“Cool children” and “super seniors” cross into youth language

Abstract

This article examines the ways in which the sociolinguistic construction of youthful identities is represented in two popular Greek comedy family sitcoms, considering that youth language has gained a prominent position in TV fictional discourse, being used by characters of all ages. Drawing upon a combined analytical framework from sociocultural linguistics, ethnomethodology and interactional sociolinguistics, as part of a wider research project, our analysis focuses on two interactions in which non-young people (i.e. primary school children, older women) engage in youthful scenarios. We conclude that the humorous construction of youthfulness in these TV series reproduces the (adult) stereotypical views of young people and their speech style, and undermines the marketing discourse of perpetual adolescence (Gennaro, 2013).