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I have heard the following in the movie "Spieleabend":

Hatte ich schon auf mehreren Festivals dabei, bringt immer übelst Fun, und ist ganz gut , um sich kennenzulernen.

Context: a guy is talking about a game he is giving to a friend for a game night with the girl he's going out and her friends.

I thought "übel" meant "bad", but it seems to have a positive connotation here. I can't find it in DWDS or Word Reference. I suppose it is slang? Is it usual in informal language?

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It's noughties (2000-2010, see ngram) teenage slang and means "very". See https://de.wiktionary.org/wiki/übelst. It is widely understood, but it is marked as slang, so you would not find it in formal contexts.

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    It seems to be usual in many languages to use words that mean something bad for something good or as an intensifier in slang, e.g. "sick" and "fuc*ing" in English. So confusing for foreigners!
    – Alan Evangelista
    Commented Nov 15 at 13:54
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    It might be worth mentioning that only superlative übelst is used that way, while positive übel is not.
    – Jonathan Herrera ♦
    Commented Nov 15 at 14:00
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    @JonathanHerrera Well, no. "Übel gut" is just as fine.
    – tofro
    Commented Nov 15 at 14:40
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    @U.Windl language cant be ruined. If people use it people understand it and as such it fulfills the only purpose language has.
    – Yanick Salzmann
    Commented Nov 17 at 16:04
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    @AlanEvangelista I would like to (nitpicky, tongue-in-cheek) note that "fuc#ing" actually means something (if consensual) very good - it's seen (especially in the US) as a "bad word", but it doesn't really "mean something bad" ;)
    – Syndic
    Commented Nov 18 at 7:47
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Just to add and referring to the title question, that the negation „nicht übel“ has a positive connotation, i.e., it exceeds neutrality, in that something turns (surprisingly) out to be better than initially expected. This parallels the English "not bad", and similarly the French «C'est pas mal.»

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  • Please don't misuse answers for comments. There might be a reason, you have to earn some reputation to be allowed to comment, but it is not to make you use answers for comment. Aside from this, "nicht übel" wäre das Äquivalent zu "not bad", nicht "übelst".
    – user unknown
    Commented Nov 17 at 2:18
  • This was my first thought but of course, "übel" here is still "bad" because its negation is good.
    – Peter - Reinstate Monica
    Commented Nov 17 at 13:05
  • Fair enough, dear unknown @userunknown ; I would locate it at the threshold between comment and answer. Aside from this, you appear to confirm the equivalence of „nicht übel“, "not bad", and «pas mal», all sharing a sort of favour, thank you.
    – Hanno
    Commented Nov 17 at 14:49

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