Variety (magazine) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
For much of its existence, Variety's writers and columnists have used a jargon called slanguage a.k.a. varietyese that refers especially to the movie industry, and has largely been adopted and imitated by other writers in the industry. Such terms as "boffo box-office biz," "sitcom," and "sex appeal" are attributed to the influence of the magazine, though its attempt to popularize "infobahn" as a synonym for "information superhighway" never caught on. Its most famous headline, "Sticks Nix Hick Pix" [1][2] was made popular—although the movie prop renders it as "Stix nix hix flix!"—by Michael Curtiz' musical-biopic Yankee Doodle Dandy where James Cagney is explaining it to some kids. Translated it means that rural audiences were not attending rural-themed films. Its headline after the stock market crash of 1929 is also famous: "Wall St. Lays An Egg". The popular 1990s animated series Animaniacs celebrated Variety's "slanguage" in a song called "Variety Speak."
Daily Variety's down-the-street competitor, The Hollywood Reporter, avoids showbizzy headlines in favor of a contemporary newspaper reporting style, and without drastically altering the English language. The papers have a long history of bad blood, but editorial talent migrates between them.
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