“Nobody wants to work any more” or “kids aren’t disciplined anymore”, and “millenials…something something something” to refer to any generation younger than them.
this post was submitted on 22 May 2025
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"People don't have pensions anymore?"
No, Mom, we don't.
In my day.
Let me just talk for a while, you'll get some
"Are you ready to rock?"
Television set.
Something I once heard my sister say to our grandniece, "I saw the Beatles live."
Boy, I sure love owning a house.
Hey, I'm heading into my late 40s and I haven't been able to say that yet lol
So not old, cool
"Kids these days don't want to work."
After living with my grandma for so long I started saying "god willing" and people keep telling me it makes me sound old lol
Say inshallah instead
“Which was the style at the time…”
I keep saying that to my boy, but even the reference goes over his head it's so old.
“Back in my day”
Ouch! I must have slept wrong.
"I'm not THAT old, but ..."
"moderate Republicans"
pulling myself up by my bootstraps
"Here, have a Werther's."
I'm in my 20s and have for years had a stash of these...
Tight timeline, but I guess you could be a grandparent.
You kids, get off my lawn!
Define "Old People"
Whatever you think is an old person. Im trying to figure out if i say these things.
Speak up Sonny.
"Comment ça vas"
i am from Louisiana
How do you say that out loud? I wonder if I've heard it, just never knew how it was spelt.
I am not sure how to write the -ent sound with english pronunciation, but here is my best attempt
"kôm-mâ sâ vâ" with the ^ signifying the soft vowel
"Knee high to a grasshopper" (short)
"Beyond the pale" (outside social norms, I think. Maybe just strange)
"Dance maven"
"I'll just do that in my copious free time..." (sarcastically, because you are too busy)
"Copacetic" (it's all good)
"Heavy" (meaning important, grave)
I learned all of these thirty years ago from a man in his fifties. He was full of interesting expressions.
The only time I have ever heard the word copacetic and only reason I know it exists is because of a song that probably only dinosaurs and hipsters listen to anymore: Bound For The Floor.
Other than that, I've never heard it used in any context. So I'mma agree that it's definitely an old person word ( or a pretentious "I'm BeTtEr ThAn YoU" kinda word ).
If the question is things "only" old people say, you have to exclude phrases old people say that were repopularized through media.
"Heavy" (meaning important, grave)
For example this is a really quotable line from Back to the Future, so kids would pick it up.
Heavy? Is there something wrong with the earths gravity??
The strange thing here is that Marty McFly is using the slang "heavy" and Doc Brown doesn't understand it. Yet the use of heavy to mean "profound, serious" started in Jazz in 1937. So Doc would have grown up with the word, and by the 80's I wonder if it was really all that popular anymore. McFly is using 50's slang in the '50s but the guy from the '50s doesn't get the slang. Maybe because he's not hip.
40 year old movies are not really a major influence on slang & pop culture...
Lmao, k
I've started saying "beyond the pale" and "copacetic" after playing Disco Elysium
I couldn't remember the song title Pink Pony Club and called it Hoke Pokey Unicorn the other day.... so that
Dad gum
My knees hurt.
Shaking like a dog shittin’ prune seeds
My dad called rootbeer floats “boston coolers” and called BigBoy’s restaurants “Manners”
Im trying to keep boston coolers alive.
'Like watching a monkey try to fuck a football'
'About as useful as a wooden dick on a sawhorse'
Etc.
The other day someone told me "bamboozle" is something only old people say
What should I do with my savings today?
“Do you want to go to the pictures?”
“Nobody died in Tiananmen Square”