Peanuts by Charles Schulz for May 16, 1956
May 15, 1956
May 17, 1956
Transcript:
Patty is talking to Lucy by the door at the front of the house. Lucy says, "So I said to my mother, 'I'm going outside'..."<br> <br> She continues, "'NO YOU'RE NOT,' she said...so I said,'WHY?!'"<br> <br> She continues, "And then she said, 'BECAUSE I SAID SO, THAT'S WHY!'" Patty asks, "Then what did you say?"<br> <br> Lucy leans against the door, grimaces, and replies, "Nothing..I knew it was hopeless if she was going to pull rank on me!"<br> <br>
This strip illustrates how people used to speak proper English. In the second and third panels, nowadays Lucy would quote her Mom and herself as saying, “And she was like, ‘no you’re not’,” "And I was like, ‘Why?’ “And she was like, ‘Because I said so, that’s why!’” I think it began with the Valley Girls in the 1980s, and since then it’s spread like kudzu. Adults are to blame, since it began in the ‘80s. It’s almost sad these days when you hear kids from elementary school through college age speaking to one another. It seems as if they can’t go 10 seconds without saying “like.” How they’ll excel in job interviews in the future is beyond me…although chances are the interviewer will have the same habit, and so probably won’t even notice it.