Buffy The Vampire Slayer

DURHAM, N.C., May 2 (AScribe Newswire) — As "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" counts down to its May 20 finale, it should be remembered as more than a quirky TV show about a former cheerleader who slew demons and saved the world "a lot," says visiting Duke University English professor Michael Adams.

The series, which has spawned its own magazine and video game, dozens of novels and comic books, scores of magazines articles and hundreds of fan-created Web sites, actually changed the way we speak, says Adams. "Slayer slang has entered into the general vocabulary of standard American English," he says.

In nearly every episode, "Buffy" (as the show is known to its fans) has introduced new slang terms and phrases, says Adams, author of the forthcoming "Slayer Slang: A ’Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ Lexicon" (Oxford University Press, June 2003) and creator of the term "slayer slang."

Joss Whedon, the show’s creator, and his writers have "established ’BTVS’ as the mint in which items of current teen slang are struck, mass-produced and then passed nationwide," Adams writes. With nearly 4 million viewers each week and an uncommonly wide demographic, that slang is adopted and re-used in situations far removed from the TV show.

For example, a September 2001 working paper issued by the Center for Strategic and International Studies characterized the country’s national security woes in terms of a "Buffy Paradigm" and a "Buffy Syndrome," Adams says. And a uniquely "Buffy" adjectival use of the word "much" directly after a noun (e.g. "Broken-record much?") was adapted for a Doonesbury comic strip and Mademoiselle magazine article only after the construct was uttered on the TV show.

"Everybody is aware of the show. Everybody has felt a little effect from it," Adams says, even those who profess to have never watched "Buffy" or consider themselves part of the "Buffyverse."

That effect won’t end with the show’s final episode, Adams adds. With the repeated airing of reruns in syndication, the release of entire seasons on DVD, the new videogame and the Internet fan sites, "Buffy" and its slang will have a long afterlife. "It will never be over," he says.