.000 divided into two distinct parts. First, we have 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:53.859 the Spanish interjection I. Which is entirely 00:01:53.859 --> 00:01:56.959 physiological. I is an involuntary vocalization. 00:01:56.879 --> 00:02:00.840 denoting sudden pain or shock or surprise. Like 00:02:00.840 --> 00:02:03.480 when you stub your toe? Exactly. It is the raw 00:02:03.480 --> 00:02:06.060 sound your vocal cords make before your frontal 00:02:06.060 --> 00:02:08.000 lobe is even fully processed what is happening 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:11.539 to you. It's pure unfiltered reaction. And then 00:02:11.539 --> 00:02:14.139 the brain catches up, right? And you pair that 00:02:14.139 --> 00:02:17.069 raw reaction with the word caramba. But caramba 00:02:17.069 --> 00:02:19.830 is not a standard dictionary word that was just 00:02:19.830 --> 00:02:22.370 designed to mean surprise. No, not at all. It 00:02:22.370 --> 00:02:25.349 is what linguists refer to as a minced oath for 00:02:25.349 --> 00:02:28.310 a much harsher, highly offensive Spanish swear 00:02:28.310 --> 00:02:30.830 word, which is carajo. Yeah, which you really 00:02:30.830 --> 00:02:33.349 didn't want to be caught saying. So functionally, 00:02:33.830 --> 00:02:36.900 caramba is a linguistic workaround, right? used 00:02:36.900 --> 00:02:39.780 to express a sudden, usually positive surprise 00:02:39.780 --> 00:02:41.479 without getting yourself kicked out of polite 00:02:41.479 --> 00:02:43.939 society. It's basically the Spanish equivalent 00:02:43.939 --> 00:02:46.400 of saying fudge or gosh darn it to avoid swearing. 00:02:47.180 --> 00:02:49.879 Yes, exactly that. And what's fascinating here 00:02:49.879 --> 00:02:52.020 is the underlying psychology of the minced oath. 00:02:52.659 --> 00:02:54.979 I mean, we don't invent these workarounds by 00:02:54.979 --> 00:02:57.259 accident. What do you mean by that? Well, think 00:02:57.259 --> 00:02:59.639 of the human nervous system like a boiler. When 00:02:59.639 --> 00:03:01.719 you experience a sudden shock, whether it's intense 00:03:01.719 --> 00:03:04.860 joy or pain or surprise that creates psychological 00:03:04.860 --> 00:03:07.889 steam, You need to release that pressure. Oh, 00:03:07.930 --> 00:03:11.150 wow. OK. Yeah. And a swear word acts as a linguistic 00:03:11.150 --> 00:03:14.330 pressure valve. The problem is society has strict 00:03:14.330 --> 00:03:16.509 taboos about what kind of steam you're allowed 00:03:16.509 --> 00:03:18.569 to release in public. Right. I mean, you can't 00:03:18.569 --> 00:03:21.169 just drop a massive profanity in front of your 00:03:21.169 --> 00:03:23.810 grandmother or your boss. Exactly. Wait. So when 00:03:23.810 --> 00:03:26.789 a famous cartoon child is saying this, he's basically 00:03:26.789 --> 00:03:29.650 screaming a clever workaround for a major curse 00:03:29.650 --> 00:03:32.719 word. Functionally, yes. The structure of the 00:03:32.719 --> 00:03:35.500 word allows the speaker to retain all the punchy, 00:03:35.639 --> 00:03:38.219 explosive energy of a profanity, but it wears 00:03:38.219 --> 00:03:41.319 a socially acceptable mask. So how does Kuramba 00:03:41.319 --> 00:03:44.060 actually solve that mechanical problem? It solves 00:03:44.060 --> 00:03:47.039 it through phonetics. To release that psychological 00:03:47.039 --> 00:03:50.580 tension, the brain craves aggressive, percussive 00:03:50.580 --> 00:03:53.680 consonant sounds. With Caramba, you get the hard, 00:03:53.819 --> 00:03:56.580 sharp C sound