WHICH PHRASE ARE YOU SICK OF....?

Man, I hate it when people say "Just kidding" when they're wrong about something.

No, you weren't kidding. You were fuckin wrong! And you're a fuckin idiot for trying to say you were just kidding...

 

Step up. That one's been dead since I wrote prep sports 12 years ago.
National Football League. Is it in the network contract that no announcer can say "NFL", that they all have to say "National Football League" every damn time? Hate, hate, hate that.

 

"Big Ben" Roethlisberger (I'm getting pissed just typing it). If you live in the Pittsburgh area, I'm sure you'd agree.

 

I wanna give you a "heads-up". Please don't.

I've seen a few stories lately that have included the phrase "shot up" ... as in, "the apartment was shot up last weekend." Please don't do that again.

 

This one's been spreading like crazy over the last year and a half:

"It is what it is"

I guess everyone's been co-opting Popeye's phrase. I just hear it too damn much on all the talk shows. It seems to be the catchphrase in vogue when a commentator just doesn't feel like explaining something or someone.

I think it actually started with Todd Bertuzzi talking about his first game back in Denver after he injured the Avs player. I remember in the post-game presser, he said "It is what it is" about 100 times. After that, I kept hearing it all over the media.

 

"Politically correct" as a codeword for defending racist/homophobic/sexist comments.

Corporate weaselwords and phrases of all kinds. For example,

Recontextualized, this negative outcome has an upside. We have value-added in terms of partnerships with many of our stakeholders, networked with discussants and drilled down to some core issues of contemporary communication. We thank you for inputting. You have been nothing less than the key indicators in our goal-matrix.

 

Not to mention the phrase is just a cop-out.

 

"Think outside the box" and "multi-tasking" are corporate buzzwords that probably originated at the same human resources seminar in 1993. I despise both. Actually when someone uses the phrase "think outside the box" I usually write them off as completely unimaginative.

 

"Git 'er done" was bad the first time I heard it.

"Hang in there." Fuck that. I'm tried of being the one to have to fucking hang in there while the world goes on around me.

"I'm praying for you." Well, it's not working, so try something else.

In interviews:

"It was a team effort." No it wasn't; if it was, I wouldn't be talking to you.

"Play within ourselves." Whaaaa...??

"Take it one game at a time." Bullshit. You're thinking about the next game same as I am.

 

(fill in the blank) Nation.
Red Sox Nation. Raider Nation, etc. They're all worn out and stupid.

 

Painful rectal itch.

 

More corporate bafflegab.

If you google the phrase "Exceed our customers' expectations" you get over 90,000 hits.

Speaking of which, do companies still do "Mission Statements"

I remember the Globe & Mail about 10 years ago (or maybe longer) hired a new publisher--I think he was from the packaged goods biz or something. Spent something like the first six months putting together a mission statement. Then he got canned.