Sunday, June 1, 2014

Tomorrow is the day!

Tomorrow is the first annual Talk Like Slip Mahoney Day, in honor of the 45th anniversary of the death of Bowery Boys great Leo Gorcey.


If you've never seen the old Bowery Boys movies, you may be asking, "Gee, Fred, I would love to participate, but how do I, a random person, talk like Gorcey's most famous movie character?"

Here's your refresher:

Adopt an old-fashioned dese-and-dose type New York City accent (some say Brooklynese, but remember, the Bowery is on the Lower East Side) and misuse large words in an attempt to sound educated.

Let's take a sample sentence and Slip Mahoneyize it for your edification:

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.

First, let's get that Noo Yawk thing going.

Now is da time for all good men ta come to da aid of dere country.

Then, we judiciously replace key words with high-falutin' words---uh, woids.

Now is da epoch for all creditable men ta come to da facilitation of dere coalition.

Then replace the high-falutin' words with other, improperly used high-falutin' words, or at least mispronounce the words:

Now is da epoxy for all credulous men ta come to da facsimile of dere coalification.

See? Street malaprops!

Not too difficult, although it may take a little thought. As I've noted before, it takes consideration to act stupid. Although it must be pretty easy to be stupid. Either that, or stupid people make it look easy. Or something. I'm getting confuserated.

Okay, kids, go out there tomorrow and talk like Slip Mahoney all day! And remember, foretought is da secret ta proper exegesis.

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