at the front and the rolling aggressive 00:03:56.580 --> 00:03:59.039 R right behind it. That gives you the immediate 00:03:59.039 --> 00:04:01.199 physical satisfaction of launching a curse word. 00:04:01.219 --> 00:04:03.439 Oh, that makes total sense. But right at the 00:04:03.439 --> 00:04:06.280 crucial moment, the minced ending acts as the 00:04:06.280 --> 00:04:10.060 safety valve. The soft, rounded MBA swallows 00:04:10.060 --> 00:04:12.500 the offense, altering the word just enough so 00:04:12.500 --> 00:04:14.759 you don't detonate your social standing. I am 00:04:14.759 --> 00:04:16.720 trying to wrap my head around the modern implications 00:04:16.720 --> 00:04:21.800 of this. If Karamba is explicitly a polite stand 00:04:21.800 --> 00:04:25.220 -in for a severe curse word, does that mean every 00:04:25.220 --> 00:04:26.939 time we hear this on a Saturday morning cartoon, 00:04:27.379 --> 00:04:30.540 the network is essentially broadcasting a sanitized 00:04:30.540 --> 00:04:33.620 profanity to millions of children? Pretty much. 00:04:33.800 --> 00:04:35.600 It feels like a massive inside joke, doesn't 00:04:35.600 --> 00:04:38.259 it? It really does. But over the span of a century, 00:04:38.500 --> 00:04:41.259 that sanitized curse word lost its taboo edge 00:04:41.259 --> 00:04:44.500 entirely. It transitioned from a sneaky workaround 00:04:44.500 --> 00:04:47.240 into a universally accepted expression of joy. 00:04:47.560 --> 00:04:50.100 Okay, so that transition from sneaky workaround 00:04:50.100 --> 00:04:52.560 to mainstream acceptance totally makes sense 00:04:52.560 --> 00:04:55.019 in spoken language, but a verbal pressure valve 00:04:55.019 --> 00:04:57.620 is still just invisible sound. Right. In the 00:04:57.620 --> 00:05:00.480 1780s, this story takes a wild pivot because 00:05:00.480 --> 00:05:02.779 that invisible linguistic energy needed a physical 00:05:02.779 --> 00:05:05.040 outlet. We are moving from the dictionary to 00:05:05.040 --> 00:05:07.360 the wardrobe, specifically traveling to Madrid. 00:05:07.600 --> 00:05:11.339 Spain. And 18th century Madrid was a place governed 00:05:11.339 --> 00:05:14.519 by incredibly strict social hierarchies. Very 00:05:14.519 --> 00:05:17.000 rigid. Extremely rigid expectations of public 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:19.160 decorum, especially for women. which creates 00:05:19.160 --> 00:05:22.220 the perfect environment for a rebellion. So in 00:05:22.220 --> 00:05:25.759 the 1780s, this exclamation, this sanitized curse 00:05:25.759 --> 00:05:28.920 word became intrinsically linked to a highly 00:05:28.920 --> 00:05:32.480 famous Madrid flamenco dancer and singer known 00:05:32.480 --> 00:05:35.079 as La Caramba. Yes, Maria Antonio Vallejo. Right. 00:05:35.120 --> 00:05:38.220 She was a performer known for her absolute flamboyance 00:05:38.220 --> 00:05:41.259 and her signature aesthetic was this spectacular 00:05:41.259 --> 00:05:44.720 massive headdress made entirely of brightly colored 00:05:44.720 --> 00:05:47.620 ribbons. The historical record shows that those 00:05:47.620 --> 00:05:49.779 ribbons literally became known as a caramba. 