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Hoaxes of words used in the grunge subculture
Grunge speak was a hoax series of slang words purportedly connected to the subculture of grunge in Seattle, reported as fact in The New York Times in 1992. The collection of alleged slang words were coined by a record label worker in response to a journalist asking if grunge musicians and enthusiasts had their own slang terms, seeking to write a piece on the subject. They were essentially made up on the spot; there was no such vernacular among members of the grunge scene, and the terms that were published were merely a prank on the news industry's tendencies to seize upon trends.

The words later labelled "grunge speak" were coined by Megan Jasper, then aged 25 and working for Caroline Records. Jasper tested her interviewers' gullibility by supplying invented slang expressions of increasing ridiculousness. Marin's article, "Grunge: A Success Story", appeared in The New York Times on November 15, 1992, as a full page story in its Sunday "Styles" section. The article begins with an investigation on the origin of the term "grunge" and concludes with a summary of grunge music and fashion. Jasper's invented terms were published as a sidebar to Marin's story, titled "Lexicon of Grunge: Breaking the Code" and crediting Jasper for "this lexicon of grunge speak". The list was reprinted by the Ottawa Citizen in December. Thomas Frank was skeptical of the Times lexicon, and contacted Jasper, who "readily admitted" the fabrication, as Frank reported in the Winter–Spring 1993 issue of The Baffler. The Baffler story was picked up by news media, including Calvin Trillin's syndicated column. When the Times got back to Jasper, she initially denied Frank's claims, so the Times demanded an apology from Frank. Instead, he sent a letter standing by the story: "When The Newspaper of Record goes searching for the Next Big Thing and the Next Big Thing piddles on its leg, we think that's funny." He considered the article to be part of an attempt by mainstream culture to co opt the grunge scene and felt that the Times had gotten what it deserved. Jasper later ascribed her initial denial to a fear that Marin or "Styles" editor Penelope Green would be fired.

Daniel House, the head of C/Z Records commissioned Art Chantry to design a lexicon T shirt after people started wearing the sidebar from the article pinned to their shirts at grunge shows. Chantry's design featured "Lamestain" or "Harsh Realm" on the front, with an enlarged copy of the lexicon sidebar on the back. Harsh Realm was a 1994 comic book series by James D. Hudnall and Andrew Paquette, set in a future of multiple virtual realities, one of which was a dystopia called "Harsh Realm". In 1999 Chris Carter adapted the Harsh Realm comics into a television series of the same name. In Adam Warren's comic The Dirty Pair, the characters' futuristic slang includes "harsh realm" in the grunge speak sense. Bass guitarist Dave Brockie's stage persona in the band X Cops was "Ex Patrolman Cobb Knobbler". The 1996 documentary Hype! included Jasper's prank in its exploration of the early 1990s grunge scene.