History TotallyRadical / RealLife

* In 2014, SEPTA (the Philadelphia area's public transportation system) launched it's "[[http://septa.org/service/dudeitsrude/index.html Dude It's Rude!]]" passenger etiquette campaign. The "Watch your language" signs in particular take up an entire window on Market-Frankford line trains, much to the annoyance of people who want to actually be able to see out of them, judging from the chunks torn off the bottom of many of them.

** Every youth pastor. Ever.

* [[http://www.simplecodeworks.com/website.html SiMPLE]], a "kids programming language", ''reeks'' of this trope. From the front page: "Show Me How I Can Use SiMPLE
To Send Totally Private Emails!" Not to mention a constant bashing of C++ on the "More Info" page.

** Every youth pastor. Ever. Except for those that don't.

* SiMPLE, a "kids programming language", ''reeks'' of this trope. From the front page: "Show Me How I Can Use SiMPLE
To Send Totally Private Emails!" Not to mention a constant bashing of C++ on the "More Info" page.
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*** "Zerg" = "to gang up on someone"? If that someone is [[VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft Hogger]], I guess... Fun activity: Picture a bunch of juvenile StarCraft players "zerging" somebody on the playground! Never mind that "zerg" is more accurately "everybody rush him at once" and "gank" is more accurately "gang up on him".

*** "Zerg" = "to gang up on someone"? If that someone is [[VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft Hogger]], I guess... Fun activity: Picture a bunch of juvenile StarCraft players "zerging" somebody on the playground!

* Speaking of shortened brand names, see "Mtn Dew", a name that to some suggests an attempt to save on ink costs, or the world's first mutton-flavored soft drink. [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons mmm]], Mutton flavored soft drink.

*** What? You mean, not that you're connecting via using HTTP via an ISP to a LAMP stack which is running a MMORPG descended from a MUD that liked to call itself a PBBG programmed with PHP and you're connecting to it from a *NIX PC which != M$[[hottip:query Can a *NIX PC ever be M$ these days? There used to be XENIX.]] after you've read the WSU about event at MIT hoping not to get a 404 reading UTF-8 rather than ASCII or ISO-8859 and the TLA increases as BOINC wants more RAM...[[note]] Try to find a normal teenager-heck, a normal white collar adult- that understood every one of these acronyms. Good luck. [[/note]]

*** What? You mean, not that you're connecting via using HTTP via an ISP to a LAMP stack which is running a MMORPG descended from a MUD that liked to call itself a PBBG programmed with PHP and you're connecting to it from a *NIX PC which != M$[[hottip:query:Can a *NIX PC ever be M$ these days? There used to be XENIX.]] after you've read the WSU about event at MIT hoping not to get a 404 reading UTF-8 rather than ASCII or ISO-8859 and the TLA increases as BOINC wants more RAM...[[note]] Try to find a normal teenager-heck, a normal white collar adult- that understood every one of these acronyms. Good luck. [[/note]]

*** What? You mean, not that you're connecting via using HTTP via an ISP to a LAMP stack which is running a MMORPG descended from a MUD that liked to call itself a PBBG programmed with PHP and you're connecting to it from a *NIX PC which != M$ after you've read the WSU about event at MIT hoping not to get a 404 reading UTF-8 rather than ASCII or ISO-8859 and the TLA increases as BOINC wants more RAM...[[note]] Try to find a normal teenager-heck, a normal white collar adult- that understood every one of these acronyms. Good luck. [[/note]]

** Every youth pastor. Ever.

** The updated list of 50 acronyms contains some real corkers. A/S/L is legit, as pointed out, along with J/O. As are 1337 and 420 (the latter a marijuana reference) but both are a little out of place in a list that seems to concern itself mainly with cybersex. The rest seem to be initialisms of quite arbitrary phrases, or else it's slang particular to an individual chat community. Apparently, [[FreudWasRight banana means penis]]. And "kitty" means vagina, obviously a pun on "pussy". Using either is a good way to give your cybersex session [[{{Narm}} that little something extra]].

* At some [[FleetingDemographicRule award]] show a few years ago, Joan Rivers made a comment about a rapper along the lines of "always getting some bling for him and his crew." * cringe, facepalm*

* In TheNineties there was a Dutch ad campaign to keep kids of smoking. Since SmokingIsCool they tried to showcase that çool people don't smoke. What the makers of these ads thought kids considered cool included: a waiter urinating in somebody's food, a guy punching his own father in the face for no reason whatsoever and another guy who made his mother believe his father had cheated on her and messing up their marriage ForTheEvulz. Let's just say the campaign was controversial.

* R U Lethal?, a driver's ed web show that tries to appeal to high schoolers by using lame pop culture references (RobertPattinson's hair, anyone?), features a [[PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy six year old white girl]] that vehemently berates bad drivers using "What's up, my homies?"-style gangsta slang, and refers to Google as "the google".

** [[http://www.flickr.com/photos/notratched/2590959112/in/pool-badsign This]] could be a [[TheSimpsons Simpsons]] sign gag, and [[http://www.flickr.com/photos/jb-foto/2331909529/ this]] (currently inactive link) is where the pic at the top of the page came from.

