Herb’s Blog, Herbdate 22341 – 807:
Here’s the haps:
There are some words and phrases which have figuratively been used to death. Epic and Awesome are two words that are just so abused anymore that they really don’t have any meaning. When I heard this snippet of conversation, “Dude! It was so totes epically awesome! He literally killed himself on that last jump,” I figured out what my “E” post was going to be about. I am really weary of hearing how something was either “awesome” or “epic.” There are many other words and phrases and spellings that irritate me and literally crack me up. Wait. What? I literally go insane when someone uses literally when they mean figuratively or metaphorically.
Irregardless of the fact that a word may have been used in a certain way for two hundred years, the “ir-” prefix is a useless intensifier, regardless of how many people use it. Just say, “regardless.” E.g. (not i.e.), “Regardless of your feeling on the matter, Herb, I am going to use irregardless, just to see if you literally go insane.” Well, maybe I will literally go totes cray-cray. I thought a tote was a large handbag or type of duffel. And what is it with saying “cray-cray.” Just say crazy. Both have the same number of syllables and if you say “crazy” you won’t sound like an idiot. What’s that? You could care less what I think? Well, good because I couldn’t care less what your lame excuse is for abusing a harmless word.
I do laugh, sometimes out loud, when I hear someone say, “I was thinking in my mind the other day…” as opposed to where? Your liver? Too often I think with my stomach, so maybe I should give a pass on this one.
While pondering which phrases to blog about and which one to pass for now and save for another time one of the ones that have really gotten old is Keep Calm and… I did not know that the “Keep Calm and Carry On” posters were originally created by the British government in WWII with the intent of posting them everywhere. At the last minute, they were worried if the people would approve of them while at the same time a paper shortage started. 2.5 million posters that had already been printed up were pulped and recycled. One was discovered in a second-hand bookstore in 2000 and the store began getting requests for copies. A photo of the original:
Finding that was probably awesome sauce! What a totes epic day of shopping! I’m sure it didn’t take them long to think in their mind that they need to run to the nearest Automated Teller Machine machine and enter their Personal Identification Number number.
I feel better now. I guess I’ll just have to take for granite peoples bad grammar pacifically when there thinking in they’re head that its supposably okay to say, “For all intensive purposes
Remember, the good book says, If you don’t think grammar and punctuation are important, try dropping the comma from, “I’m sorry, I love you.”
Edit/Add: I want to be clear that I am not trying to mock anyone who has trouble with English or is not a native speaker of English. I can’t imagine trying to learn English and I applaud anyone who does.
Love the challenge. I reckon y’all could add ‘Literally’ to your portfolio of abused words
Oh, you can be sure to know it’s in there. Literally.
Thing is, isn’t Epic Alley a walk through, just off the market in Great Yarmouth, UK, a gap between Greggs and WHSmith leading down to the Quaker Meeting House? 😉
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.6074851,1.7270181,3a,60y,227.63h,90.41t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sHmFYVqbzpbhMOjofVbpNWw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
That could be. Interesting photo. I’ve never been to the UK, yet. Is this some place I need to add to my itinerary if the chance arises?
It has some qualities, if you like flat land reclaimed from the sea and traditional 🍿 chips and ice cream 🍦 style cheap British seaside resorts with a fairground. 🎢 The Norfolk Broads aren’t too far away, if you like sailing… ⛵️ 🛶 and there’s some windmills.
I can’t think of any word I dislike too much. Most of the oft repeated words died out pretty fast, e.g. cool, etc. I have an over-riding rule (my own) for punctuation: if it helps clarify the meaning then use it.
I agree on punctuation. Some words come back, though. I heard a young person say something was “groovy” the other day.
Groovy is such an uncool word – it must not come back!!
Perhaps we can prevent it. If we could that would be far out.
Choice.
gnarly, dude.
Fab.
Yeah, it’s the bee’s knees.
You win, like.
Like, cool, man.
Dude, that’s kinda like tots epic, Bro. Literally.
🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂
“Regardless of your feeling on the matter, Herb, I am going to use irregardless, just to see if you literally go insane.” 😂🤣 LOL. That’s so funny. And “I’m sorry, I love you.” LOL. A little comma makes such a difference–from relationship-ending to relationship-boosting.
I love the comma things. Like, let’s eat, Grandma versus Let’s eat Grandma.
🤣😂
What a great post. All these bits you mentioned, they can be put into a character as the dufus in the story. I love it. If only I wrote present day novels.
I have a feeling There have been dufuses (dufii?) for a very long time.
Hehee. That’s how my husband would pluralize ‘dufus’ too!
All of my grandkids use the deeply uncool ‘cool’ – I’ve no idea where they got it from…
lol.
I agree with you! I wrote a post a few years ago about phrases that annoyed me – it included ‘Jaw Dropping’, ‘To Die for’ and ‘Insanely Gorgeous’.
That’s funny but you’re right, some phrases do need a rest. Insanely gorgeous is a real hoot.
I loved this post because I agreed with EVERYTHING you said. “Awesome” has been bothering me for a long time. I think it’s almost two decades now! The bit about the poster’s origin was interesting and is touching.
“Awesome” is one of the worst, for sure.
How nice that’s epically awesome sauce! Literally
It totally rocks!
Dude you are sooo Rightious! this is the most epically awesome post my liver has ever seen. It litterelly gagged me with a chainsaw to hear all those un-gnarly over used words. a truly Fab post To be sure.
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Laugh and brighten your heart
This is, like, so totally epically awesomely bad. Meaning good.
That’s neat-o! Thanks man.