Martin Scorsese has put his knowledge of internet slang to the test in a new TikTok challenge posted by none other than his daughter, Francesca Scorsese.
In a TikTok posted by Francesca on Thursday 5 October, the father-daughter duo appeared on camera while the legendary director’s daughter explained that she was going to quiz him on popular internet slang. “I’m going to ask you to guess what specific slang terms mean,” Francesca told her father, 80.
“You’re going to tell me the slang word and I have to give you what I think it means,” Scorsese chimed in, in classic style.
The first - and arguably most important - internet slang word that Francesca quizzed her father on was “tea”, as she gave the example: “I’m going to spill the tea.”
The Killers of the Flower Moon director shouted out his answer: “That means you’re gonna tell all you know.”
Francesca’s face then lit up with shock after her father guessed the internet slang term somewhat correctly, and a green check mark emoji appeared over their heads.
The next term she gave her father was “ick” and added the example: “He clapped when the plane landed and that gave me the ick.”
“You were thoroughly repulsed by it,” Scorsese answered correctly, causing his daughter to burst out in laughter.
The third slang was “sneaky link” - a term used when someone is going to discreetly meet up with their romantic interest. “These are our personal peccadillos that you may have,” he said. “Things that you don’t want other people to know about, or just people close to you or something like that.”
When Francesca explained to her father that the term “sneaky link” is similar to a “booty call”, the Goodfellas director’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Oh, really? We never use that, we never saw specific people in my day,” he replied, before curtly asking his daughter in his signature Italian-American accent: “What else you got?”
For the phrase “hits different”, his daughter fittingly used a film reference to explain what the term means to her dad. “Watching a movie in 70 mm film hits different,” she said.
“It’s an easy one. You perceive it in a totally different way,” Scorsese responded. “It’s another perspective of the image, so to speak, and the effect the film has on the audience.”
“Like, it’s much better,” she corrected. “Hits different, like: ‘Oh, this is amazing.”
While the Wolf of Wall Street director answered the term “slept on” incorrectly, his reasoning for the definition wasn’t totally inaccurate. “I was thinking about some stuff so I slept on it,” Scorsese said. However, Francesca then used the slang word in terms that only Scorsese could understand.
“King of Comedy was slept on,” she added, referring to her father’s 1983 film starring Robert De Niro. The King of Comedy received mostly positive reviews from critics when it was released, but it was a flop at the box office.
“People hated it when it came out,” he corrected himself, before turning his gaze towards the camera. “It was the flop of the year, that’s what it was called on Entertainment Tonight, New Year’s Eve ‘83 to ‘84. It’s okay, it’s alright.”
The father-daughter duo continued on with the term “ate”, as Francesca used an example from Scorsese’s upcoming film: “Lily Gladstone ate in Killers of the Flower Moon.” Although he took the term “ate” very literally by initially saying, “Consumed the screen”, Scorsese eventually came up with the simple answer: “Ruled.”
For the slang term “no cap”, Scorsese instantly answered it correctly as “no lying”. However, he then asked his daughter in classic dad fashion: “How many more of these?”
When it came to the internet slang “ship”, the Taxi Driver director wasted no time in replying: “A ship is a boat.” Francesca aided her father with the example, “I ship you and mom,” but he still didn’t seem to understand the phrase. “Take us around somewhere?”
The next term was “simp” - meaning someone who displays excessive affection in a relationship - but Scorsese decided to come up with his own definition: “Sympathise, a simpy person. A person who’s whining all the time, they’re simps.”
“Simp used to mean a wimpy person, a person who’s always complaining and stuff like that,” he added. “I do that a lot, complain a lot.”
For the term “throw shade”, Scorsese immediately understood what it meant after his daughter gave the film-themed example: “That critic threw so much shade.” He was also quick to answer the slang “slaps” when Francesca said: “This dessert slaps.”
“Obviously, it’s good,” he replied.
The final internet slang Francesca gave her famous father was none other than the term, “slay”.
“This video slays. We slayed in this video” she gave the example, as the Gangs of New York director answered: “That means it’s really good?”
Since it was posted on Thursday, Francesca’s video of her father guessing popular slang terms has been viewed one million times on TikTok. Not only were people in the comments section shocked to see the legendary director on their screens, but they were also stunned that he managed to guess many of the terms correctly.
“Can’t believe we live in a world where I get to watch Martin Scorsese become familiar with the term sneaky link. Blessings,” read one comment.
“I cannot believe I exist in a timeline where I can watch Martin Scorsese film TikToks,” another said.
“I can’t believe I’m watching one of the greatest filmmakers of our lifetime be quizzed by his daughter about teen slang lol,” a third user wrote, while someone else said: “Gonna describe sneaky links as personal picadillos from now on.”
This isn’t the first time Scorsese has made a special appearance in one of his daughter’s TikTok videos. In April 2021, Francesca went viral when she asked her father to identify “feminine products”, such as an eyelash curler, bobby pins, a hair donut and nipple pasties.
