Hash House Lingo
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"Give Aunt Martha a cockroach and mail off a series of strongly worded letters to a fringe publication concerning the tax code." |
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A Rule of Funny trope. A scene takes place in a restaurant, the waitress takes the diners' orders, and after taking their menus, she calls toward the kitchen something that sounds like utter gibberish. Brooklyn accents are typical of these scenes.
There is some Truth in Television to this: Waiters can and will use wacky names as mnemonic devices, and customers use slang for the convenience (like in many other transactions).
Common in, but not exclusive to, the Greasy Spoon. May contain Lampshade Hanging as to the nature of the food. Not to be confused with Hash(ish) House Lingo, though it might be.
Film
- The Emperor's New Groove: After Pacha and Kuzco order two specials and an onion ring log, the waitress calls, "Ordering! Two heart-burns and a deep-fried doorstop."
- Then, when Kronk takes over for the cook, she gives him a rapid-fire list of orders, and he pauses for a beat before confirming in jargon.
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Waitress: "Ordering! Three pork combos, extra bacon on the side, two chili cheese samplers, a basket of liver and onion rings, a catch of the day, and a steak cut in the shape of a trout. You got all that, honey?" |
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- He left out the catch of the day.
- In Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Eddie orders "scotch on the rocks" from a Toon waiter, realizes whom he's addressing and corrects it to, "And I mean ice!", but the waiter brings him a shot glass with gravel in it anyway.
- Rather hilarious in its incongruity, in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones.
- Heat features bursts of Hash House Lingo in the diner where Breeden is slaving when McCauley offers him a job as getaway driver. McCauley makes the new order $12 million to go!
- In The Three Stooges episode "Playing the Ponies", when someone orders two eggs on toast Moe shouts to Curly the cook "Adam and Eve on a raft!"—followed by "And wreck 'em!" after the customer clarifies that he wants the eggs scrambled rather than fried.
Literature
- The Frank and Ernest picture books (nothing to do with the comic strip) are about an anthropomorphic elephant and bear encountering the colorful argot of various professions. The first book is about diner-speak.
- A chapter of the first Odd Thomas book details Odd's normal work day at the diner he works at. The only thing that isn't diner lingo is an order for hash browns.
- Colonel Cyrus in The Virginian translates our hero's plain English order for a steak and eggs: "One slaughter in the pan, and let the blood drip!"
- In the Katie Kazoo book Out to Lunch, the lunch ladies use diner-speak in the cafeteria kitchen.
- John M. Ford's Star Trek comedy novel How Much for Just the Planet? has a scene where four people who are locked up by an "evil dictator" are asked what they want for their last meal, with the person taking the orders making oblique references to diner cooking. Dr. McCoy actually orders in Hash House Lingo - and is hailed as the Destined Hero who will overthrow the evil dictator.
Live-Action TV
- An episode of Reading Rainbow: LeVar Burton wound up just guessing and getting every order horribly, horribly wrong.
- Once on The Jeffersons, Tom Willis ordered a drink "on the rocks. And hold the ice."
- In an episode of Dharma and Greg, the eponymous couple start talking like this (especially Dharma) when they have to pretend to be the temporary staff of a diner (and relatives of the owners) in order to avoid being arrested for breaking and entering. It Makes Sense in Context.
- One episode of Gilmore Girls has Lorelai stepping in when Luke is indisposed. Lorelai being Lorelai, that comes complete with diner speak.
- On Friends Monica is dubious that Phoebe can be a waitress. Phoebe gives the following demonstration of her abilities, too bad catering a funeral doesn't really require this kind of lingo:
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Phoebe: I can be a waitress. Okay, watch this. Um, gimme two number ones, 86 the bacon, one Adam and Eve on a raft and wreck 'em, la-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la-la. |
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- In the Stargate SG-1 episode "Threads", Daniel Jackson is stuck in a diner on a higher plane of existence. Oma Desala is his waitress, and she attempts to use the lingo on occasion. Amusingly, it's the most straightforward she ever is for the entire series (on previous appearances, she spoke primarily in koans).
Newspaper Comics
- One story arc in Gasoline Alley involved Slim filling in for the regular cook at the local diner, and being unfamiliar with this slang.
- In a Garfield strip, Jon asks for a hamburger with extra onions. The waitress then turns to the kitchen and yells "BURN A COW AND MAKE HER CRY!" which causes Jon and Garfield to lose their appetites.
Puppet Shows
- Heard on occasion on the Sesame Street "Grover as waiter" skits.
