Does "Drink the Kool-Aid" Lack Punch?

compound complex

Hey Dudes and Dudettes,

Does the overuse of catchphrases make you want to throw something or someone under the bus?

I'm on the bubble about I just threw up a little in my ...

My bad! Behave!

CoCo Cuts to teh Chase

Below - excerpt by Ron Rosenbaum:

I don't mean this to be an exhaustive study, just notes. But I hope that it
will start a conversation about how to decide when a phrase should be thrown
under the bus.

Here are some I'm on the bubble about, as they say, because they have some
virtues that make up for the feeling they've been overused. Or maybe there's
a good reason they get overused. I'd be interested to see which ones Slate
readers would want to preserve or make disappear. Gawker has "commenter
executions." I'd like to see occasional Slate "Phrase Purges," "Bus Tosses,"
or something like that, so we can identify at what points a phrase goes from
buzz to buzzkill (as "buzzkill" is due to) and from buzzkill to roadkill
(which still rocks). (By the way, what about the formulation "X rocks a
retro '90s look"? Roadkill?)

So, thumbs up or thumbs down:

a.. stay classy
b.. up in your grill
c.. overshare
d.. tell us something we don't know
e.. man up
f.. go-to
g.. drinking the Kool-Aid
h.. mad props

I still like "mad props." I'm a sucker for anything with "mad" in it,
basically. It's a great praise word. And "stay classy" still feels new and
still performs a useful function. I'm on the bubble on "drank the Kool-Aid,"
which has been used unfairly on Obama supporters by those who bought the
Clinton talking points, but you've got to respect that it's been around for
a quarter-century now and still has "punch," so to speak. Mass cult suicide
will do that for ya. But, seriously, "Kool-Aid" must speak to an enduring
concern: lemminglike destructive cult behavior, an unfortunately recurrent,
if not always deadly, cultural phenomenon. As for the others: under the bus.

Finally, "Dude." Sorry, guys, but the whole Lebowski cult just killed it
with its heavy-handed attempt at lightheartedness by geek dudes who—how
shall I put this delicately?—don't do lighthearted well. Sorry dude geeks: I
now pronounce "Dude" over.

Ron Rosenbaum is the author of The Shakespeare Wars and Explaining Hitler.

Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2194425/

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC

compound complex

A catch phrase (or catchphrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such memetic phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through a variety of mass media (such as literature and publishing, motion pictures, television and radio), as well as word of mouth. Some catch phrases become the de facto "trademark" of the person or character with whom they originated, and can be instrumental in the typecasting (beneficially or otherwise) of that actor. This is especially the case with comedy actors.

Amber Rose

Yeah, I'd probably rather have a cup of punch than Kool-aid, maybe Sangria.

Nathan Natas

a subtle pun?

compound complex

A.R:

Sangria is an option?

N.N:

Of all ten plays on words offered, no pun in ten did satisfy Mr. Thespis Wordsmith.

Thanks for your snappy rejoinders.

CoCo

witnessgirl

Hmm. There is an ad for Jim Jones ringtones on this page. How strange.

Anyhow, I mostly wanted to mention that what the Jonestown people drank was Fla-Vor-Aide, not Kool-Aid. Although probably nobody would know what you were talking about if you said Fla-Vor-Aide.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavor_Aid

Fla-Vor-Aide is mostly a Latin American product. You could buy it in bodegas for about seven cents a packet, versus fifteen cents for Kool-Aide.

Quirky1

I thought this was another of those licker threads.

compound complex

Witnessgirl:

Welcome to JWD.

Thank you for the more accurate account. Given the sadness and horror of the Jonestown tragedy, I will just leave it at that.

Quirky 1:

Who knows what may develop? Lots of likable and loquacious lads are lookers and, lately, are less likely liquor likers than licorice and lollipop lickers.

Thanks,

CoCo Constrained

DanTheMan

"mad props" - ugh! Who uses that one anymore?

If they want to take "dude" out of my vocabulary, they'll have to pry it away from my cold, dead lips ;)

compound complex

Thank you, Dan! You are the MAN!

http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20010213

February 13, 2001

props

Katie McHugh wrote:

Where does the slang phrase mad props come from, and what exactly does it mean?

This two-word slang expression has its origin in Black English, specifically, in the hip-hop culture of young African Americans. In this particular phrase, mad is an adjective meaning 'many, much, plenty of', as in "mad publicity, mad dough, mad friends'. But it can also be an adverb meaning 'very, extremely', as in "mad cool, mad funny, mad scared'. This use of mad dates from the early 1990s, though the adverb madly (as in 'madly talented') is much older.

Though props has several slang senses, here it means 'proper or due respect; compliments, credit, admiration, or praise'. Since the term implies public recognition, it's usually used of a performer or other person in the public eye. For example, if a musician "gets (his) props," he's gained public recognition for his accomplishments; to "give him his props" is to give him the respect he deserves. However, in my opinion, successful people who have gotten their props should then "give props to their peeps," that is, they should (at least partially) credit their parents and friends.

Does "Drink the Kool-Aid" Lack Punch?

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