Cliches, Annoying Cliches and Even More Annoying Cliches

    In his prophetic masterpiece 1984, George Orwell created newspeak, a language “whose vocabulary gets smaller every year.”

    I started out thinking I had a fairly original idea for an article, “cliches and the ones overused the most,” but then I started researching and discovered that the topic itself has become somewhat of a cliche and overused. There are thousands of articles, essays, op-ed pieces on the cliche, so I figured… what’s one more?

    I first became aware of cliches in my teenage years when I kept noticing “you know?” creeping into what seemed like every other sentence. Being a more than casual observer of speech patterns, accents and verbalese, I was struck by the widespread overuse of this seemingly innocent phrase. This was during the late 60’s, early 70’s, and for those of you who “came of age” during that tumultous era, I don’t have to tell you that occasionally, mind-altering substances were frequently in attendance. At first, I made the assumption that these substances were a contributing factor to the “you know” thing. After all, my generation had pretty much incorporated “man” into, if not accepted usage, at least we’d submitted it for serious consideration. And it appeared to me that “you know” had passed “man” in widespread usage, and it wasn’t even close, you know?

    But then, as I grew older and (ahem) wiser, I noticed an interesting development with the “you know.” It was evolving, (or devolving, who knows?) and had begun being used with the add-on, “what I’m saying?” (It also frequently had the tag “man” after all that, but let’s not further complicate this, you know what I’m saying, man?) And, in an all-too-rare moment of enlightenment, aka epiphany, it dawned on me that what the “user” was actually saying was, “I don’t know what I’m saying so I hope you’ll know.” What other explanation could there be?….. You know what I’m saying?

    Anyway, I’ve come up with several cliches that I feel are waaaaay overused in everyday comings and goings, whether they be in sports, politics, commentary or what have you. I’ve also thrown in a few things, not necessarily cliches, but behaviors or routines I’ve noticed that basically just annoy the crap out of me. (Like there’s a huge demand for another list of those.)

    We’ll start with sports, since it’s long been the breeding ground for the overused cliche or metaphor. Well, now that I think about it, a more correct metaphor would be “graveyard”, since sports broadcasts are pretty much the end of the line for a cliche. Regardless, first up is “He always gives 110%.” This should be fairly obvious as to why it’s included. This is almost always applied to an athlete whos’ natural skills aren’t overwhelming, but who can be counted on to run through a wall if needed. “He brought his ‘A’ game today.” This one’s always puzzled me. I was always under the assumption that almost all athletes, especially professional, ALWAYS “came to play.” Maybe I’ve been mistaken. “There’s no ‘I’ in team.” This one should be banned from use in every locker room and sideline after Little League. “You can’t teach that.” Usually refers to a play made purely by instinct or superhuman effort. I guess I could live with this one, just not excessively. Any word that requires a “-wise” after it. “Skills-wise”, “Situation-wise”, “Effort-wise.” I’m certain James J. Kilpatrick would agree. “Cowboy/Pony/Man-Up.” Not sure where this originated but it needs to go back. “Any given Sunday.” It was kinda cool when it first came out, sort of in a “Frozen Tundra” way, but when the players start using it…. Players (almost always in football and basketball, baseball’s too cool for this, and soccer’s… well it’s soccer) who treat a simple tackle or sack or a dunk as if they just A: won the lottery, B: discovered a cure for cancer or C: just learned Jessica Alba has a crush on them. Seriously, it’s one of the oldest “rules” in all of sports: ACT LIKE YOU’VE BEEN THERE BEFORE! Using an interview to credit your Deity of Choice for your success. I have nothing against a person’s PERSONAL religious choice, but it’s called “PERSONAL” for a reason. And was it George Carlin (or maybe Bobby Knight ?) who said “God’s not gonna fly through the roof and block a shot.”