00:05:50.040 --> 00:05:52.480 It's just a fantastic detail. It's wild. But 00:05:52.480 --> 00:05:54.779 I'm stuck on the mechanics of this leap. How 00:05:54.779 --> 00:05:57.420 does a gasp of surprise literally become the 00:05:57.420 --> 00:06:00.029 physical name of a piece of clothing? Well, if 00:06:00.029 --> 00:06:02.589 we connect this to the bigger picture, it reveals 00:06:02.589 --> 00:06:04.810 something profound about how art and fashion 00:06:04.810 --> 00:06:07.209 co -opt language. You have to look at the performer's 00:06:07.209 --> 00:06:10.410 brand. OK. A flamenco dancer in the 1780s is 00:06:10.410 --> 00:06:12.470 dealing in the currency of attention, passion, 00:06:12.550 --> 00:06:14.910 and flash. She is trying to break through the 00:06:14.910 --> 00:06:17.649 rigid social decorum of Madrid. Now consider 00:06:17.649 --> 00:06:20.350 the word caramba. As we established, it is a 00:06:20.350 --> 00:06:22.670 word that literally means sudden surprise, but 00:06:22.670 --> 00:06:25.290 it carries this vibrating, rebellious undertone 00:06:25.290 --> 00:06:27.990 of a censored swear word. So the word perfectly 00:06:27.990 --> 00:06:30.629 encapsulates her entire vibe. It's polite enough 00:06:30.629 --> 00:06:33.050 to say in public, but everyone knows it has an 00:06:33.050 --> 00:06:35.990 edge. Precisely. Her fashion was the physical 00:06:35.990 --> 00:06:39.689 manifestation of a gasp. It was so shocking, 00:06:40.050 --> 00:06:42.970 so outside the norm of conservative 18th century 00:06:42.970 --> 00:06:46.089 dress, that the visual impact of the ribbons 00:06:46.089 --> 00:06:48.410 essentially absorbed the verbal reaction they 00:06:48.410 --> 00:06:50.790 caused. Wow. And when people saw the headdress, 00:06:51.129 --> 00:06:54.160 the shock produced the word. Eventually the object 00:06:54.160 --> 00:06:56.980 and the reaction became completely inseparable. 00:06:57.500 --> 00:06:59.459 The language physically leaped from the spoken 00:06:59.459 --> 00:07:02.279 word and became a tangible accessory. That is 00:07:02.279 --> 00:07:04.839 just I mean it would be like if a pop star stepped 00:07:04.839 --> 00:07:07.240 onto a red carpet today wearing an outfit so 00:07:07.240 --> 00:07:09.800 outrageous that the crowd gasped and then forever 00:07:09.800 --> 00:07:12.079 after that style of clothing was simply called 00:07:12.079 --> 00:07:15.180 the gasp. That's a perfect analogy. It is staggering 00:07:15.180 --> 00:07:17.100 that a word born to hide a curse word became 00:07:17.100 --> 00:07:19.160 a brightly colored ribbon on a dancer's head. 00:07:19.660 --> 00:07:21.579 But, you know, once a word establishes that kind 00:07:21.579 --> 00:07:23.920 of vibrant physical footprint, it becomes an 00:07:23.920 --> 00:07:26.420 export. And when language crosses international 00:07:26.420 --> 00:07:28.259 borders, it usually gets stripped for parts. 00:07:28.699 --> 00:07:31.279 That is the inevitable tragedy of globalization, 00:07:31.800 --> 00:07:35.579 really. A word travels, but its highly specific 00:07:35.579 --> 00:07:39.100 nuanced history does not travel with it. It becomes 00:07:39.100 --> 00:07:41.560 unmoored. It's like buying a beautiful souvenir 00:07:41.560 --> 00:07:44.459 in a foreign country, bringing it home, and completely 00:07:44.459 --> 00:07:46.579 forgetting what the object actually signifies. 00:07:46.699 --> 00:07:49.699 It just becomes a decoration. Exactly. We see 00:07:49.699 --> 00:07:52.160 this cognitive hollowing out happened perfectly 00:07:52.160 --> 00:07:55.139 in the mid -20th century. Our source material 00:07:55.139 --> 00:07:58.399 highlights the year 1935, specifically looking 00:07:58.399 --> 00:08:01.220 at the legendary Belgian comic book series, The 00:08:01.220 --> 00:08:03.879 Adventures of Tintin. Oh yeah, The Broken Ear. 00:08:04.079 --> 00:08:06.240 Yes, in a comic called The Broken Ear, there 00:08:06.240 --> 00:08:09.040 is a knife -throwing villain who is constantly 00:08:09.040 --> 00:08:11.800 failing. He throws his knives, he misses his 00:08:11.800 --> 00:08:14.019 target, and he yells in frustration, Caramba! 