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Hilarious 1950s Slang in Video

While 1950s mainstream culture in the United States usually shunned slang used by the youth, among the rising subcultures of the Beatniks, hot rodders or jazz musicians, a number of interesting “code words” flourished.

Some of the words dating from the period have survived to this day, while others were lost and replaced by a new generation’s words.

Their role was to differentiate the “hip” from the “square” ― and even though it started out just among the chosen few, as the decade progressed it changed the way teenagers talk around the U.S.

1950s Photo by Erik Holmén CC BY 4.0
1950s Photo by Erik Holmén CC BY 4.0

Whether it was the smooth Beatniks who themselves dwelt in new forms of poetry, or those youths obsessed with cars and motorcycles who naturally adopted a lingo with more mechanical traits, the American variant of the English language was constantly growing.

https://youtu.be/-3hISphaOW0

While mainstream culture representatives like magazines and TV shows promoted a more preppy, conservative and conformist way of life, these words alone opposed such a vision and offered a hedonistic, renegade image with “passion” written all over it.

1950s
1950s

At the time when rock ‘n’ roll was taking its baby steps, and the generation gap was becoming a serious issue, such usage of language was part of the rebellious spirit which spearheaded the American youth into the 1960s, giving birth to yet another slang powerhouse ― the hippie counterculture.

Christmas Party in 1950s
Christmas Party in 1950s

 

Photo by Erik Holmén, Nordiska museet CC BY 4.0
Photo by Erik Holmén, Nordiska museet CC BY 4.0

 

An American family watching television together, 1958
An American family watching television together, 1958

The funny thing is that you will recognize a great number of these and understand them without a problem. These retro-slang words have, in fact, influenced the contemporary lexicon so much that they are no longer considered as slang ― i.e. an informal register of words and phrases ― but more of a casual vocabulary used and understood by everyone.

Read another story from us: Vintage Fashion – 1950s Teenage Girls with their Doo Wop Dresses

On the other hand, a lot of these have lost their usage, but we somehow feel that they deserve a comeback.

Nikola Budanovic

Nikola Budanovic is a freelance journalist who has worked for various media outlets such as Vice, War History Online,The Vintage News, Taste of Cinema,etc. He mostly deals with subjects such as military history and history in general, literature and film.