Shirley Feeney: I do NOT vo-dee-oh-doh-doh!
Laverne De Fazio: You vo-dee-OH...
I've never seen Laverne and Shirley, but there's a trailer for it on one of my Frasier DVDs and I really wanna know what they're talking about!!!
Daddy Horny Michael
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I think they could say "sex" on tv in the '70s. But the show was supposed to take place in the '50s.
TV censorship is funny like imdb censorship.
I think sometimes they said vo-dee-o instead of vo-dee-o-doe-doe. Maybe vo-dee-o-doe-doe was intercourse and vo-dee-o was lesser sex acts.
Whether or not this was 'slang' in the fifties or something equally ridiculous, I wouldn't know, or just making fun of how street slang comes into being, but I just watched the episode where Laverne thought she was pregnant and they wouldn't say pregnant.
They wouldn't say Laverne is 'going to have a baby'.
Shirley and Mrs. Babbish, which this is two women who would be unhesitant at speaking about any female condition, especially Babbish, would just look at each other and say, "Laverne may be . . . . ."
Stare.
Audience laughs.
I've seen shows from the seventies from Three's Company to Soap and it is a bit bewildering how someone hems and haws about saying something.
But yes, as far as I took it, vo-de-oh-do-do, was referring to sex, fooling around.
I frequently use slang when I speak. Most Americans do. Vo-dee-o-doe-doe sounds like gibberish, not slang. And I loath gibberish. I have heard older relatives say things like 23 skidoo and cat's pajamas. But I never heard anyone say vo-dee-o-doe-doe besides Laverne and Shirley.
A close friend who went to grad school for linguistics said people tend to use slang for things that are illegal or perceived to be immoral. That would explain why there were so many slang terms for sex and drugs when I was growing up. When I was growing up in the '70s and '80s we referred to sex as "gettin' down" or "hookin' up". There are many metaphors for sex. Every clique seems to have their own slang for marijuana. My friends called it "Bob". If that term was used correctly outsiders did not know what we were talking about.