Brocabulary 101
Introducing the reinvented language of dudes and bros
INTERVIEW. Soft-spoken author Daniel Maurer isn’t the kind of guy you would expect to hang out in a dive bar pounding cheap domestics and ogling scantily clad chicks. But perhaps it was his outsider status that made him the perfect writer for the new book “Brocabulary: The New Man-I-Festo of Dude Talk” (Collins, $15).
“I realized that there was a cultural fascination with the phenomenon of ‘guyamese twins’ — guys who are attached at the liver, always drinking together and watching each other score,” he says. “At the same time we’ve been using expressions like ‘wingman’ and ‘sausage party’ for way too long; it was time to come up with new ones.”
Here, he helps us decipher the language.
Are you yourself a speaker of this language? Or are you writing in an ironic manner?
Sure, I use the words. But ultimately they aim to satirize this idea that you can get away with anything, no matter how retrograde, as long as you have a catchy word for it, or express yourself with humor and bravado.
Is there a word you came up with that’s your coup de grace?
Maybe something like “femtrapment” — guys have long needed a word for when girls ask them a question that’s going to get them in trouble, no matter how they answer. Like, “Do you think my sister is hot?”
Were you surprised when other books detailing this “bro-speak,” such as “Bro-Code,” came out around the same time as yours?
Not entirely. We’re obviously experiencing a bro moment, what with Judd Apatow’s movies, Brody Jenner’s “Bromance,” etc. I say, everyone in the hot tub! But “Brocabulary” has been called the “Moby Dick” of the bro books, which is, incidentally, a brocabulary word.
BROCABULARY YOU CAN USE AT HOME:
*Power Tool: The total tool who has somehow achieved power, wealth or fame, ie: “George W. Bush is a total power tool.”
*Bombraderie: The camaraderie bros experience when pounding Irish Car Bombs.
*Palibi: When you’re out with another girl, telling your girlfriend that you’re out with your pals as an alibi.
*Vincent Van Bro: A bro who is so loyal he would cut his ear off for you.
*Jersey Girl: A chick whose love of the game amounts to wearing the jersey of the player she thinks is hot.
*Voluntary Canslaughter: The killing of a beer.
*Fandiloquence: The grandiloquence of a sports fan who, though he normally has the cognitive and conversational skills of a shaved ape, suddenly becomes an eloquent statesman when fanalyzing his team.