00:08:14.379 --> 00:08:16.920 Missed again. Right. This visual gag happened 00:08:16.920 --> 00:08:19.519 so frequently that it spawned a massive widespread 00:08:19.519 --> 00:08:22.399 catchphrase in French, caramba encore à terre. 00:08:22.600 --> 00:08:24.600 Which is a complete subversion of the word's 00:08:24.600 --> 00:08:27.920 actual meaning. Traditionally, this Spanish exclamation 00:08:27.920 --> 00:08:31.040 is reserved for a positive surprise. It is a 00:08:31.040 --> 00:08:34.840 gasp of awe or sudden joy. But here, a French 00:08:34.840 --> 00:08:37.539 language comic is having a villain use it to 00:08:37.539 --> 00:08:40.220 express negative frustration and failure. Exactly. 00:08:40.340 --> 00:08:42.879 The original definition is totally dead in this 00:08:42.879 --> 00:08:45.559 context, so why use it? I mean, if the author 00:08:45.559 --> 00:08:47.940 didn't care about the actual Spanish meaning, 00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:50.000 why would they choose that specific word for 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:53.220 a frustrated villain? Because of the phonetics 00:08:53.220 --> 00:08:55.340 and the visual aesthetics of the word itself. 00:08:56.000 --> 00:08:58.299 Colic book writers are highly attuned to how 00:08:58.299 --> 00:09:00.679 a word looks inside a jagged speech bubble. Wow, 00:09:00.679 --> 00:09:03.299 that's interesting. Yeah. Caramba is an incredibly 00:09:03.299 --> 00:09:05.539 attractive word for a writer. It has that sharp 00:09:05.539 --> 00:09:08.519 angular C, the rolling R, and the heavy B. It 00:09:08.519 --> 00:09:10.919 looks aggressive on the page, and it sounds punchy 00:09:10.919 --> 00:09:12.320 in the mind of the reader. So it's all about 00:09:12.320 --> 00:09:15.000 the vibe again. Exactly. The French audience 00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:17.240 didn't need to know about 18th century flamenco 00:09:17.240 --> 00:09:19.460 dancers or minced oaths. They just inherently 00:09:19.460 --> 00:09:21.620 understood that this word sounded like a villain's 00:09:21.620 --> 00:09:25.360 frustration. The mechanics of the letters. superseded 00:09:25.360 --> 00:09:27.720 the dictionary definition. That makes total sense. 00:09:27.779 --> 00:09:29.820 They kept the chassis of the word, but threw 00:09:29.820 --> 00:09:32.419 away the engine. But it gets even more extreme 00:09:32.419 --> 00:09:35.919 than that. Let's look at 1944. Disney releases 00:09:35.919 --> 00:09:38.259 an animated movie called The Three Caballeros. 00:09:38.659 --> 00:09:41.820 A classic. They introduce a character named Panchito 00:09:41.820 --> 00:09:45.100 Pistoles, who represents Mexico, and he screams, 00:09:45.519 --> 00:09:48.220 I, Caramba, at the absolute top of his lungs. 00:09:48.759 --> 00:09:51.799 But then another character, Jose Carioca, actually 00:09:51.799 --> 00:09:54.000 stops the scene and asks him what the phrase 00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:56.279 means. Right, he literally asks for a definition. 