For anyone paying close attention to pop culture, clichés become comical after a while, or begin to sound like "white noise." Filler. Shibboleths and code words. Bromides. Jargon. In some cases, SNAFU-turned-FUBAR. Can we "clear the cache" a little, or will we be stuck "kicking the can down the road" for the rest of our lives?
The following are buzzwords, phrases and "ideas" that seem to have reached the height of popularity in 2012; most were already jaded years ago, but "talking heads" and "regular Joes" persist in mouthing them as fillers or "hot button talking points," if nothing else. On the other hand, sometimes when you "think outside the box" you might find yourself "opening a Pandora's Box," and if that happens, God knows what else might flutter into the air . . .
Feel free to add your "two cents . . ." And: I challenge anyone who's missed some of these "gems" and "bad pennies" to listen for them, either out among "the people" or while absorbing some kind of media saturation (billboards, TV, radio, internet, etc.), and not just within the so-called "Mainstream Media (MSM)." "Can you hear me now?"
At the end of the day
Best practices
Catch 20-20 [this one's kind of funny -- an unintentional "rebooting" of Catch-22]
Clear path to [whatever the supposed goal is]
Data-driven
Energy independence
Enjoy the day [delivered like an order from Ann Romney, as with her "stop it!"]
Fiscal cliff
Game changer
Going forward
Going viral
Greatest Generation
I will not apologize for [whatever it is]
Job creators
Job-killing regulations
Mainstream media (MSM)
Manage expectations
Perfect storm
Pivot
Reboot
Rebuild
Repurpose
Reset
Retool
The 99% the 1% the 47% the 53% (yadda yadda yadda)
The American People or the Syrian People or the [fill-in-the-blank] People [any population reduced in imagery to a single grand monolithic block, usually meaning "those on my side" not including those who challenge or oppose my way of thinking]
You're very welcome [I hate this one above all the rest]
What else you got?
Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune.
3 comments:
Here's a perfect example from a new item today. A Senate candidate in Maine strings together a sentence made of three clichés in a row: "At the *end of the day,* your responsibility is to *move forward.* That means working with people *on both sides of the aisle.*" Is there a real thought in there? You tell me . . . Source: http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20120922%2FNEWS%2F209220312%2F-1%2FNEWSMAP
Great job collecting and using so many of these "memes" (oh there's another one). I did my own collection of corporate cliches that went something like this: "to bring our value proposition to the table we must dot the i’s and cross the t’s and take a deep dive outside of the box to take it to the next level raise the bar close the gap and move the needle on the new normal navigating ambiguity so that we’re all on the same page onboarding low cost high impact sell and tell synergistic strategies of shared ownership sacrifice to socialize the message and institutionalize the paradigm shift..."
There's also "black swan," "pushing the envelope (which originally referred to test jet pilots)," "it is what it is," and my personal favorite corporate cliche: "negatively impacted" [meaning he/she has been fired].
WAS, merci ~ love it ~! Two more to toss into the ring -- "drink the Kool-aid" and "reset."
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