Ooh, friend!” “Frieeeend!” “Football friend!”
There was a certain period in the late 2000s when, if you happened to be a teenager in Great Britain, it felt like you couldn’t go 24 hours without hearing these words. Like the ubiquitous “Whassup?” Budweiser advert before it and the strangely permeating “Skibidi” that came long after (so popular it has now entered the Cambridge English Dictionary), this specific set of syllables, delivered in a mocking, high-pitched voice, seemed to somehow transcend its humble origins and become emblematic of an entire era.
