A search on Google reveals that "A Wild and Crazy Guy" is the title of a 1978 album by the US comedian, Steve Martin. And "Wild and Crazy Kids" is the name of a US game show. These awful-sounding creations indicate that it's more "wild and crazy" in the United States than the United Kingdom. But are these the popular culture origins of the Swedish phrase? This is certainly possible given that many Swedes punctuate their speech with the word "liksom". This seems to be a direct mimicking of the slang use of the (American) English word, "like". But, then again, perhaps it was Sweden that pioneered the bulimic usage of this little word? After all, those Swedes are, like, so wild and crazy...
If you don't read Swedish the newspaper clipping above will not make any sense. Well, that's not entirely true. The extract inside the red box shouldn't be totally meaningless. Whether you're in Stockton or Stockholm, golf is golf. And "wild and crazy" is.... well, what exactly? I am a native English speaker but I have never to my knowledge used this expression. Where did it come from and why do Swedes insist on using it? It sounds so embarrassingly wrong to my ears.
A search on Google reveals that "A Wild and Crazy Guy" is the title of a 1978 album by the US comedian, Steve Martin. And "Wild and Crazy Kids" is the name of a US game show. These awful-sounding creations indicate that it's more "wild and crazy" in the United States than the United Kingdom. But are these the popular culture origins of the Swedish phrase? This is certainly possible given that many Swedes punctuate their speech with the word "liksom". This seems to be a direct mimicking of the slang use of the (American) English word, "like". But, then again, perhaps it was Sweden that pioneered the bulimic usage of this little word? After all, those Swedes are, like, so wild and crazy...
Thomas Notini
31/8/2011 05:35:29 pm
The exact Swedish equivalent, "vild och galen", is also fairly frequently in use in Swedish colloquial. Maybe a kind of "counter-phobic" behaviour...? Comments are closed.
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Para, jämsides med.
En annan sort. Dénis Lindbohm, Bevingaren, 1980: 90 Even a parasite like me should be permitted to feed at the banquet of knowledge
I once posted comments as Bevingaren at guardian.co.uk
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Note All parasitoids are parasites, but not all parasites are parasitoids Parasitoid "A parasite that always ultimately destroys its host" (Oxford English Dictionary) I live off you
And you live off me And the whole world Lives off everybody See we gotta be exploited By somebody, by somebody, by somebody X-Ray Spex <I live off you> Germ Free Adolescents 1978 From symbiosis
to parasitism is a short step. The word is now a virus. William Burroughs
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