The Language of Clueless

Amy Heckerling’s Clueless screenplay pulls off the neat, rhetorical magic trick of seeming both familiar and wholly new. Simultaneously, Heckerling managed to capture the way 1990s kids talked while also telling them how they were going to sound before they even knew it yet. “Some of the strange language that the girls use was put in because it’s funny,” says Wallace Shawn, the actor who played Mr. Hall, and also happens to be a noted playwright, screenwriter, and close friend of Heckerling’s. “The next thing you knew it became part of the language Americans use in speaking to each other.”

From an early age, Heckerling says she was fascinated by language, studying and collecting words and phrases from a variety of sources. That well-honed ear for slang and incessant curiosity about conversational idiosyncrasies informed the words she put in the mouths of her Clueless characters. Their unique dialect was inspired by all kinds of things, including the slang dictionary published by the linguistics department at the University of California–Los Angeles, classic movies, rap songs, Shawn’s manner of speaking, and Heckerling’s own creative mind.

Amy Heckerling, writer-director: Since I was a kid, any time I would see any article on slang and lists of words, I saved it. I have a folder with rusted paper clips and things from Time magazine from when I was a little kid.

My mother would take me to the movies when I was little. So in West Side Story: “He’s a real down guy.” “Down”: that means good. So when [Christian] goes, “You’re a down girl,” that’s from West Side Story. I’ve been compiling this shit my whole life.

Every way that you say something positive says something about who you are, how old you are, where you live, how much money you have—which is sometimes why I can’t even talk, because everything’s too revealing.

I made [a slang dictionary] for Clueless when I was writing it. So I have that one for that moment in time. Also, [I had] to have a separate category for Christian-speak because that was Rat Pack language. Rat Packian, 1940s to ’60s, film noir, Dashiell Hammett, Frank Sinatra.

I had a jive-talk dictionary that I found in the library and xeroxed, from, I guess, the seventies. But it was words from the army and prison and musicians. I compile things from a lot of places. Also, a lot of songs. Obviously rap music, but even going back to Cab Calloway.

I wanted to make the kids smart and expressive and stylized. So . . . there’s a black couple that sound like an old Jewish couple, and there’s skaters, and then there’s a girl whose father is a prominent attorney and has an intelligent teacher. She’s steeped in their vernacular and also, separately, [in] teen-speak.

“Brutally rebuffed” was not something that teenagers were saying. That’s how Wally [Shawn] speaks. Wally’s a smart guy. A lot of the way he speaks is in Cher’s vernacular. When she says, “I tried to show the teacher my scholastic abilities and I was brutally rebuffed”—that’s the way Wally talks. I just think his language is so beautiful and funny.

Wallace Shawn, Mr. Hall: I didn’t know that. I don’t know how I talk. So anybody is welcome to steal it!

Plenty of people use words that came to them from Clueless and they don’t even know that they do. They haven’t the faintest idea.

A Glossary of Selected Clueless Terms

AS IF

Amy Heckerling: “I had done a pilot with my friend Meredith Scott Lynn. She was in New York when I was writing [Clueless] and we’d hang out and do stuff [with her gay best friend, Andrew]. I think a lot of [sayings] come from the gay community and then get spread to kids and then to the general public. ‘As if’ and ‘whatever’ came from that gang of people.”

Definition: The definition is pretty self-explanatory; it’s the Cher Horowitz way of saying “no way!” or “not even.”

Use it in a Clueless sentence: Cher, pushing away an amorous high school boy that she would never date: “Ew, get off of me! Ugh—as if!”

AUDI

Amy Heckerling: “Audi . . . where did I hear that? . . . That must have been from [students at] school.”

Definition: The phrase also appears in UCLA Slang 2, the 1993 edition of the university’s sporadically (sporadically—Tai shout-out!) updated slang dictionary. There, it is defined under “be Audi/be Audi 5000/be 5000: v. to be leaving immediately. I’m Audi.” The reference, obviously, is to the car, which sounds like “outie.”

Use it in a Clueless sentence: Both Cher and Tai exit scenes by announcing, “I’m Audi.”

BALDWIN

Amy Heckerling: “I don’t know if that was in the UCLA slang [dictionary] or if that was just from Baldwin brothers. I mean, it’s obviously from Baldwin brothers, but I don’t remember if I brought it up or if I read it.”

Definition: It’s not in the UCLA slang dictionary, so let’s go ahead and give Heckerling credit for this one. Obviously it means a cute guy, as in the Paul Rudd kind.

Use it in a Clueless sentence: Cher, referring to Josh: “Okay, okay, so he’s kind of a Baldwin.”

BARNEY

Definition: Heckerling confirmed that this was taken from the UCLA slang dictionary, which defines it in multiple ways. The Clueless definition is the second one listed: “n. stupid or inadequate male: (male) loser. That guy is a real barney.” UCLA Slang 2 also points out that barney comes from the Flintstones character named Barney.

Use it in a Clueless sentence: Cher, referring to the douchebag guys Tai befriends at the mall: “I don’t know where she meets these barneys.”

BETTY

Definition: Heckerling confirmed that this also was taken from UCLA’s Slang 2. The definition reads, in part: “n. very physically attractive female. You should have seen this girl—we’re talking major betty. The Flintstones.” This, too, comes from The Flintstones; sadly, Betty married a Barney.

Use it in a Clueless sentence: Cher, referring to the portrait of her mother: “Wasn’t my mom a betty?”

BUGGIN’, AS IN “TOTALLY BUGGIN’ ”

Amy Heckerling: “Buggin’ was around. Totally has been since the eighties.”

