This week he asked me what it means, and I didn't actually know. Though the history is consistent with how I use it. I'll just regurgitate what AI has to say about it:
"Buster Brown is a classic American comic strip character created in 1902 by Richard F. Outcault. Known for his wealthy background, bowl haircut and mischievous antics, the character and his dog Tige famously became the long-running mascot for the Brown Shoe Company."
Given that I didn't know this history, why, you might ask, is it a phrase I use?
AI again:
"'Buster Brown' is a piece of American slang used as a playful nickname or mildly condescending form of address (similar to "Chief" or "Pal")."
Ha, that's two synonyms I didn't include in my opening sentence of this post.
Continuing:
"It is often used casually to get someone's attention, sometimes with a teasing edge."
Okay it all checks out. I inherited it from my own elders I'm sure, because I sure as hell wasn't around in 1902. (Even my grandparents weren't around for a couple years yet in 1902.)
Why am I writing about this on a movie blog?
Well I thought the images of Buster Brown that came up when I googled were really interesting, and in one case, really eerie.
Like the kind you'd find in a horror movie.
Most are pretty innocuous. In the one I've included above, the dog looks pretty demented, but the kid just looks cheeky. Though I have to say, there's something unnatural about how he has one eye completely open and the other completely closed. The closure of the second eye should cause at least a partial sympathetic reaction from the first eye. But I'm not going to get stuck on that. For the most part this is innocent.
This one is even more innocent:
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