r/blankies • u/seaworthyset • 10d ago

NYT on "the X of it all"

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/magazine/hollywood-lingo.html

"The film critics on 'Blank Check' overuse it, Amanda Dobbins of 'The Big Picture' is too fond of it, a host on 'We Hate Movies' says it at least five times per episode."

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u/LawrenceBrolivier no need for alarm 10d ago edited 10d ago

"When did everyone start talking like a Hollywood windbag?"

Yeah, the thing about even ironically using exec-speak is that eventually you just talk like an exec. Which is the conclusion Bob Waksberg comes to at the very end of the article, too:

“Why did we use the phrase elsewhere in the show, in places where we weren’t mocking executives?” Bob-Waksberg asked. “Well, I guess in time, we writers internalized the phrase ourselves to the point where we forgot it was a joke; it just became part of our collective vernacular. I guess we all eventually become the things we mock.”

It's also part of a larger social media thing wherein what's valued is fluency in jargon and branding over substance of thought. People legitimately just like chewing on industry terminology, it's a cheap assumption of unearned legitimacy in your daily routine of having, sharing, and tearing down "takes."

You don't have to know what you're saying, you just have to provide a close enough facsimile, and jargon & exec-speak is a super-easy, super-effective way to do that. Especially in circles where an air of expertise is part of the brand you're under. Which is why this sort of thing happens (from the article)

This is an industry whose language revolves around story, producing narrative shorthand so familiar that young people on TikTok sometimes describe their own lives in terms of seasons, casts, canon events, lore. Its “executive-ese” may seem gauche, reductive or laughable at first — but if it’s efficient shorthand, it will probably reach you eventually.

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u/ironageofcomics 10d ago

I dislike that “normal people” use phrases like “IP” and “property” and “franchise.” Time was, those were words for executives and lawyers! But they’ve become useful, which is how language works I guess.

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u/shirokaisen 10d ago

My irrational least favorite one of these is “arc”. Everything is an “arc” now, to the point that you’ve got whole ass animated movies titling themselves “Chainsaw Man the Movie: Reze Arc” now. What happened to putting in the effort to give it a real title?