"On last night's Saturday Night Live, we learned that time stops for nothing-not people and not language. Marcello Hernández, the cast member perhaps most likely to become SNL's next breakout star, dropped by the "Weekend Update" desk to inform the Millennial co-anchor Colin Jost-and, by proxy, many Millennial audience members-of the slang terms favored by Gen Z."
"Hernández kicked off the segment by explaining the term to "older folks" such as Jost. If you, like Jost, thought it was a reference to a cooking-competition show, then it might be time to look into retinol. In fact, chopped means "visually unappealing"-a connotation the young star illustrated with a photo of Jost in middle school."
"Hernández, always a sweetheart beneath the bluster, eased up by complimenting Jost on his "glo-up"-going from "'busted' to 'Hear me out, though'" as he progressed into adulthood. When Jost wondered why his co-anchor, Michael Che, wasn't getting this lesson, Hernández explained that Che already knew all this because "Gen Z slang is African American slang. Basically, Black people start saying something, then young people think it's cool so they start saying it, then white people say it, and then once Elon Musk says it, it's over.""
Saturday Night Live featured Marcello Hernández teaching Millennial Colin Jost Gen Z slang on Weekend Update. Hernández defined terms like "chopped" as "visually unappealing" and illustrated meanings with a photo and jokes. He complimented Jost on his "glo-up" while explaining generational language shifts. Hernández credited Black communities as the origin point for much Gen Z slang and described a pattern of adoption that ends with overexposure and decline. The bit used comedic elements, including a tombstone gag for the word "cap," to underscore how slang lifecycles can be abrupt and elusive.
Read at The Atlantic
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