00:09:56.679 --> 00:09:59.120 And Panchito openly admits on screen that he 00:09:59.120 --> 00:10:01.960 has absolutely no idea. Is this the ultimate 00:10:01.960 --> 00:10:04.899 linguistic telephone game? If a character openly 00:10:04.899 --> 00:10:06.500 admits he doesn't know the definition of his 00:10:06.500 --> 00:10:09.039 own catchphrase, why did the animators even bother 00:10:09.039 --> 00:10:10.899 putting it in the script? What purpose does it 00:10:10.899 --> 00:10:12.840 serve at that point? This raises an important 00:10:12.840 --> 00:10:15.100 question about how mass media relies on what 00:10:15.100 --> 00:10:18.759 we call auditory symbols. By the 1940s, Hollywood 00:10:18.759 --> 00:10:21.440 studios were operating at breakneck speeds, and 00:10:21.440 --> 00:10:23.620 they relied heavily on archetypes. They didn't 00:10:23.620 --> 00:10:25.480 have time for nuance. Right, they didn't have 00:10:25.480 --> 00:10:29.279 the screen time to build deep, nuanced, cultural 00:10:29.279 --> 00:10:31.179 backstories for every character. They needed 00:10:31.179 --> 00:10:35.220 shortcuts. I, Caramba, had become the ultimate 00:10:35.220 --> 00:10:38.620 linguistic shortcut. Wow. It was a fast, cheap, 00:10:39.279 --> 00:10:41.679 universally recognized way to signal to an American 00:10:41.679 --> 00:10:43.700 audience, you know, this character is exotic, 00:10:44.019 --> 00:10:46.919 energetic, and Latin. So it wasn't a word anymore. 00:10:47.120 --> 00:10:49.320 It was just the sound effect. It was the vocal 00:10:49.320 --> 00:10:51.720 equivalent of a sombrero or a pair of maracas. 00:10:52.240 --> 00:10:54.279 Exactly. The American animators and the French 00:10:54.279 --> 00:10:56.799 comic writers had completely hollowed out the 00:10:56.799 --> 00:10:59.399 word. They divorced it entirely from its authentic 00:10:59.399 --> 00:11:02.039 roots. It was no longer a profound expression 00:11:02.039 --> 00:11:05.299 of surprise. It was just a corporate auditory 00:11:05.299 --> 00:11:08.330 symbol. used to quickly establish a vibe. You 00:11:08.330 --> 00:11:10.590 would think that once a word is reduced to a 00:11:10.590 --> 00:11:12.330 hollow corporate sound effect, its evolution 00:11:12.330 --> 00:11:14.730 is over, like it's reached its final, cheapest 00:11:14.730 --> 00:11:18.029 form. But here's where the narrative splits in 00:11:18.029 --> 00:11:20.389 two wildly different directions, and it happens 00:11:20.389 --> 00:11:22.730 in the exact same decade. The contrast here in 00:11:22.730 --> 00:11:25.330 the 1980s is incredibly stark. Here's where it 00:11:25.330 --> 00:11:28.690 gets really interesting. In 1983, a highly respected 00:11:28.690 --> 00:11:31.470 fine art painter named Hermann Braunwege finishes 00:11:31.470 --> 00:11:33.970 a piece and titles it Caramba. The source material 00:11:33.970 --> 00:11:37.059 explicitly tells he chose this title to express 00:11:37.059 --> 00:11:40.100 his genuine, overwhelming surprise at seeing 00:11:40.100 --> 00:11:42.620 himself surrounded by so many historical masters 00:11:42.620 --> 00:11:45.220 of painting. Which is a beautiful full circle 00:11:45.220 --> 00:11:48.080 moment. Braun Vega is stripping away the conic 00:11:48.080 --> 00:11:50.500 boat villains and the Disney sidekicks. He is 00:11:50.500 --> 00:11:53.399 returning the word to its most authentic 18th 00:11:53.399 --> 00:11:55.960 century root. Right, the genuine surprise. Yes, 00:11:56.179 --> 00:11:59.320 he is using it as a profound, humbling expression 00:11:59.320 --> 00:12:03.419 of positive awe. is the raw gasp of a man staring 00:12:03.419 --> 00:12:06.639 at greatness. A pure highbrow artistic reaction. 