Name: Succession: Say What You Mean
Uploaded: 2026-02-05T17:01:37.000Z
Duration: 8 min 31 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Would you like this meeting to be on background?

So I rewatched both seasons of Succession with the intention of doing a video on the hilariously weird poetry in the show's dialogue.

You know, stuff like what up prick licks?

I'm a ding dong doodlebug dipshit with a titmouse dick and my dad hates all of you.

And while there is plenty of majestically profane wordplay to celebrate watching the show all in one sitting like that, I couldn't help but recognize some deeper themes also to do with language and speech.

And that kept popping up again and again.

What I found was that Succession is an extended exploration of this statement, but

in the form of a question the show wants to know.

Are words just nothing gusts of complicated airflow that you can't really use to understand who someone is or what they mean?

Succession is packed with examples of words that have absolutely no meaning at all.

I don't at this time recall anything that at that time would have caused me any real concern.

Lester was a man, and when a man dies, it is sad.

In this case, it is Lester who has done so.

These are words designed to be empty so that they can fulfill the act of communicating when saying something is required or without making the speaker responsible for content.

You hear this kind of stuff a lot in politics and business.

Sometimes it's necessary to be cagey, since statements from powerful people can affect the world.

Other times, jargon is just rapping on bullshit.

Family ownership and corporate continuity in the digital age, whatever the fuck that means.

All these nothing words are a form of insincerity.

And in this show, this world, this family, insincerity is the rule, not the exception.

That doesn't mean all words are empty, only that for the most part, words have a very flimsy relationship to their literal meaning.

I'm thankful for all the love Roman has shown to me and for never being selfish or self centered or egocentric or neurotic or unfaithful.

For Logan Roy and his family, words are just the thinnest top layer of communication, concealing an ocean of fear, feelings, motives and other things that can't be said aloud.

Sarcasm at Thanksgiving is par for the course.

And that's only one of many ways people can mean the opposite of what they say.

I just came to say how sorry I was to hear about your dad.

Well, it's so kind of you to do it in person when you could have just called.

This undercurrent is something the characters, especially Logan's three children, have learned to be hyper sensitive to.

If it's not sarcasm, it must be disguising a hidden motive.

I think you're a super talented superstar and I. I love you.

It makes sense that Kendall, Roman and Shiv are so guarded, the biggest presence in their lives.

Their father is lying to them all the time.

When you say the thing that's not, that's a lie.

Logan lies with abandon and as a result has created an atmosphere of stifling paranoia.

I think it is possible that you have sometimes somewhat chilled the atmosphere of free flowing debate.

Words to him are just tools to gain advantage and they can be discarded as easily as they're said.

Take away this cold utility and words become meaningless and confusing to him.

This profoundly cynical outlook is the result of living in a world in which words have only temporary meaning.

If you can lie to someone like that to their face.

I mean, I know you're lying, but I still find you very plausible and appealing.

The most extreme form of this is gaslighting.

Giving words meaning, then violently ripping that meaning away.

But the thing about me is that I'm a terrible, terrible prick.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Succession: Say What You Mean

stuff

content

genuinely

plenty