Podcast Summary

Slow Burn Presents: Decoder Ring | Mystery of the Mullet (Encore)

Date: December 4, 2024
Host: Willa Paskin
Episode Theme:
This episode of Decoder Ring dives deep into the cultural, linguistic, and historical “mystery of the mullet”—the infamous haircut that’s business in the front, party in the back. Beyond style, host Willa Paskin explores how the mullet became a symbol, how it earned its name, how cultural memory and language shape our view of the past, and just who, exactly, coined the term.

Main Episode Theme & Purpose

Purpose:
To unravel the enduring mystery surrounding the mullet hairstyle—how it evolved from stylish to reviled, what the word “mullet” really means, where it comes from, and how our perceptions of the past get distorted alongside it.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Mullet: Identity, Power, and Rebellion

• Lauren Wright, a modern-day mullet wearer (02:12):
  Describes her haircut as “short and tight on the sides, some solid length in the back… curly and luscious.”
• The mullet has signified rebellion, queerness, outsider status—and at various times, mainstream respectability and masculinity.
• “As someone who doesn't necessarily fit into traditional norms of beauty, this... I identify very much so with this haircut. It feels very powerful.” (Lauren Wright, 05:07)

2. The Rise and Fall of the Mullet’s Cool Factor

• Once ubiquitous among rock stars (David Bowie, Prince), athletes (NHL hockey players, especially Ron Duguay and Jaromír Jágr), and celebrities (Billy Ray Cyrus, Lionel Richie).
• By the late 1990s, became derided as “trashy,” “low class,” and a comedic symbol of being out-of-fashion—anchored in pop culture via movies like Joe Dirt (04:36).

3. The Lexical Mystery: When Did We Start Calling It “The Mullet”?

• Listener Oscar Sigvardsson’s quest (07:40):
  Triggered by the Oxford English Dictionary’s (OED) 2013 public appeal: they couldn’t find the term "mullet" for the hairstyle before 1994.
• This shocked many: the haircut seemed so 1980s, but the word didn’t exist in print then. Decade confusion was rampant.
• “Like, mullets are the most 80s thing you can imagine… but nobody used that word in the entire decade? Like, it can’t be.” (Oscar Sigvardsson, 08:22)

4. Searching for the Earliest “Mullet”

• Oscar and many others scoured archives; all found older uses referenced the fish, not the hairstyle.
• Discovery of Australian slang “hockeyfila” (hockey hair) and a 1993 Swedish song about the phenomenon.
• Oscar’s "Today I Learned" Reddit post (18:54) fueled a crowdsource hunt for older references.

5. The Great “Street Machine” Magazine Hoax

• A Reddit user (“topsmate”) claimed to find “mullet” in a 1991 issue of Street Machine—but this evidence later revealed as a forgery (see resolution below).
• OED and libraries scoured for the magazine, finding only later or altered copies—adding only confusion and more myth to the word’s origins (25:11–26:41).

6. OED & Slang: The Truth Emerges

• Catherine Connor Martin (OED) explains how the OED must verify print evidence to catalog a word’s first appearance (24:55).
• The first verifiable use is the Beastie Boys’ 1994 track “Mullet Head” and their 1995 Grand Royal magazine feature (27:11–28:52).
• “It’s entirely plausible that this word originated in Australian slang... but our only solid documentary evidence is from the Beastie Boys.” (Catherine Connor Martin, 26:41)

7. The Beastie Boys' Role—And Who REALLY Named It?

• The 1994 song “Mullet Head” and the 1995 Grand Royal magazine issue helped popularize and codify “mullet”—shifting public perception toward disdain and cementing the term in pop culture.
• Writers involved (notably Warren Fahey) say Mike D of the Beastie Boys coined the term intentionally as part of a plan to kill the hairstyle:
  • “He came up with the word mullet and said, this is what we’re going to do. We’re going to devote an issue to making that word stick... It was all quite intentional and completely planned by super genius Mike D.” (Warren Fahey, 40:14)
• There are conflicting reports among Beastie Boys’ collaborators and friends about which member first uttered it, but consensus is: the term came directly from the band, not from earlier subculture slang.

