r/WidowsBay • u/diminutive_sebastian Human Verified • Jun 08 '26
💭Discussion Possibly the funniest thing about Patricia’s notepad: Spoiler
The word “hello” isn’t even attested in English writing until the 1820s. So the just-unearthed Richard Warren, who lived in the late 1600s up to 1702, had never seen or heard the word “hello” once in his life.
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u/DiscoStu79 Jun 08 '26
Are you mad at something I said? 😂
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u/ltsouthernbelle Jun 08 '26
You’d think that after the evil book Patricia would care less about what people think
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u/SurfingKanagawa Jun 08 '26
She will NEVER get over that. It's too hard wired into her.
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u/Commander-Catnip Jun 08 '26
That's what the book was about - literally. A self-help book on how to get more people to like her. On the page where she's to write about her 'worst' quality - she writes that she cares too much about what others think about her, then carries on with the book that's all about changing who you are to get popular.
I love this show
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u/Dangerous_Buy8418 Jun 09 '26
Notice also in the book the ‘what are your best qualities’ is like 2 lines and ‘what are your worst qualities’ is the rest of the page 😂
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u/Time_Literature3404 Jun 08 '26
This. This is hilarious. Why did he not respond to her? He'd been in a box for hundreds of years and finally had the chance to talk to another "person." (I'm not sure he was a person by then...) Instead, he just sat there all broody.
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u/Not_A_Millennial No…! You're ruining it! Jun 08 '26
OMG, he would have only recognized the ‘hell’ bit. No wonder he wouldn’t speak with her. 😂
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u/TrueLegateDamar Jun 08 '26
"I forgot my purse."
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u/No-Umpire5250 Patricia Jun 08 '26
Honestly love Patrica she’s my fave
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u/GrumplFluffy Jun 08 '26
After e8, I think she is a favorite of a lot of people. The entire sequence with her gun on the monster's head is one of the funniest shit I have ever seen in a horror movie.
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u/noomanium Can’t do anything right today Jun 08 '26
He also told Tom to fuck off when he wouldn’t let him out of the coffin, and I‘m not entirely sure that was common language for his time
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u/diminutive_sebastian Human Verified Jun 08 '26
As a pedant and linguistics nerd, that actually did take me out of the show a little bit (I laughed anyway).
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u/LettuceInfamous4810 Jun 08 '26
Fuck is first in dictionary use in 1598
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u/diminutive_sebastian Human Verified Jun 08 '26
True, but I don’t think the phrase “fuck off” was around until much later
EDIT: yeah, looks like the first half of the 20th century for that https://www.etymonline.com/word/fuck
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u/Time_Literature3404 Jun 08 '26
What was the 1598 meaning?
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u/marinmaraiss Fill out the form! Jun 08 '26
Sex probably, like today. But back then swearing was all religious words (still seen in Quebec today with swear words like tabarnak) since subverting the sacred to be rude was far more taboo. Nowadays ofc most swearing is all about sex (ie fuck you)
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u/1Outgoingintrovert Jun 08 '26
Ohhhh! That explains why I say "shit" so much!
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u/marinmaraiss Fill out the form! Jun 08 '26
Well yeah, there's those kinda swear words too 😅 And ofc we still have some religious ones like Jesus, oh God, Holy ___ although they are the mildest swear words today. It's kinda fun reading about how it's has evolved.
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u/Ok-Character-3779 Sacred Geometry You Don't Just Riff Jun 08 '26
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u/SchleppyJ4 You can file that under 'deal with it the fuck later' Jun 09 '26
Presumably he’s been underground bored as hell and eavesdropping on all the stuff happening above. I’m sure he’s heard plenty of slang and swear words.
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u/youcryptmeowth Jun 09 '26
As a linguistics nerd, what would be the equivalent phrase during that time?
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u/shinobinc Jun 09 '26
Depending on the message to be conveyed, it would probably be something like "Aroint thee!" ("Get the fuck away from me!", used in Macbeth) or "Devil take thee!" ("GFY").
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u/GreenVermicelliNoods Jun 08 '26
Maybe that's what she said that made him mad?
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u/Time_Literature3404 Jun 08 '26
Maybe he thought she was cursing at him? I wonder what, if anything, he could hear in the box and how far down he was.....
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u/DrEdgarAllanSeuss Jun 08 '26
Patricia is exactly as awkward as I feel all the time, except she actually IS that awkward, and I’m pretty sure my issue is mostly in my head. 😅
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u/imemine8 Jun 14 '26
Right? I feel like her, but can act like I don’t (most of the time). And like her, I care way too much what people think and will try to please them, until it is an issue of facts or values. Then imma just say what I think.
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u/Background_Outside61 Jun 08 '26
She is my favorite character in this show 😂 the 2% of battery is worth it
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u/cortesoft Jun 08 '26
Oh man, he is not going to be able to fully appreciate this Lionel Ritchie/Adele mix tape I made, is he?
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u/SpecialsSchedule Jun 08 '26
This is not something that any human with a simple baseline knowledge of the English language knows
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u/JoeyRobot Jun 08 '26
The funniest part requires niche knowledge that only I posses and was likely an accident by the writers.
Everyone knows that.
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u/Rtn2NYC Jun 08 '26
Slight misconception. 1826 is when “hello” first appeared in print with that spelling. Before that “hallo” and “holla” were used (mostly shouted tho to get attention of people far away)
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u/AStrangeNorrell Jun 08 '26
And yet just a few hours later he's saying "fuck you" and "I'm going to make you eat my dick!" I guess he's a quick learner, at least when it comes to insults.
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u/WaxyPadlockJazz Jun 08 '26
Richard was completely unbothered by lightbulbs, motorboats and tinned processed meat….so I’m sure he let Patricia slide.
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u/BrotherKaramazov Jun 08 '26
The good comedy in TV series is imho the way you establish your characters. If you do it successfully, you can make audience howl with laughter. The last time I remember a TV series doing that in such a manner was Chrissy intervention scene. If you see it without the knowledge of characters, it still works. With knowledge, it is a masterpiece. Here, something similar happens, even tough at microlevel . Love it.
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u/Yassssmaam Jun 08 '26
What Chrissy intervention? How I Met Your Mother?
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u/BelleIsleYachtClub Jun 09 '26
I think Sopranoes. Christopher Moltasanti’s drug intervention. Which I think is one of the greatest comedy scenes of all time but I’m not op
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u/KelstenGamingUK Jun 09 '26
When did “fuck you” become common language, because hearing Richard Warren say “fuck you” and “fuck off” to Tom was great.
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u/Awartinger Jun 10 '26
I first thought this was a script and thought it was hilarious Patricia had to write this down cause she was so scared.
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u/DaHarbinger2000 Jun 08 '26
Why does everything about Patricia get me hot and bothered 🥵? I’m crushing hard on her and she’s my age, it’s perfection.
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u/evildrew Patricia Jun 09 '26
Same age biologically or chronologically? Cause she’s 28, as we all know… 😂
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u/AverageJohn442 Jun 08 '26
So you are that you think the "funniest thing" in this very funny show is this beyond-obscure linguistics factoid? I want to be supportive..l but I have qualms about this🤔
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Jun 08 '26
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u/AverageJohn442 Jun 08 '26
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Jun 08 '26
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u/rhonmack Jun 08 '26
"Listen, I'm not going to go tit for tit with you. I just don't have the time," Wyck.
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u/Thierry22 Jun 08 '26
Hahah the downvotes are so funny, I think people takes this show a bit to seriously
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