false incredulity? really?

I find it fascinating how trends start and spread and disappear. Take, for instance, super baggy cut-off pants. You probably associate them with ravers (remember those fucktards?), but skateboarders started that trend, and then it moved to ecstasy popping, glow stick watchin' fools. Afraid they'd be associated with those kind of people, skateboarders stopped wearing baggy cut-off pants and moved on to skinny jeans (whoops!). I can even tell you, because we're close friends, the exact skateboarder who started the whole dang thing: Jason Pritchard, a little-known am sponsored by Santa Cruz in the early '90s (ask Consolidated Skateboards owner, Birdo).

One of the most fascinating trends to me is the origin and spread of words, phrases, or intonations in a given vernacular. Sure, the nerds over at the Oxford English dictionary do a fairly good job of tracking the etymology of written words through literature, but it seems no one is able to accurately track oral trends. And that's unfortunate, because besides wishing to know whom the first Californian to say "dude" and "gnarly" were, I'd like to track down the asshole who introduced that process of stating something not all that unbelievable and following it up with the false incredulous "really?"

Again, I can only assume the speed by which this trend spread and how deeply entrenched in our culture it is that it originated in office speak by people talking shit. "Kevin just had his seventh cup of coffee. Really? Really? You're going to drink a whole pot?" Yes, some people drink a shit-ton of coffee. Others don't. And I know you're not all that incredulous.

"Kevin just left an original in the copy machine, again. Really? Really? You're going to leave the original in the machine every time?" Yes, some people are more forgetful than others, and at one time or another you probably left an original in the copier. And guess what? It didn't really matter at all.

And then there's the biggest "really?" of the year: the Casey Anthony trial. "You can murder your child and walk free? Really? Really?" Yes, in our justice system the burden is on the prosecutor to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that someone is guilty of a crime and sometimes guilty people walk and, more often, innocent black men go to jail. Public opinion and feeling someone did something, could possibly be the only one responsible, does not matter. Really, they don't. But you're going to spend months watching a murder trial with no precedent implications (no, you cannot go kill your child now) when you could be watching the Brandon McInerney trial with deeper social implications and precedents (the "gay dude made a pass at me" defense!)? Really?

No, seriously, stop. It hurts my ears every time you say that "really?" I turn my head and look out the window and hope you don't do it again. I can only pray to the holy gods of vernacular trends that this trend passes as fast as women's pirate pants (you know those ridiculous tight knicker-looking capri-ish pants in the late '90s?) and doesn't stick around like "dude."

(this is the closest image I can find to women's pirate pants. but I think they were shorter and had a slit on the side of each leg. remember them? it was a flash and then gone to the thrift store racks.)

But "really?" is going strong. Not even close to dead yet. And I'm not all that incredulous.