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Post by brutalis on Aug 3, 2020 13:23:06 GMT -5
The mixture of sci-fi/fantasy elements within GI Joe doesn't bother me a bit. As a toy it had moved far away from the original being a military concept and especially with the advent of pocket Joe's totally a fantasy element ala Star Wars merchandising and sales. Designed to appeal to a wider and more comprehensive audience. Put aside reality and embrace the silliness. I love Joe for that aspect alone, if I want to read realistic warfare then I dig out my Charlton comics. Marvel/DC war books and especially GI Joe is pure comic book escapism at it's finest. Meant to exaggerate and entertain in toy, book, comic, cartoon and movie form for mass consumption by the audience.
Not to say that Joe as a traditional war comic wouldn't be fun to read. Just that it likely wouldn't last very long.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
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Post by Confessor on Aug 3, 2020 13:25:24 GMT -5
In an episode of BONANZA that I watched recently, Joe (Michael Landon) told a woman she was a “wicked dancer”. Would they have spoken like that back then? This isn't an anachronism. I think you've misunderstood the dialogue. Bonanza ran from the early '60s until 1973, but "wicked" as a slang term for something that is very good or excellent didn't come out of the African-American community in the U.S. until the early 1980s. So, although I've not seen the Bonanza episode you are talking about, it's unlikely -- impossible even -- that the script writers would be using the term "wicked dancer" to mean a good dancer in the '60s or early 70s. Far more likely that the Bonanza script writers actually meant "wicked" in the original sense of the word, in that the character in question was a dancer whose dancing was borderline immoral or playfully sinful. |
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Post by berkley on Aug 3, 2020 14:19:48 GMT -5
In an episode of BONANZA that I watched recently, Joe (Michael Landon) told a woman she was a “wicked dancer”. Would they have spoken like that back then? This isn't an anachronism. I think you've misunderstood the dialogue. Bonanza ran from the early '60s until 1973, but "wicked" as a slang term for something that is very good or excellent didn't come out of the African-American community in the U.S. until the early 1980s. So, although I've not seen the Bonanza episode you are talking about, it's unlikely -- impossible even -- that the script writers would be using the term "wicked dancer" to mean a good dancer in the '60s or early 70s. Far more likely that the Bonanza script writers actually meant "wicked" in the original sense of the word, in that the character in question was a dancer whose dancing was borderline immoral or playfully sinful. I think you're right about the Bonanza usage but unless my memory is playing me false, I think the use of "wicked" to mean excellent goes back to at least the late 60s or early 70s. And did it really come from African-American slang? |
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,222
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Post by Confessor on Aug 3, 2020 14:51:15 GMT -5
This isn't an anachronism. I think you've misunderstood the dialogue. Bonanza ran from the early '60s until 1973, but "wicked" as a slang term for something that is very good or excellent didn't come out of the African-American community in the U.S. until the early 1980s. So, although I've not seen the Bonanza episode you are talking about, it's unlikely -- impossible even -- that the script writers would be using the term "wicked dancer" to mean a good dancer in the '60s or early 70s. Far more likely that the Bonanza script writers actually meant "wicked" in the original sense of the word, in that the character in question was a dancer whose dancing was borderline immoral or playfully sinful. I think you're right about the Bonanza usage but unless my memory is playing me false, I think the use of "wicked" to mean excellent goes back to at least the late 60s or early 70s. And did it really come from African-American slang? Well, I always thought so and a quick Google search seems to suggest that I'm right. Certainly the BBC agree with me... www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/1130_uptodate2/page18.shtml |
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Post by berkley on Aug 3, 2020 15:53:51 GMT -5
I think you're right about the Bonanza usage but unless my memory is playing me false, I think the use of "wicked" to mean excellent goes back to at least the late 60s or early 70s. And did it really come from African-American slang? Well, I always thought so and a quick Google search seems to suggest that I'm right. Certainly the BBC agree with me... www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/1130_uptodate2/page18.shtmlI'll try to listen to that later. Perhaps there was some kind of parallel development because I was sure we were using it in Nfld in childhood, during the early 70s. I'll have to see if any of my Nfld contemporaries or elders remember it the same way. It's quite possible we picked it up from American pop cutlure somehow, we're certainly bombarded with it no less than everyone else in the world, though I would have placed it well before the 80s.
A quick google gave another American origin - Boston or New England slang - and claimed that it was popularised world-wide by a Matt Damon movie. Then again, it's the internet so I suppose everything is even more US-centric than usual. None of this contradicts your original point of course, that in Bonanza they were likely using it in its original, straighforward sense.
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