Slang Word-Coiners

[Gareth Branwyn]

> It is odd that more television shows have not contributed to American English, slang or otherwise, but outside of the above science fiction shows, coinages from TV are surprisingly rare.


You think so? I can come up with a number off the top of my head. I
guess many of these won't survive beyond the lives of the respective
shows, but who knows:

How YOU doin'? - Joey from Friends
You ARE the weakest link - Weakest Link
M'kay? - South Park
being voted off the island - Survivor
The truth is out there - X-Files
D'oh - Simpsons
Don't have a cow, man - Simpsons
Cowabunga! Simpsons
There are probably a lot of "Buffyisms" that have made there way into
teen culture.
Yadda, yadda, yadda - Seinfeld
I'm sure there are several others from Seinfeld, but I can't think of
them at the moment.
Come on down! - Price is Right
Never mind - Gilda Radner (as the hard-of-hearing Emily Latella) on SNL
stupid x tricks - Letterman
To the moon, Alice! - The Honeymooners
Here's Johnny! - Tonight Show

In computer geek circles, I'm starting to bump into:

It's robot fightin' time! - Battlebots
It's time to beat the geeks - Beat the Geeks
It all comes down to the Geekqualizer - Beat the Geeks

Many of these many not have originated with these shows, they've just
become household expressions/terms because of them. Some of these, like
"how you doin'?," "m'kay," "come on down," and "never mind," only make
sense if one uses the voice of the respective TV characters and if the
listener is familiar with the context.