One turns to the Oxford English Dictionary at such times: “noun, informal: a person who affects a provocative or extreme persona, especially online (typically used of a man).

In a discussion of Randy Newman’s proclivity for speaking in the voice of someone utterly despicable - often a Southern White racist - in his songs, Yasi Salek and her guest Molly Lambert pondered whether he was using these characters for satiric effect or whether he was in fact an edgelord.

I had been thinking about this “boss” bit and what it means when I heard - on the podcast “Bandsplain” I recently wrote about in this space - two young people using a term, similar in a sense, that was entirely unfamiliar to me: “edgelord.” Cleaver, and so I have taken the liberty of closing your windows’’ - and then turn around and dis the old dame once out of her earshot.Īt Osmond’s death two years ago, Cory Franklin in the Chicago Tribune had this fascinating tidbit: “Psychologists use the term ‘Eddie Haskell syndrome’ for people who reserve one personality for superiors and another for underlings.” And Matt Groenig has called his character Bart Simpson “the son of Eddie Haskell.” The teenage character, played by Ken Osmond on “Leave It to Beaver,” would feign high politeness to parents - “The weather appeared as if it might turn inclement, Mrs. Too much of the time the verbal terms of respect for people who are one’s elders has for too long been of the Eddie Haskell variety. The customer is not always right.Īnd, you know what? Speaking as an Old, I’m really OK with that. It’s a thing now, as perhaps you have noticed. I’m not sure if women hear “boss” tossed around in this manner by Millennials and Gen Zers, but would be interested to hear if that’s the case, or if young people use “ma’am” or some other term, delivered with a sarcastic edge, to express a similar “OK, Boomer” attitude.

Eddie haskell syndrome