Which catchphrases should be "thrown under the bus"?

[BridgeTheGap]

Notes on Catch
Which catchphrases should be "thrown under the bus"?
By Ron Rosenbaum

When Susan Sontag wrote "Notes on 'Camp' " back in 1964, she was foregrounding—to use a current catchphrase—something familiar but not yet defined.

"Many things in the world have not been named," her famous essay began, "and many things even if they have been named, have never been described. One of these is the sensibility—unmistakably modern, a variant of sophistication but hardly identical with it—that goes by the cult name of 'Camp.' "

I would choose nearly identical words to describe the phenomenon, the linguistic sensibility, that I'd name "catch": the way our language has become increasingly dominated by rapidly cycling catchphrases. Rapidly cycling because in blogospheric time, they speed from clever witticism to tired cliché in the virtual blink of an eye.

Look how long it took "jump the shark" to jump the shark. But "under the bus"—as in, "throwing someone under the bus"—got old from overuse in a matter of weeks.

I present these "Notes on Catch" in a Sontagian spirit: My thoughts thus far are preliminary, fragmentary, and digressive (some might say disjointed). I'm hunting for clues as to what makes a catchphrase catch on and which ones deserve to be cast aside. And I'd like to make distinctions among the welter of catchphrases in use today, to identify variations and to distinguish the ones that still have some life in them from those that are "past their sell-by date," as the catchphrase has it, and need to be thrown under the bus along with "thrown under the bus."

http://www.slate.com/id/2194425/?GT1=38001

[DS1]

1. How's that working out for you

which is only ever asked when the reply is negative.

[Phillycat]

7. Well, yeah. Dr Phil started that one.

:puke:

[SteppingRazor]

2. "Go there." or the negative variant "Don't go there." Also, in terms of journalism...

"some say," "The American people have the right to ask...," or any other weaselly qualifier.

[Mr. Blonde]

3. I hate "at the end of the day"

I wish someone would at least mix it up and say "in the morning"

[stuntcat]

33. ugh

I can usually ignore this one, but I read this thread this morning and then just now heard an interview with a woman who said AT THE END OF THE DAY like 4 or 5 times :*

[Tommy_Carcetti]

4. Meme

I hate, hate, hate that word with a passion. It sounds like something a baby would babble.

[femmocrat]

12. I hate that word too. I never use it.

I don't even know how to pronounce it, as I have only seen it in print.

[TZ]

25. like gene...

Richard Dawkins, the biologist, actually kind of is the originator.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

30. So why isn't it spelled "Meem"?

I would think that would be the more logical way to go about it.

[TZ]

32. Here's the explanation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme

[femmocrat]

5. "brand" as in "the Clinton brand", etc.....

Yesterday I heard "the Obama brand".

I never heard that word used in that way before this year's primaries. It's time to retire it.

[TZ]

6. Think outside the box

and it is what it is, both something I hear alot in meetings...:eyes:

[stuntcat]

15. that box x(

I can't take anyone seriously after they've said that box crap x( It must be hard to resist the eye-rolling at your meetings.

[TZ]

17. resist?

I have perfected the art of the covert eye roll...

[NJmaverick]

8. Here are a few

tax and spend liberal

the gay/homosexual agenda

right to life

[Phillycat]

9. "Netroots".

Where the fuck did that one come from? All of a sudden, everyone was using at, as if it were a real word, WHICH IT ISN'T. GOD DAMMIT.

[bicentennial_baby]

10. Agreed!

:applause:

[DS1]

11. Computer hardware/software sales morons.

Go back to door to door vacuums, dickface. You don't know shit, get out of the tech industry, but for the love of God, don't try to make a sale with me on the phone walking you through the entire process day after day. And THEN ask for a commission.

Open your web browser
How do I do that?

Go to (insert site)
How do I do that?

Click login
How do I do that?

Burn your computer and send me the wreckage.

[skygazer]

13. Moving forward

On the same page
Each and every (we have an obnoxious executive who uses that one each and every time he opens his mouth :eyes: )

[Sheets of Easter]

16. Moving forward= pretentious business speak for "from now on."

That's a personal peeve of mine as well.

[groovedaddy]

14. Veterans Long to Reclaim the Name ‘Swift Boat’

Years ago, when William Miller talked about being in the Vietnam War — if he talked about being in the Vietnam War — he would tell people he served on a Swift boat.

At least now they have heard of it. But not in the way he would like.

“I was proud of what I did, and all the guys I was with,” Mr. Miller said. “Now somebody says ‘Swift boat’ and it’s a whole different meaning. They don’t associate it with the guys we lost. That’s a shame.”

“Swift boat” has become the synonym for the nastiest of campaign smears, a shadow that hangs over the presidential race as pundits wait to proclaim that the Swiftboating has begun and candidates declare that they will not be Swiftboated.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/us/politics/30swift.html?th&emc=th

[QueenOfCalifornia]

18. "You go girl"

and "Talk to the hand"

[Tommy_Carcetti]

19. "It is what it is"

Perhaps because a guy I worked with at my old crappy job would always say that incessantly and whenever I hear that, it reminds me of my old workplace. Bleech.

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

20. My sister always says that, and she knows it drives me NUTS

Oh well. It is what...oops...

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

21. _______________________ much?"

I HATE HATE HATE THAT!! "Jealous much?" "Wax much?" ARRRGGGGHHH!

[groovedaddy]

23. "It's the ____________ stupid!"

and it's still the "economy, stupid!"

[Z_I_Peevey]

22. "That being said," blah blah blah.

I trace that one back to the odious Allison on Big Brother.

[TZ]

24. "______-gate"

Sorry, that diminishes the importance of the Watergate scandal, IMO.

[YankeyMCC]

26. "God willing."

sorry to the theists I just get annoyed with people who put the responsibility or consequences on someone/thing else when it should be squarely on their own shoulders. Regards even of the argument of the existence of god, even if gods exists stop putting the burden or responsibly on that and take it yourself - is what I usually feel like saying to people who like to use that phrase often.

[madinmaryland]

27. Any phrase that involves the word "paradigm"

:grr:

[Danger Mouse]

28. 'speak truth to power' i fucking hate.

also 'hold their feet to the fire'.

[JuniperLea]

29. FAIL

And Epic Fail... ugh.

[BridgeTheGap]

31. "Throw them under the bus" when they're "caught with they're pants down." n.t