Autoantonyms: When 'Ridiculous' Isn't So Plain

OMG, the past 72 hours of NBA free agency is starting to rival a Niagara Falls high wire act. As the final landing of the Harvard-educated point guard intensifies, the Rockets are either on track for a Linsanity blastoff or New York will plunge to a Linless low. Media, both mainstream and social, are bursting its opinion seams and Carmelo Anthony isn’t alone in tossing the word ‘ridiculous’ like a Chris Paul/Blake Griffin alley-oop.  

In fact, it was Anthony, Jeremy Lin’s Knicks teammate, who set off the commentary blaze and with gunfire rapidity, his intended meaning was assumed to be less than complimentary. Conversely, in slanguage, ‘ridiculous’ conveys a positive slant, characterizing something so extreme that it is worthy of rousing applause.

If you’re a b-ball fan, familiar with the invented term ‘ridunkulous,’ you realize the stamp signifies homage to a monstrous dunk. Of course, I don’t claim to know what Anthony meant, but an accomplished writer would’ve pried context’s door wide open. Anthony’s ‘ridiculous’ reference when used as an autoantonym, a word opposite of its conventional meaning, was a strong possibility.

And if you’re still shaky, try this on for size: Shoe freaks bearing beer budgets hyped by champagne tastes would classify Christian Louboutin’s coveted red –soled pumps as ridiculously priced but yet ridiculously artistic in design. Just ask Oprah if you’re not ‘in the know.’      

Furthermore, to be perfectly clear, did you really think Michael Jackson was confessing a character flaw when he pronounced himself ‘Bad’? For those confined to the constraints of unimaginative language, the King of Pop meant good. Luckily, his multitude of fans worldwide recognized his ‘badness’ as pop culture perfecto even if you didn’t.        

Hip Hop Language: Function and Dysfunction

Via You Tube, an illustrative panel of perspective opposites chopped and diced Hip Hop, dissecting its contributory core to a societal enhancement or erosion. In the end, London’s “Weighing Hip Hop on Trial Debate” confirmed the genre’s limited strength in striking a harmonic chord between old and new school. Sure, Hip Hop has scored that very success musically, with its occasional merger of classic chart topping samplings, but the day when the spoken or spat word is granted old school’s fat stamp of approval is futuristic. Reality is, it may never come because that’s the way rebellion music typically plays, spinning a generational divide.    

BLING BOOM

As a writer, what piqued my interest was the banter surrounding the language, a consistent sticking point that dominated the discussion. Although a far cry from your grandfather’s genre, Hip Hop deserves major credit for language innovation. Take ‘Bling,’ for instance. The coinage caught mainstream fire when “Bling, Bling,” the brainchild of New Orleans rapper B.G. and the Cash Money Millionaires cracked Billboard’s Top 40 in 1999.  

‘Bling’ reigns as my all time fave and its universal flair swiftly boarded big-brand advertisers like Sprint and Cadillac to name a few. Sure, a handful of other terms are fitting for the enhancement category, but ‘bling’ to describe the art of ostentation or over-the-top fabulosity is unquestionably brilliant. Still, folks aspire to bring bling in some shape, form or fashion over a decade after the word gained pop culture traction.   

DEROGATORYBOMB.COM

On the flip side, the impaneled brainiacs seemed to be fixated on three words which weren’t Hip Hop-invented: The B-word, the N-word and the H-word (slang for ‘whore’). Demeaning and derogatory, these words, by design, are vile and signal societal erosion based on massive consumption. Frankly, I suspect more youth and young adults are capable of rattling these politically incorrect lyrics with a precision that’s not applied to constructing a crafty sentence. Yet, lips blaring opposition to vulgarity’s invasion of reality TV and other entertainment mediums are largely zipped. Where’s the national outcry? If we’re going to call out Hip Hop for its non-innocuous language, the least we can do is spread the dysfunctional jam evenly.