"suave"

[Wilson Gray]

Are you old enough to recall the real person, The Continental, whom
Walken parodies? He was a famously-suave television personality, back
in the day, with his own show, in addition to numerous
guest-appearances on other people's shows.

If you do remember him, Walken's parody must have you ROTFLYAO!

But seriously, folks, at the time, he was considered to be truly
suave, in the best sense of the word. The sole point of his show was
his display of smooth, continental-European - hence, his soubriquet,
"The Continental" - manners before his audience of coarse, ill-bred,
American hix from the stix. It's only looking back at him through the
lens of Walken's spot-on parody that now renders The Continental
ridiculously and hilariously swayve.

-Wilson

On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 11:10 AM, Matthew Gordon <gordonmj at missouri.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>  Poster:       Matthew Gordon <gordonmj at MISSOURI.EDU>
>  Subject:      Re: "suave"
>  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  I'd suggest the pejoration of 'suave' was aided by Gerardo, the rico, suave,
>  one-hit wonder:
>  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx64_N4AA04
>  For me, this is the kind of character, along with Christopher Walken's _The
>  Continental_ from Saturday Night Live, that 'suave' brings to mind.
>
>
>
>  On 4/30/08 8:59 AM, "Charles Doyle" <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
>
>  > From the mystery novel _The Lost Van Gogh_, by A. J. Zerries (2006):  "The
>  > French dealer was everything 'suave' used to stand for, before a line of
>  > knockoff shampoos irreversibly debased the word" (p. 144).
>  >
>  > I'd never noticed or considered the purported debasing of "suave." I wonder if
>  > it has really happened. How common is it that the use of a word as a brand
>  > name affects the word's connotations?
>  >
>  > --Charlie
>  > _____________________________________________________________
>
>
> >
>  > ------------------------------------------------------------
>  > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
 -Sam'l Clemens

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org