It's jarring enough to hear Gen Z slang on television, but I s2g they're just making up words these days. The heck is a kook and a pogue on Outer Banks? If you've been living under a sand dune and are just now getting into Outer Banks, here's your guide to some of the terms on the Netflix show.
In short: the two words, which describe warring groups of teens in the OBX, are based on economic class. They aren't the first to do this. Veronica Mars called the rich kids the 09ers, because of the 90909 zip code. The Outsiders had the socs and the greasers. It's totally a thing!
On this show, it's also about who lives on the Outer Banks and who visits the island. You don't need to be from coastal North Carolina to understand this concept. People who live in beach towns or any kind of vacation spot all over the world know this struggle. Rich vacationers try to act like they own the place, but they're ultimately just tourists.
The "pogues" are the working class
No, they're not fans of the band who sings "Fairy Tales of New York," a.k.a. The Pogues. (The band's name comes from "póg," the Gaelic word for kiss.) On Outer Banks, the Pogues live near "The Cut" aka the bad side of town and include OG pogues: John B, JJ, Pope, etc,
This is not real OBX slang. In the show, the name comes from a kind of fish called a pogie. John B says early on in the series that it's the kind of fish you catch and release–worthless. It also works, though this is not officially part of the origin, because "pogue" sounds a little bit like poor.
Be careful how you use it IRL, tho! Apparently, "pogue" is also derogatory military slang for noncombatant troops that almost certainly has roots in hom*ophobia. Yiiiiikes!
The "kooks" are the upper crust
The teenagers on other side of the proverbial tracks are the kooks: Sarah Cameron, Kie, Rafe, and Topper. They're rich. They may act like they belong, but some may also only like on the island during the summer months and then move away when it gets cooler. However, Kie hangs out with the Pogues more and does not consider herself an official kook despite her family's background, while Sarah becomes a pogue later on in the series.
In surfing slang, a "kook" is a wannabe or a poser who can't hang with the real surfers. You can see how the Outer Banks writers borrowed that term for rich kids who wanna be beach locals but don't get it.
This term is more or less safe to use around non-OBX fans. It also just means an odd or eccentric person. It can mean "insane," which many people including myself have tried to stop saying in order to help de-stigmatize mental illness–but that's up to you! It's not a slur, just, like... a preference.