Definition: It’s just another way of saying “freaking out.”

Use it in a Clueless sentence: Cher, describing her father’s fiftieth-birthday party and making a pro-immigration argument: “People came that, like, did not RSVP. So I was, like, totally buggin’.”

HYMENALLY CHALLENGED

Amy Heckerling: “That I made up, because a lot of the handicapped things were turning into challenges.”

Definition: Totally virginized. (Related term: ensembly challenged.)

Use it in a Clueless sentence: Dionne: “Besides, the PC term is hymenally challenged.”

IN ON THE HEAVY CLAMBAKES

Amy Heckerling: “ ‘Clambakes,’ where did I get that from? I think from my jive-talk dictionary.”

Definition: Essentially, it means being up on the social scene.

Use it in a Clueless sentence: Christian, to Cher: “I’m new, but I thought maybe you had an in on the heavy clambakes?”

JEEPIN’

Amy Heckerling: “That must have come from rap songs.”

Definition: As the movie makes clear, this is a synonym for doing it in a car.

Use it in a Clueless sentence: Murray, to Dionne: “What’s up? You jeepin’ behind my back?” Dionne: “Jeepin’? No. But speaking of vehicular sex . . .”

KEEPING IT REAL

Amy Heckerling: “It’s hard to remember: I think ‘I’m keeping it real’ was in the script. And ‘It’s the bomb.’ ”

Donald Faison: “She said that was in the script? No, that’s not true. It was not in the script. I put that in the script. She didn’t write I’m keeping it real. I heard that from my neighbor. Some kid in my neighborhood said, ‘Just keep it real. Just make sure you keep it real.’ And I was like, Oh. That’s what the kids are saying now. And so I put that in there myself: ‘I’m keepin’ it real. Because I’m keepin’ it real.’ [She] didn’t write that—damn it, Heckerling! Come on, old buddy!”

Amy Heckerling: “It might have been [Donald]. It could easily have been.”

Donald Faison: “I said it because he was trying to be, like, a hoodlum. And when you keep it real in the hood, you keep it as gangster as possible. So when [Dionne] asks him, ‘Why would you shave your head?’ his response is, ‘I’m keeping it real,’ because he’s gotten all gangster.”

Use it in a Clueless sentence: Murray himself just did. Because he still keeps it real.

MONET

Amy Heckerling: “That one is from UCLA.”

Definition: From Slang 2: “n. person who seems desirable from a distance, but isn’t up close . . . [from Claude Monet].”

Use it in a Clueless sentence: Cher, referring to Amber: “She’s a full-on Monet. It’s like a painting, see? From far away, it’s okay, but up close, it’s a big ol’ mess.”

RATIONED

Amy Heckerling: “That’s from World War II movies. Because rationing was a big thing.”

Definition: It’s another way of saying that one is socially unavailable or that one’s time is limited.

Use it in a Clueless sentence: Christian, asking Cher if she’s free this weekend: “Hey, Duchess, you rationed this weekend?”

SURFING THE CRIMSON WAVE

Heckerling couldn’t recall whether she cribbed this term from a random slang dictionary, heard someone else say it, or made it up herself.

Amy Heckerling: “If you look through any slang dictionaries, there are tons of terms for sex, for being drunk, and for having your period. People are very expressive about that. In fact, I was going through some slang sites recently for a thing I’m writing now, and for getting your period, the new one that I loved is Shark Week. There’s always something, you know: from visit from Aunt Flo to Shark Week to surfing the crimson wave to riding the, whatever, the red corvette—I just made that up.”

Definition: It’s surfer code for menstruating.

Use it in a Clueless sentence: Cher, explaining at least one of her tardies: “Mr. Hall, I was surfing the crimson wave. I had to haul ass to the ladies’.”

TOE-UP

Amy Heckerling: “I’m not sure where it came from. I don’t think it came from a song. I don’t think it came from the UCLA slang study; it might have come from there. Maybe it did come from a rap song. Toe-up is like saying somebody’s ugly.”

Use it in a Clueless sentence: Dionne, objecting to Cher’s suggestion that they adopt Tai: “Cher, she is toe-up. Our stock would plummet.”

WAY HARSH

Amy Heckerling: “Using way as a qualifier—like very. That’s the other one you have to have a lot of in your back pocket. That will change the feel of any word, by how you say it’s ‘very.’ Harsh was just harsh. That wasn’t like a new word.”

Definition: Pretty self-explanatory, but: it’s another way of saying extremely hurtful.

Use it in a Clueless sentence: Cher, after Tai calls her a virgin who can’t drive: “That was way harsh, Tai.”

WHATEVER, PREFERABLY WITH W HAND GESTURE

As Heckerling previously explained, that came from her friend actress Meredith Scott Lynn and her group of friends.

Amy Heckerling: “I remember that there was a lot of this. [Heckerling makes the traditional W sign.] This was like, early nineties. Then sometimes we’d both hold our hands up like this—[Heckerling makes a bigger W sign with all fingers outstretched]—because we’d make a big whatever.”

Definition: You think this requires an explanation? What-ever.

Use it in a Clueless sentence: Amber to Cher, after Cher makes a flimsy debate point about the Haitians: “What-ever.”

YOU GOT MY MARKER

Heckerling: “Oh, marker: That’s, you know, Guys and Dolls. Little Miss Marker.”

Definition: Marker is another word for IOU. Which means this is Christian Stovitz–speak for “I owe you one.”

Use it in a Clueless sentence: Christian, to Josh after he says he’ll drive Cher home from the Bosstones party: “Thanks, man. You got my marker.”