Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
h a l f b a k e r y
Expensive, difficult, slightly dangerous, not particularly effective... I'm on a roll.

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epic

wagering on words
  (+1, -14)(+1, -14)(+1, -14)
(+1, -14)
  [vote for,
against]

about 20 years ago, the guys at work and i started saying (barking) "whatever" as a sarcastic response on a regular basis. this quickly became part of our national lexicon. it's not the first word or phrase started by me or my buddy's to become meshed in the fabric of culture!

so, if vegas runs odds on the word "epic" i'd buy. that's because i have just recently been using it as a hyperbolic response to people bragging about their life and times. sometimes i'm sincere, sometimes not so much!

i promise, by the end of the year 2010, that word will be used on a regular basis in current pop culture.

thefleur

lotus_65, May 07 2010

Google Trends; epic vs. awesome http://www.google.c...s?q=epic%2C+awesome
Anyone know what that epic peak in 2007 is about? [jutta, May 07 2010]

Maybe this, jutta http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_Movie
[calum, May 07 2010]

Ah, yes, calum, that's obviously it! http://www.google.c...2C+%22epic+movie%22
[jutta, May 08 2010]

epic http://cache.coverb...image/epic/17-1.jpg
[xenzag, May 08 2010]

[link]






       It's impossible, is it, that several people started using this word independently? Or that you were unconsciously influenced by someone else? Positive it must have been you that changed the "fabric of culture"?
hippo, May 07 2010
  

       I was using the "whatever" response 22 years ago. [-]
swimswim, May 07 2010
  

       Well quite - in fact we had a cartoon (a "Hagar the horrible" strip) pinned to our kitchen noticeboard at home when I was young, which used "Whatever" as a resigned, sarcastic response. This would have been in the early 80's.
hippo, May 07 2010
  

       Equally and also, I seem to recall one Rodney Trotter envincing a lack of enthusiasm for one or more of Derek's harebrained schemes with a well placed and mightily sarcastic Peckham-inflected "epic" all the way back in the barely kent mists of 1980something.
calum, May 07 2010
  

       'Whatever' is actually a corruption of a much earlier term originating in the so called far east, when it was at one time commonly accepted custom to throw a cooking pot in the air as an expression of frustration.   

       'Wok-heaver' was in fact the original Chinese Whisper, that was incorrectly transmitted as the now more familiar 'whatever'.
xenzag, May 07 2010
  

       I've been saying "Fuck a crippled monkey!" as an exclamation since junior high, but it has never caught on in popular culture.
nomocrow, May 07 2010
  

       which national lexicon would that be, [lotus] ?
po, May 07 2010
  

       ...if this is your first idea in three years, I'm not betting on anything!
over 50 years ago I started saying *whaaahhh* and babies have said this ever since!
xandram, May 07 2010
  

       Wait, didn't "epic" already precede "awesome"? Or do I have the order wrong? [Hum, looks like both are still on the rise. But awesome does seem to be going a little faster, if you squint real hard.]   

       So, how would the betting system actually work?
jutta, May 07 2010
  

       whatever.
daseva, May 07 2010
  

       Totally!
In No Particular Order, May 07 2010
  

       Does this idea turn on the use of "epic" or is it a system of wagering on word usage (as invited by jutta). I like the latter. It would be easier to bet on relative baby name popularity as a sort of horse race since these are tracked year by year but also hard to influence. I would bet against Emily, whose race is run, and would put a little money on Agatha for top 100 by 2021.   

       Re simple word use, it would be interesting how someone betting _against_ epic would go about influencing the contest - a more challenging prospect than someone betting in favor of epic, who could then singlehandedly litter the internet with the word "epic".
bungston, May 07 2010
  

       Epic fail-bone awarded. Or EFB for short.
S-note, May 07 2010
  

       I am going to short-sell the word epic - when the crash comes I'm going to be wealthy.
normzone, May 07 2010
  

       I give bread for the author straightfacedly claiming to have a hand on the wheel of the national lexicon.   

       I personally introduced the term "dude" to English (originally part of a longer phrase in Chippewa) and look where that went: everywhere. Also "daddy-o" (from Farsi) before that. I am not claiming to be lotus, but acknowledge that I am more or less the Daniel Webster of popular vernacular.
bungston, May 07 2010
  

       Who on earth would brag about introducing yet another mindless verbal mannerism into the language? It's dumbington dumb.
MaxwellBuchanan, May 07 2010
  

       Actually "Dumbington" was another of my introductions.
bungston, May 07 2010
  

       It only countington counts if you follow it with "dumb".
MaxwellBuchanan, May 07 2010
  

       There's an epic amount of condensed fail in this post. If the fail:wordcount density were any higher, I think the post would collapse inside its own non-event horizon, forming a fail singularity which would rapidly consume the HB and all life as we know it [-]
BunsenHoneydew, May 08 2010
  

       That's offensive to retardant morons everywhere.   

       I love this post and annos.  I got tears.  Thank you Jutta for Halbakery.  Who needs TV or books?   

       Hey, really.  I said I was a 'lesbian trapped in a mans body' in the 80's, dude.  Epically awsome.  Now I are one.
Mustardface, May 08 2010
  

       My bet is on 'blarmy' (blameworthy, bothersome, or chutzpah (if used as a noun)), though I still rue the demise of 'rad'
afinehowdoyoudo, May 08 2010
  
      
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