Let's not forget that a lot of slang (?) goes right back to the days of early jazz; even further, when you consider that addressing someone with whom you speak as 'man' is but a straight translation of the ubiquitous Spanish hombre used everywhere and every day in Spain, even by women referring to one another in all-female conversation. As, strangely enough, is the epìthet coño, a direct reference to an intimate part of their anatomy considered a bit OTT in most anglophone conversation, and a definite no-no in mixed company...
So really, some slang sticks - has the power and the just rightness, whereas some has not and is doomed to temporary currency.
Rob