Peter Fonda) explains to his cellmate lawyer (portrayed by Jack Nicholson) the definition of "dude": "Dude means nice guy; Dude means regular sort of person." Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad claims that drummer Don Brewer popularized the word dude with the song "We're an American Band" which was released in 1973. The usage of the word to mean a "cool person" was further popularized in American films of the 1980s and 1990s such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Wayne's World, and Clerks. The 1998 film The Big Lebowski featured Jeff Bridges as "The Dude", described as a "lazy deadbeat". The character was largely inspired by activist and producer Jeff Dowd who has been called "Dude" since childhood. The film's central character inspired the creation of Dudeism, a neoreligion. The 2000 film Dude, Where's My Car? uses the word in the title. In 2008, Bud Light aired an advertising campaign in which the dialogue consists entirely of different inflections of "Dude!" and does not mention the product by name. It was a followup to their near-identical and more widely noted "Whassup?" campaign. On July 23, 2019 Boris Johnson popularized the word "dude" as an acronym for his Conservative Party leadership campaign. In his leadership speech he explained it as referring to Deliver Brexit – Unite the country – Defeat Jeremy Corbyn – Energize the country. References Further reading Dude – By Kiesling, Scott F., Published in American Speech, Vol. 79, No. 3, Fall 2004, pp. 281–305 Dude, Where's My Dude? – Dudelicious Dissection, From Sontag to Spicoli, The New York Observer Words@random: "dude" Material for the Study of Dude – The etymological origin of the word "dude" by Barry Popik, David Shulman, and Gerald Cohen. Originally published in Comments on Etymology, October 1993, Vol. 23, No. 1 19th-century fashion 20th-century fashion Slang terms for men Stereotypes of urban people American slang