- Gladys from The Muppet Show talked like this sometimes. Miss Piggy's order of a watercress sandwich and rhubarb juice was "The Weight Watcher's Special". Annie Sue's large order of a milkshake, burger, fries and apple pie was a "Kamikaze".
Recorded and Stand Up Comedy
- In a comedy performance at Carnegie Hall, Ray Romano talked about formerly being a diner waiter, and noted that knowing the language actually hurt him in later jobs. When he later worked at a pharmacy:
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Woman: I need some Sominex and some condoms... |
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- Kyle Cease has this joke:
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I hate whenever you go into a coffee shop, no matter what you order they have their own way of calling it to the back. Like you could be like, "Hi, I'll have a tall mocha iced latte blended fun." And then the lady's like, "BLEEUH!, anything else?" |
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Video Games
- In Sam and Max Season 2, ordering something from Stinky's diner will result in this.
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Sam: Chicken chow mein with chocolate covered raisins and a caramel swirl. |
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- The Enclave cook in Fallout 2 will gladly, if you ask for food, serve you "shit on a shingle" and points to the "snow and fly shit" on the table. "Shit on a shingle" is chipped beef on toast, "snow and fly shit" are salt and pepper.
Web Comics
- Given a mad science flavour in Girl Genius:
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- Ultimately weaponized when the Jagermonster trying to duel him for his hat finally thinks to order a "Prince of Sturmhalten's Big Bet" - a hat sandwich.
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- Muertitos does it here, with a little twist at the end.
- The Argyle Sweater has a little misunderstanding over one or another entry on the menu.
- Wondermark on the dangers of dining out of town.
Web Original
- The Riff Trax of Transformers contains a bit of this after Bonecrusher scoops up a car in a way that looks like flipping a pancake. It begins as actual diner lingo before spinning off into the absurd, culminating in the page quote seen above.
Western Animation
- In an episode of Jimmy Neutron, the three boys get jobs at a restaurant. Sheen is at the drive-thru window and calls out the order. Carl replies, "Is he doing the hokey-pokey or the chicken dance?" Sheen looks back at the car and asks, "Would you like fries with that?"
- This becomes a running gag in the episode, to the point where the following exchange occurs when Jimmy quits:
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Sheen: Hey, Carl. Gimme a clown in a hovercraft. |
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- Used occasionally in SpongeBob SquarePants.
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Bubble Bass: I'll take a double triple balty deluxe, on a raft, 4x4 animal style, extra shingles with the shimmy and a squeeze, light axle grease, make it cry, burn it, and let it swim. |
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- As it turns out, this is actual terminology
- Spongebob himself seems to have his own terminology, shouting out such things as "One Crying Johnny!" and "A dozen crying cows on a farm!" in the same episode.
- Doug takes this trope to the extreme in the pilot when Doug tries to order from the Honker Burger for the first time, and the cashier doesn't even understand the real names for the menu items:
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Doug: Hi, I'd like three hamburgers, one no pickles, one no onions, one fish sandwich, four fries, and four grape sodas. |
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- Just like the aforementioned movie, The Emperors New School contains surprisingly little of this, but when it does it's extremely funny. Kuzco even throws Mata, the lunch lady, into the dungeon (due to his made up school rules) because she spoke hash lingo not even she herself understood.
Real Life
- Truth in Television: So many drinks. Does anyone ever actually not know what "on the rocks" means?
- It means "with ice", doesn't it?
- Or actual rocks. A lot of people object to diluting high quality drinks, but need a cooling system.
- It means "with ice", doesn't it?
- See also the Other Wiki, here. Usually not quite as esoteric as what shows up in fiction (particularly comedy), but these gags have to start somewhere.
- The Canadian comedy group Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie was named after one of these. It was the slang for a triple hamburger to go at the restaurant where they first met.
- In-N-Out Burger has a "secret menu", items not normally listed which can be ordered if you know the right lingo, for example, "Protein Style" means a burger wrapped in lettuce rather than on a bun. A full list can be found here.
- "Animal style" means "with chopped onions" - Like most of these we don't really know the origin.
- There is a reason this is associated with roadside diners; unlike places in towns or cities where the staff turnover would be relatively high, diners located on long interstates would tend to keep the same staff for many years. After a decade of operating a place, every possible order can be an in-joke that the entire staff would be privy to.
- An interesting variation: Moe's Southwest Grill names all the items on their menu after obscure (and sometimes garbled) movie references; you can walk in and order a Joey Bag of Donuts,[1] a Billy Barou, and a Band Camp.
"Adam and Eve on a raft and sink 'em!"
- ↑ which is a burrito, not a bag of donuts