8. Language, Memory, and Confirmation Bias

• The false 1991 citation reveals the power of cultural myths and the desire for history to match intuition. Many want “mullet” to date to the ’80s because it feels right.
  • “It feels so much like the term ought to have existed before 1994… when evidence of it popped up, it was taken seriously... more seriously than it deserved.” (Willa Paskin, 38:20)
• Ultimately, the mullet is a “low stakes iteration of something that’s often not fun or low stakes: people’s warped but strongly held perceptions of the imagined past, and the lengths they’ll go to hold onto them.” (Willa Paskin, 39:16)

9. The Big Hoax Revealed

• Timestamps 34:19–37:47:
  “Topsmate,” the Reddit user, admits in a never-publicized Imgur gallery (titled "An Apology to the Oxford English Dictionary") he faked the evidence, Photoshopping the magazine for “points” in an online trolling club.
• Reflection on the harm of such fabrications in a post-truth world, and the seductive nature of online conspiracies and “fake proofs” (36:40).

10. Why Is the Mullet “Ugly”?

• The act of naming—especially the Beastie Boys naming and shaming—may have made the cut permanently uncool:
  • “If the Beastie Boys hadn’t named the mullet, doesn’t it seem entirely possible that we wouldn’t remember it so clearly? Some random hairdo with no agreed upon name? And if the name changed when we see it, couldn’t it also have changed how we see it?” (Willa Paskin, 44:08)
• The cultural memory fixated on the negative stereotype coined by the Beasties, rather than the previous, less stigmatized iterations.

11. Reclaiming the Mullet

• Despite the journeys and shaming, for wearers today (especially in queer and outsider or “uncool” circles), the mullet remains a potent symbol of pride and self-definition.
  • “For the people that really get it and appreciate it, it’s a powerful thing to have.” (Lauren Wright, 45:54)

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• “It’s a haircut that’s long and short, male and female both, and neither at the same time.”
  —Willa Paskin, (10:06–10:28)
• “We called it the Dugay, named after Ron Dugay because he had such a good flow... Guys permed it. I mean, they got perms of only their flow.”
  —John Warner, (13:07–13:43)
• “Australian English has a history of kind of punching above its weight when it comes to colloquial English... The word ‘selfie’ originated in Australian English... It’s entirely plausible that ‘mullet’ originated in Australian slang.”
  —Catherine Connor Martin, (26:41)
• “He came up with the word mullet and said, this is what we’re going to do... It was all quite intentional and completely planned by super genius Mike D.”
  —Warren Fahey, (40:14)
• “The mullet is a fun, low stakes iteration of something that is often not fun or low stakes at all: people’s warped but strongly held perceptions of the imagined past...”
  —Willa Paskin, (39:16)
• “Is it really an apology if you don’t deliver it?”
  —Willa Paskin, (37:47)

Important Segment Timestamps

• [02:12] — Introduction to Lauren Wright and the mullet’s power as a self-expression.
• [07:40] — Listener Oscar Sigvardsson’s linguistic sleuthing and the OED puzzle.
• [13:07–13:43] — 1980s hockey hair: “the Dugay” and “the flow.”
• [18:54] — Oscar’s “Today I Learned” post kicks off Internet crowdsourcing.
• [24:55] — OED’s rigorous process for verifying language’s first uses.
• [27:11] — Beastie Boys’ 1994 “Mullet Head” as the earliest confirmed use.
• [34:19–37:47] — The big reveal: the “Street Machine” evidence was faked.
• [44:08] — How naming and lampooning the mullet shaped cultural memory.

Conclusion:

Decoder Ring’s “Mystery of the Mullet” is a sly, thorough, and entertaining investigation of not just a haircut, but how our collective memory and language work hand-in-hand to shape reality. What begins as a quirky question—“Who named the mullet?”—unspools into a reflection on the nature of history, mythmaking, and why sometimes the things we’re certain are true just...aren’t.

For further cultural mysteries, email decoderring@slate.com.

End of summary.