00:12:06.980 --> 00:12:09.720 But then, the timeline delivers this bizarre 00:12:09.720 --> 00:12:12.840 historical rhyme. Just five years later, in 1988, 00:12:13.019 --> 00:12:15.360 that exact same phrase is handed to a fictional 00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:17.600 10 -year -old boy named Bart Simpson, voiced 00:12:17.600 --> 00:12:19.539 by the amazing Nancy Cartwright. The cultural 00:12:19.539 --> 00:12:22.100 shift there is just massive. Huge. The character 00:12:22.100 --> 00:12:24.740 adopts it, globalizes it, and ties it directly 00:12:24.740 --> 00:12:27.139 to his graffiti -spraying, troublemaking alter 00:12:27.139 --> 00:12:29.879 ego, El Barto. It becomes the battle cry of 90... 00:12:29.840 --> 00:12:32.679 underachievers. But here is the invisible dot 00:12:32.679 --> 00:12:34.720 connecting these two eras. Do you know the name 00:12:34.720 --> 00:12:36.940 of the very first animated short where Bart Simpson 00:12:36.940 --> 00:12:39.059 utters this phrase? The irony here is perfect. 00:12:39.440 --> 00:12:42.879 His very first time saying it was in a 1988 cartoon 00:12:42.879 --> 00:12:45.799 short on the Tracy Ullman Show, literally titled 00:12:45.799 --> 00:12:48.000 The Art Museum. It's just, you can't make that 00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:50.080 up. Think about the cultural whiplash of that 00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:53.480 timeline. In 1983, a master painter uses the 00:12:53.480 --> 00:12:56.159 word to express profound humility and reverence 00:12:56.159 --> 00:13:00.289 for fine art. Five years later, an animated prankster 00:13:00.289 --> 00:13:03.110 walks into a cartoon, literally called The Art 00:13:03.110 --> 00:13:06.429 Museum, and uses the exact same word to launch 00:13:06.429 --> 00:13:09.370 a global empire of irreverence and mischief. 00:13:09.490 --> 00:13:11.990 I am totally geeking out over this historical 00:13:11.990 --> 00:13:14.389 rhyme right now. It perfectly demonstrates the 00:13:14.389 --> 00:13:17.769 incredible elastic resilience of this specific 00:13:17.769 --> 00:13:20.450 combination of sounds. A word only survives for 00:13:20.450 --> 00:13:23.289 200 years if it is flexible enough to serve entirely 00:13:23.289 --> 00:13:25.649 different masters. It's true. It serves the high 00:13:25.649 --> 00:13:28.220 art painter seeking to express overwhelming humility 00:13:28.220 --> 00:13:30.740 and it serves the postmodern cartoon pranksters 00:13:30.740 --> 00:13:33.480 seeking to express rebellious apathy. The phrase 00:13:33.480 --> 00:13:35.639 acts as a linguistic bridge between the highest 00:13:35.639 --> 00:13:38.019 of highbrow reverence and the most accessible 00:13:38.019 --> 00:13:40.740 commercialized lowbrow comedy. And it was so 00:13:40.740 --> 00:13:43.259 effective as a commercial tool that the television 00:13:43.259 --> 00:13:45.059 show eventually couldn't even escape the monster 00:13:45.059 --> 00:13:49.259 they built. Oh yeah. By 1994, the catchphrase 00:13:49.259 --> 00:13:51.820 had become so ubiquitous on t -shirts, lunch 00:13:51.820 --> 00:13:54.860 boxes, and commercials that the culture was over 00:13:54.860 --> 00:13:58.039 -saturated. We're everywhere. The Simpsons writers, 00:13:58.240 --> 00:14:00.799 who are highly self -aware, had to produce an 00:14:00.799 --> 00:14:03.320 episode called Bart Gets Famous. Oh, I remember 00:14:03.320 --> 00:14:05.879 that one. The entire plot was a meta -parody 00:14:05.879 --> 00:14:08.580 of their own catchphrase. They were actively 00:14:08.580 --> 00:14:11.740 satirizing the hollow, repetitive nature of the 00:14:11.740 --> 00:14:14.360 very phenomenon they had propelled to global 00:14:14.360 --> 00:14:17.259 dominance. Wow. had gone from a censored oath, 00:14:17.679 --> 00:14:20.279 to a hollowed out Disney sound effect, to a global 00:14:20.279 --> 00:14:22.820 marketing juggernaut that became completely self 00:14:22.820 --> 00:14:25.899 -aware of its own absurdity. A self -aware catchphrase. 