Using the word “pap”
Sometimes it sorta seems like Tucker was dropped out of some prior decade—or even a different century. His oratory style can feel campy and vaudevillian in a way that doesn’t seem entirely modern. Case in point, his use of the word “pap” during Tuesday’s broadcast—a word that I’d never heard any other human say except in reference to a “pap smear.” Indeed, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word “pap”—in addition to referencing a woman’s cervical test—also means a “bland soft or semi-liquid food such as that suitable for babies or invalids.” In Carlson’s use of this word, he was referencing American politicians’ way of speaking to the public. His unhinged diatribe reads as thus:
“Diversity is our strength! Trans women are women! Zelenskyy is Churchill! It’s all self-evidently true. It doesn’t need an explanation and don’t ask questions. Sound familiar? Of course it does. That’s the pap they’re serving us, day after day, in steaming, lumpy portions!”
Tuck, thanks for teaching me a new word, and for delivering to us all an unforgettably gross political metaphor!
