While we were working with our local newspaper on this story they just published about us (click here for more behind the scenes info on this story), one idea that came up was to do a “hot and not” list of our slang lessons. That is, a list of recent lessons on cool slang and a list of older, out-dated slang lessons.

The idea was ultimately scrapped, but not before I spent a couple of hours creating just such a list. While I am proud to say that we never actually did a lesson on “gettin’ jiggy wit it,” here are six slang lessons that either because of the context or the ever-changing nature of slang, are now rather amusing.

6. “old G” -  First off, the quote in this lesson comes from rapper Jadakiss. Um, who? But furthermore, I think even old Gs realize it’s not 1992 anymore and have quit talking about how gangsta they are.

5. “dope” – While this term is still commonly used (although not around anyone’s grandmother, of course), what dates this lesson is one of the example sentences that was used: “Mark bought a dope CD yesterday. It’s by this group called the Gorillaz. Have you heard of them? I think they’re from England.”

4.  “girlie men” – This one probably hasn’t seen much use since Hanz and Franz were on SNL, but the kicker here is that the quote for this lesson comes from none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger,  of Terminator and now Governor of California fame.

3. “wife beater” – I’m glad this one went out of style. I haven’t heard anyone call an undershirt a “wife beater” in several years. It used to be kind of sketchy to walk around wearing a “wife beater.” Now it’s probably sketchier to use the term “wife beater” to talk about anything other than a criminal.

2.  “off the hook” – This phrase truly died only recently when Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele starting using it in interviews frequently. Nothing kills slang like someone who is completely and totally uncool using it to try to be cool.

1.  “the three R’s” – I’ve come to learn that some crazy stuff happened before I started working here two years ago, but even I am surprised that this phrase became an Ebaby! lesson. I mean, most of our out of date stuff comes from the ’90s. I don’t know how far back you have to go to get to when this was a cool phrase. Maybe you could ask Donald Trump, who gives us the lesson’s quote.

So there you have it, the “not” list. The “hot” list isn’t nearly as funny. That’s probably why this idea never made it into the newspaper. But nonetheless, here’s what I came up with.

5. “bail out” – If you wanted to read a newspaper after October 2008, you needed to know this one.

4. “Joe six-pack” – It’s hard to believe it’s been less than a year since the US presidential election launched an unknown plumber into fame. Give this one 5 more minutes and it will be in the “not” pile.

3. “such as” – While not really slang, this one counts as “hot” because it was inspired by the incredible and viral misuse of this term by Miss South Carolina.

2. “dialed in” – Maybe it’s just me, but I hear this one all the time now.

1. “watered down” -  And finally, in the age when any band that was popular at any time can come back and make money on a tour with one or even zero original members, this one comes to us from Rage Against the Machine, who reached their prime back when most of the “not” list was in style and remained dormant until last year.

In the US, the holiday in honor of all things scary, Halloween, is Friday. Most people dress up in costumes and go to parties or take their children around the neighborhood trick or treating. But a Canadian woman named Ines Markeljevic organized a world-wide simultaneous performance of the zombie dance from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video that took place last Saturday.

Markeljevic’s goal was to have 200,000 people participate in Thrill the World. She may have over estimated a little–the final number was 4,177 people. But that was still enough to break the world record. Interestingly, the record was previously held by a prison in the Philippines which got 1,500 inmates to do the dance all at once. Crime rates within the prison plummeted as a result.

In an interview with the LA Times, Markeljevic jokes that the prison was feeling the “same global ‘Thriller’ consciousness.” It must have been an interesting feeling for the people involved to know that all over the world, other people were doing the same dance at the exact same time. And then they got to watch the videos later.

The idea that you can break a world record in 77 cities at once is a very cool use of the Internet and another global tool: pop culture. I love watching people all over the world interact daily on English, baby! but at present, it’s hard for them to dance together. But if doing the “Thriller” dance can bring peace to a prison, surely it can only do good for the world. And since this year the only non-English speaking country to Thrill the World was Germany, it seems a common language helps foster common moves, so we’ll continue to do our part.

Videos:

The Cebu, Philippines, Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center does “Thriller.” How do you think they picked the guy to play the girl?

The Berlin chapter of Thrill the World dances last weekend. To see all the videos, click here.

Part Ines Markeljevic’s tutorial on the step.

The Cebu, Philippines, Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center doing Soulja Boy. Why don’t American prisons do this?

Have you seen this magazine cover yet? It’s THE story in the US right now. The Obama campaign is very upset about it.

A recent video by Jibjab that takes the exact opposite approach. It shows Obama skipping through a magical forest full of animals and rainbows. It’s funny because his opponents accuse him of being both a villain aligned with terrorists and an unrealistic idealist. It’s funny to look at these two parodies together since they’re both based on actual claims by the media, yet such complete opposites.

As an added bonus, the video includes subtitles throughout the entire thing. It moves so fast that if you’re reading along, you’ll probably have to watch two or three times. Sounds like a good English lesson to me! In fact it fits perfectly with English, baby!’s style of making it fun to practice English. There’s even a new phrase to learn: “no cigar.” It means “no success” or “no luck” but sounds pretty funny coming from certain former president…