What Does Cuckoo Mean? Heartbreak High Confuses Everyone With Mystery Aussie Slang Word
Heartbreak High is sending audiences at home and overseas into a tizzy over a specific term that pops up frequently in the third and final season: cuckoo.
The beloved Aussie show has already introduced a bunch of slang words to global fans across its three-season run — from “eshay” to “munted”, “povvo” and “cooked” — but the latest batch of episodes, which landed on Netflix on Wednesday, has everyone (including this writer) scratching their heads once more.
So to educate both myself and those international fans, let’s consult the sacred text (Heartbreak High) to figure out what on earth a cuckoo is, shall we?
What does cuckoo mean in Heartbreak High season 3?
The term is used by the Heartbreak High crew in the sixth episode of season three, aptly titled “Cuckoo, B****es”.
Amerie (played by Ayesha Madon) suggests the gang throw a cuckoo in order to get dirt on new character Sebastian (William McKenna), who is one of the prime suspects in the new season’s central mystery about the carnival prank gone wrong.
It isn’t until new character Taz (Aki Munroe) asks Sasha (Gemma Chua-Tran) what a cuckoo is that we get a straight answer. In the Heartbreak High-verse, a cuckoo is essentially when a group of people raid someone’s house in order to throw a party. Like a gatho, but without the host’s consent.
In episode six, it’s Seb that is the recipient of the cuckoo, as the crew, led by agent of chaos Amerie, descend on his house after school as a front to gather evidence in order to nail Seb as the culprit behind the carnival ride mishap.
Is cuckoo an Aussie slang word?
The word is thrown around in the series as if it exists IRL, but before you go mulling over whether you were excluded from any cuckoos during your high school days, the cast has already revealed the term only exists in the context of the show.
When asked whether cuckoo is an Aussie slang term everyone had simply forgotten about, Thomas Weatherall, who plays Malakai, said “it was invented”.
“It was just an idea that someone came up with,” Weatherall told Yahoo!, adding that it “may be dangerous” if the term became a reality because no one enjoys a forcible house party.
Still, even Weatherall said he had to ask showrunners if a cuckoo is “a thing”, while Chloé Hayden, who plays Quinni, also admitted she’d “never heard of it”.
It’s welcome news for Heartbreak High fans who thought they’d officially aged out of the high schoolers’ current lingo (me), so at least we can all go forth with the new season knowing that cuckoo is a made-up term. Because for a while there, I was going a bit cuckoo myself.
As for whether we’ll be treated to more Heartbreak High slang beyond the final season, the cast told PEDESTRIAN.TV that they’d be on board for a spinoff movie if the opportunity ever arose.
“I always said three seasons and a movie,” Will McDonald teased. That hasn’t been confirmed, but if it is, you heard it from the eshay himself.
Heartbreak High season three is streaming on Netflix now.
Lead images: Netflix