** [[http://media.photobucket.com/image/mormon%20ad/vitozvc/Capture.jpg?o=3 Full-scale version.]]

** And let's not forget that little gem by "Joey" at the end of this PSA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTYXZ0qZZEA

* In 1992, a New York Times columnist wrote a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grunge_speak glossary of "Seattle grunge slang"]] for that paper. He didn't make it all up, but his cunning informant did. The gullible reporter reported it as fact. Some of the slang actually made its way into the mediasphere in minor ways. For example, it inspired the title of the short-lived ''HarshRealm'', a television series loosely based on a comic book called ''The Realm''.

* The annotation to [[http://www.seanbaby.com/nes/issue176.htm this article]] by {{Seanbaby}} points out an especially lame example from a company pamphlet shilling gamer chairs. His mockery may have even caused the company to pull the dialogue.

* Speaking of shortened brand names, see "Mtn Dew", a name that to some suggests an attempt to save on ink costs, or the world's first mutton-flavored soft drink.
** [[TheSimpsons mmm]], Mutton flavored soft drink.
* While campaigning in 2008, Mitt Romney once attempted to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H8Nq7BglIg relate to the people]] by having his picture taken with bystanders while talking about camera phones and (awkwardly) using phrases such as "Who let the dogs out? Woof! Woof!" and talking about "bling bling" to a crowd of composed mostly of African-Americans. [[WhatAnIdiot On MLK Day]]. ''In 2008.''

* Similar to the above-mentioned "The Hut", Radio Shack is in the process of changing its name to "The Shack". In fairness, Radioshack's employees have been privately calling their store "The Shack" for ''years''.
** Makes perfect sense given that ham radio, where the name comes from, is considered rather vintage nowadays. Unless you're an amateur radio hobbyist, that is.

* From 2009 to 2010, UsefulNotes/{{Denver}}'s [[TheCW CW]] station, KWGN, called itself "KWGN The Deuce" in an attempt to appeal to a younger demographic. On-air personality Chris Parente even said on the day of the change (March 30, 2009) that it was "totally radical". This isn't the half of it: early on in the name's tenure, promos ended with text-speak; for example, a promo for ''TwoAndAHalfMen'' would end with "chkles and gigls!"; this was dropped early on in the name's tenure.

* [=ESPN2=] (then nicknamed "the Deuce") was created in 1993 as a TotallyRadical attempt at a younger, hipper version of {{ESPN}}, with "edgier" graphics, more informal attire by show hosts (infamously, KeithOlbermann was made to wear a leather jacket as co-host of the network's flagship show), and greater emphasis on extreme sports. Beginning in the late '90s the network de-emphasized its youth-oriented aspects, becoming more like a supplemental version of its parent network.
* [[http://www.nasa.gov/topics/nasalife/features/3rdrock.html Third Rock]], a NASA internet music station, is designed to "speak the language of internet-savvy young adults". The chief operating officer refers to these young adults as "today's 4G audience", demonstrating a complete lack of understanding of 4G.

* As this Webcomic/{{xkcd}} comic [[http://xkcd.com/1083/ shows]], Lots of politicians on {{Twitter}} use textspeak, despite having plenty of characters left.

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* [[http://www.bvcu.org/Teen.htm This bank]] has an 'extreme teen' site. Because fiscal responsibility is totally radical.

* [[https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc1/430007_618462744832448_97455289_n.png This]] list of ways you can sound "cool" without giving into peer pressure.

* In TheNineties there was a Dutch ad campaign to keep kids of smoking. Since SmokingIsCool they tried to showcase that çool peope don't smoke. What the makers of these ads thought kids considered cool included: a waiter urinating in somebody's food, a guy punching his own father in the face for no reason whatsoever and another guy who made his mother believe his father had cheated on her and messing up their marriage ForTheEvulz. Let's just say the campaign was controversial.

** [[http://failblog.org/2009/03/25/reason-for-the-season-fail/ This]] is also worthy of mention.

*** What? You mean, not that you're connecting via using HTTP via an ISP to a LAMP stack which is running a MMORPG descended from a MUD that liked to call itself a PBBG programmed with PHP and you're connecting to it from a *NIX PC which != M$ after you've read the WSU about event at MIT hoping not to get a 404 reading UTF-8 rather than ASCII or ISO-8859 and the TLA increases as BOINC wants more RAM...

* In 1992, a New York Times columnist wrote a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grunge_speak glossary of "Seattle grunge slang"]] for that paper. He didn't make it all up, but his cunning informant did. The gullible reporter reported it as fact. Some of the slang actually made its way into the mediasphere in minor ways. For example, it inspired the title of the short-lived ''HarshRealm'' a television series loosely based on a comic book called ''The Realm''.

** World Youth Day 2008 took place in Australia, and the attendees got religious text messages on their mobiles. These switched the "you" for a "u" and so on. An article was published about how they were doing it to "speak their language", and quoting "experts" on how the message would be "seen as cool". They somehow didn't get that people use text speak because it's just quicker.