Sure, “Shut Up!” is no longer rude…but be careful with it.

At some point in time, anthropologists can’t peg a year or month, because there's no carbon dating for pop idioms, the words, “Why I find that quite interesting, please tell me more,” became replaced with the formerly offensive “Shut up!!”
Here’s an example:

Them: “Jamie just got an awesome job with great pay in New York.”


You: “SHUT UP!”

Now “shut up” in this instance, does not imply the command, “You stop talking about that, this instant!” which anyone born before 1968 would take it to mean. Instead, it purveys tremendous interest and perhaps unbridled joy, as in,
“That is just tremendous news, I am so glad for Jaimie. She is truly an inspiration.”

Who knows (and who cares) how the informal command “stop talking” morphed into “I’m being extremely attentive to your words.”

Perhaps that edgy hipster in the 40’s created the DNA with the colloquial “You don’t say?” which we now take for granted to mean “that’s interesting.” Back in the day perhaps it was met with the same confusion (“Why would you ask ‘you don’t say’ when I just said it?) someone my age now faces with the “shut up” exclamation.

My research has also shown a toned down version of “shut up” is a vociferous “seriously?” Oh, sure you still wanted to know more with a strident “seriously,” but you aren’t as excited as you are when you squeal “shut up.”

So know I will give you my time stamp tips for the proper use of these words.

If:

• The name H.R. Haldeman doesn’t ring a bell…
• You can’t name a single Jethro Tull song…
• You don’t know that Susan Dey was a total fox…

Please use the “SHUT UP” exclamation with a smile on your face and a nodding head, so the rest of us will not be insulted. Eventually we’ll get it.

If, on the other hand:

• You remember the HR was always followed with “Bob” before Haldeman …
• You can recite the opening lyrics to “Thick as a Brick”
• And you admit that you watched the Partridge Family on ABC just to see that weekly clip of Laurie Partridge on stage with the tambourine….

Never use the words “Shut up” when you mean to say “that’s interesting.” It’s just pitiful.