JulieM (asker) Jul 4, 2012:

Question closed without grading... ... because the best answer seems to me to be Tony's. Thanks everybody

Tony M Apr 24, 2012:

@ F-X Yes, but this is street language, and the rules of grammar don't apply, or only shakily...

I'm just not convinced that 'rule OK?' sits very well with 'sea of young ladies'; in any case, there would often be a tendency in EN to treat the young ladies as plural, sea or not (we've had discussions before about singular or plural with collective nouns) — I rather see it as being the list of whatnots that is being lumped together as a single entity describing a certain fashion (?) style.

FX Fraipont (X) Apr 24, 2012:

@Tony Not in the examples I've found:
Actual Examples:
Dandys Rule, OK?
KC RULES OK

Parodies:
Heisenberg probably Rules, OK?
James Bond rules, OOK?
Dyslexics lure, KO.
Potassium Ethoxide rules C2H5OK
Dandys Rule OK - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dandys_Rule_OK
Dandys Rule OK is the debut studio album by American alternative rock band The Dandy Warhols. It was released on 6 April 1995 on Tim/Kerr Records.
The Goodies Rule – O.K.? - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goodies_Rule_–_O.K.%3F
"The Goodies Rule OK" — Robert Ross, Carlton Books Ltd, Sydney, 2006; "From Fringe to Flying Circus — 'Celebrating a Unique Generation of Comedy ...

Tony M Apr 24, 2012:

Young ladies... (or 'laides' as I originally mistyped it!)

I'm not sure they're included in the 'de rigueur' bit. I read it as something like this:

"Looking down on the crowd, I am seeing scantily clad young ladies, in a room where [all this trash] rules ok!?"

Just one way of looking at it, but I think it holds water...

Tony M Apr 24, 2012:

Singular Because it's a set expression, and is always in the singular: Queen rules OK!
Tottenham Hotspur rules OK! Dyslexia lures OK!

FX Fraipont (X) Apr 24, 2012:

Rules OK! http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Rules, OK?

I saw it the way Tony does, but then there is a problem : why is "rules" in the singular, since it is supposed to apply to all the paraphernalia?

JulieM (asker) Apr 24, 2012:

Thanks Tony... ... I (almost) get it. If I understand your explanation, young ladies, shoes, wigs, weaves and whatchamacallit are all part of a listing of things that are "de rigueur"? And that's all, no verb then?

Tony M Apr 24, 2012:

My interpretation... I think the 'rules OK?' (traditional UK graffiti tag line) applies to the whole of the foregoing list (which is left otherwise without a verb):

"fashionable platform shoes and made-in-Bombay, mail-order human hair wigs, weaves and whatchamacallit rules, ok?"

And 'human hair wigs' (only) is qualified by both 'mail-order' and 'made-in-Bombay'

So 'rules OK?' is something like 'de rigueur' in a humorous sense — everyone is wearing the same kind of things, or at least, these things sum up in a nutshell the general fashion style of the gathering...

BTW, I don't think it's specifically S.A. slang — this sounds very familiar to me in the UK too.

'X rules, OK?' is the type of expression I grew up with in the '60s, and is a sort of 'street' way of saying something like 'vive X !' — but in your context, it is being used differently, a bit of a 'play on words', really as if it meant just 'rules' or 'is the rule'; the idea is perhaps a bit like the notion of 'régnant'.