This is my favorite rug to lay down on
and watch over what is going on outside.
~~~~~
You can see my reflection in the window
and, of course, tummy and toes...
nsm* tail because I am upon it!
~~~~~
*not so much -- my new favorite achronym!
~~~~~
Also, my name did come from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"
as Willow was on that show.
I found this very interesting...
~~~~~
But how do these phrases come into vogue? It helps, of course, to have a celebrity standard bearer. For the phrase "not so much," that would be Stewart, host of Comedy Central's "Daily Show." He famously gives the words an expert, drawn-out delivery, pausing to consider whether the subject at hand passes muster before nailing it with a "not so much."
~~~~~
Though the phrase has become widely identified with Stewart, it appeared on several other television shows dating back to the early 1990s, including "Mad About You" and "Friends." But it didn't achieve widespread popularity until the beginning of the current decade, when it began to appear on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
~~~~~
It sneaked into the vernacular by becoming what linguists call a "camouflaged form" of speech, said Michael Adams, professor of English at Indiana University and author of "Slayer Slang: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Lexicon."
~~~~~
"It would be very easy for it to migrate, because it would change its meaning just a little bit every time it got used until suddenly it was that dismissive not so much.'
~~~~~
Pinpointing exactly when that transition occurred is difficult, if not impossible.
Adams says that even a phrase as distinctive as "yada yada yada," which was hailed by many as a creation of the television show "Seinfeld," turned out to have been used by the comedian Lenny Bruce in the 1960s.
~~~~~
While Buffy may not have coined "not so much," the show's language was unusually experimental and influential, including such neologisms as "afterness," "heart-of-darknessy" and "suckage."
~~~~~
Before its writers tackled "not so much," they had already pushed "so" and "much" into novel roles.
"We so need to get out of here," a character would say at a precarious moment, or "Morbid much?" when another dwelt on gory details. Before long, "not so much" was a regular part of Buffy's linguistic arsenal.
~~~~~
"You've changed," Buffy once said to a character whose appearance had improved after he got his soul back. "Not so much with the crazy."
~~~~~
And when another character said, "Willow's good at all that computer stuff, but me, not so much," a thousand punch lines, online quips and newspaper headlines followed.
and watch over what is going on outside.
~~~~~
You can see my reflection in the window
and, of course, tummy and toes...
nsm* tail because I am upon it!
~~~~~
*not so much -- my new favorite achronym!
~~~~~
Also, my name did come from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"
as Willow was on that show.
I found this very interesting...~~~~~
But how do these phrases come into vogue? It helps, of course, to have a celebrity standard bearer. For the phrase "not so much," that would be Stewart, host of Comedy Central's "Daily Show." He famously gives the words an expert, drawn-out delivery, pausing to consider whether the subject at hand passes muster before nailing it with a "not so much."
~~~~~
Though the phrase has become widely identified with Stewart, it appeared on several other television shows dating back to the early 1990s, including "Mad About You" and "Friends." But it didn't achieve widespread popularity until the beginning of the current decade, when it began to appear on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
~~~~~
It sneaked into the vernacular by becoming what linguists call a "camouflaged form" of speech, said Michael Adams, professor of English at Indiana University and author of "Slayer Slang: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Lexicon."
~~~~~
"It would be very easy for it to migrate, because it would change its meaning just a little bit every time it got used until suddenly it was that dismissive not so much.'
~~~~~
Pinpointing exactly when that transition occurred is difficult, if not impossible.
Adams says that even a phrase as distinctive as "yada yada yada," which was hailed by many as a creation of the television show "Seinfeld," turned out to have been used by the comedian Lenny Bruce in the 1960s.
~~~~~
While Buffy may not have coined "not so much," the show's language was unusually experimental and influential, including such neologisms as "afterness," "heart-of-darknessy" and "suckage."
~~~~~
Before its writers tackled "not so much," they had already pushed "so" and "much" into novel roles.
"We so need to get out of here," a character would say at a precarious moment, or "Morbid much?" when another dwelt on gory details. Before long, "not so much" was a regular part of Buffy's linguistic arsenal.
~~~~~
"You've changed," Buffy once said to a character whose appearance had improved after he got his soul back. "Not so much with the crazy."
~~~~~
And when another character said, "Willow's good at all that computer stuff, but me, not so much," a thousand punch lines, online quips and newspaper headlines followed.
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