And in a way what it does -it's an interesting development linguistically because unlike insults that use the old fashion pejorative and disparaging names for groups, this one takes what had become the official positive name for their group but invests it with all of the negative stereotypes that were associated with that group and then broadens it so it just means stupid or lame.ĬONAN: Here is an email we got from Elizabeth in Hercules, California. The title that says, that's so gay, that's so yesterday. My high schooler used that expression eight years ago. I work in the high school and kids don't use that expression anymore. It wore out like most frivolous expressions. If it matters the expression referred to when one was so into their own thing, he or she didn't care what the group felt. The group response that's so gay was a way of saying, you are so individual. I guess at least in Hercules, California. One feature of words like this is that like all adolescent slang it varies enormously from one part of the country to the other and one group to the other.