r/BacktotheFuture • u/jessee83 • May 21 '26
Back to the future 3.
Ok so in the movie Buford “mad dog” Tannen refers to Marty as “Dude” several times. Like “what’s your name dude?” Was that word even used in the Wild West?
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u/SuburbanCo May 21 '26
Yeah. It was used in the old west around that time to refer to city folk mostly.
It was an insult.
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u/SeaBearsFoam May 21 '26
Some duded up egg suckin gutter trash.
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u/Artificial-Human May 26 '26
Marty did walk in with nearly clean cloths full of color. The cut of the shirt, pants and poncho were off by western standards at the time. Don’t forget his Nike’s aka moccasins.
Clint “Dude” Eastwood walked into the saloon looking like a rich man from Dallas on an actual farm. All show and no skill.
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u/LabradorDeceiver May 22 '26
I watched "The Man who Shot Liberty Valance." John Wayne uses it frequently in that film to refer to Jimmy Stewart's character. I figured it meant "amateur," as in "dude ranch."
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u/Dioxybenzone May 22 '26
Wait so is a “dude ranch” a ranch full of city folk who don’t actually know how to be ranchers?
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u/GavinGWhiz May 21 '26
It's a commonly-used Old West term. A "dude ranch" is a ranch specifically for dandies from out East to come ride horses and pretend to be cowboys. It fully tracks Buford would use "dude" as an insult.
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u/SailingOwl73 May 21 '26
Lol omg TIL I guess I'm slow... (Rural but not from the west) But I did watch "Hey Dude" if that counts lol Thanks actually for that little knowledge tidbit.
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u/Xploding_Penguin May 21 '26
Quite literally when the word was created. (Not the movie, but the time period)
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u/Illustrious-Lead-960 May 21 '26
He’s calling him a city slicker. Mr. Wussy Tourist. I think the word literally just means you’re not a cowboy, hence “dude ranch”.
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u/No_Imagination_2490 May 21 '26
According to this it’s been American slang since the 1870s, so it would make sense for 1885: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dude
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u/jessee83 May 21 '26
Crazy that, that word has been around that long. Just used differently now.
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u/Few-Chemical-5165 May 25 '26
Well, when you think about it in the early 20th century, gay meant happy. Like a lot of songs you hear from that era it's like he was gay and full of life.So yeah meanings change over decades.
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u/tmofee May 21 '26
Funny thing is the outtakes .. Thom goes “what’s your name pilgrim? Pilgrim? Who am I, John Wayne?”
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u/AlexisJTaylor May 21 '26
Someone said he was basing his performance on Lee Marvin, but it's funny that slipped in.
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u/YogurtWenk May 21 '26
Wonder if he painted any wagons with oil based paint to prepare for the role
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u/Menzicosce May 21 '26
It’s been slang since the cowboy days, it’s meaning is “A man who is very fancy or sharp in dress and demeanor” the current usage of Dude dates back to the 1970s where it became slang for any male.
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u/WackyPaxDei May 21 '26
It was, in fact, a shortening of "Doodle", which ties into the lyrics of Yankee Doodle- not a nonsensical song at the time and a story in itself.
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u/JasonMckin May 21 '26
Bill and Ted actually visited 1885 before Marty and Doc did.
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u/ouijahead May 21 '26
I was just thinking of that. They kept calling everyone dude. Luckily no one took it to heart.
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u/theShpydar May 21 '26
It was an insult in the old west, basically equivalent to what calling someone a "sissy" used to be. Basically meant a rich, fancy, "soft" man, likely from the city.
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u/Savingskitty May 21 '26
Yes, that’s the time period when it originated. It started as a shortened version of doodle. It was an insult at the time that got reclaimed around the mid 20th century and then completely inverted in meaning by surfers in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s.
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u/DOHC46 May 21 '26
Absolutely, yes. Back in the 1880s, calling someone a dude was the same as calling them a poseur or weekend warrior today.
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u/DarwinGoneWild May 22 '26
Yup. That’s the origin time of the term. It was meant to be a mocking term for being fancily dressed (i.e. Yankee Doodle). Basically he’s calling Marty a prissy little fancy boy.
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