00:14:26.090 --> 00:14:28.649 It is just mind blowing when you zoom out and 00:14:28.649 --> 00:14:31.389 look at the entire trajectory. So what does this 00:14:31.389 --> 00:14:33.809 all mean? We started by talking about how language 00:14:33.809 --> 00:14:36.789 isn't a fossil trapped in a museum display case, 00:14:36.850 --> 00:14:39.990 you know. It is a living, breathing shapeshifter. 00:14:40.529 --> 00:14:43.090 We traced a heavily censored Spanish swear word, 00:14:43.370 --> 00:14:45.570 a brilliant psychological pressure valve that 00:14:45.570 --> 00:14:48.149 morphed into a physical, brightly colored ribbon 00:14:48.149 --> 00:14:51.429 on a flamenco dancer's head in 18th century Madrid. 00:14:51.809 --> 00:14:54.009 From there, it crossed international borders, 00:14:54.370 --> 00:14:56.720 was stripped for parts, and turned into a French 00:14:56.720 --> 00:14:59.649 punchline about a frustrated knife thrower. It 00:14:59.649 --> 00:15:01.970 was hollowed out by Disney as a cheap auditory 00:15:01.970 --> 00:15:04.490 symbol, resurrected by a fine art painter to 00:15:04.490 --> 00:15:07.269 express profound humility, and ultimately landed 00:15:07.269 --> 00:15:10.090 in the mouth of an American animated legend wandering 00:15:10.090 --> 00:15:13.350 through a fictional art museum. It proves that 00:15:13.350 --> 00:15:15.950 the casual throwaway words you use every single 00:15:15.950 --> 00:15:19.330 day have lived wild, dramatic, globetrotting 00:15:19.330 --> 00:15:22.129 lives long before they ever reached your mouth. 00:15:22.950 --> 00:15:24.870 Exactly. Every time you use a piece of slang, 00:15:25.289 --> 00:15:27.990 you are carrying the invisible ghosts of flamenco 00:15:27.990 --> 00:15:30.399 dancers, comic book villains, and master painters 00:15:30.399 --> 00:15:33.000 in every single syllable. You are participating 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:35.340 in a centuries -old chain of human reaction. 00:15:35.539 --> 00:15:37.299 You are speaking history without even knowing 00:15:37.299 --> 00:15:40.159 it, which leaves us with a final lingering thought 00:15:40.159 --> 00:15:42.220 for you to ponder long after this deep dive is 00:15:42.220 --> 00:15:44.559 over. Think about the specific slang you use 00:15:44.559 --> 00:15:47.039 today. Think about the casual phrases you text 00:15:47.039 --> 00:15:49.120 to your friends, the internet abbreviations, 00:15:49.440 --> 00:15:51.440 the reaction memes you drop into a group chat 00:15:51.440 --> 00:15:54.720 to show surprise. If a 200 -year -old Spanish 00:15:54.720 --> 00:15:57.340 workaround for a curse word could slowly evolve 00:15:57.340 --> 00:15:59.899 to become the defining multi -million dollar 00:15:59.899 --> 00:16:03.120 catchphrase of a late 20th century cartoon, what 00:16:03.120 --> 00:16:05.519 random seemingly meaningless piece of modern 00:16:05.519 --> 00:16:07.419 internet slang that we casually throw around 00:16:07.419 --> 00:16:09.600 today might end up as the name of a high fashion 00:16:09.600 --> 00:16:12.759 accessory or a globally recognized piece of museum 00:16:12.759 --> 00:16:15.480 fine art 200 years from now. The history of language 00:16:15.480 --> 00:16:17.279 is still being actively written and you are the 00:16:17.279 --> 00:16:18.000 one speaking it.