MetaChat - so we agree

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17 January 2011

so we agree this comparative-punchline cliche needs to be retired? e.g. "The difference between a cliche and a bomb is that one drops and creates dismay.. the other is a bomb."

post by: Firas at: 00:38 | 17 comments

The difference between a proposed moratorium on collective rhetorical behavior and the Vietnam War is that one is a hopeless protracted struggle with no clear end point and the other one is a fish.

posted by cortex 17 January | 01:43

Aw come on cortex. You can be The Internet Admin responsible for enforcing the moratorium on The Internet!

posted by jouke 17 January | 02:04

The difference between a comparative-punchline cliche and a 80-year-old stripper is that one needs to be retired and the other one is an 80-year-old stripper.

posted by amyms 17 January | 02:42

I once owned the domain ClicheStadium.com but before I did anything with it, they tore down Shea Stadium and I realized that nobody would get the joke.

posted by oneswellfoop 17 January | 02:47

They tour down Shea? Didn't know that but I guess that it makes sense.

posted by octothorpe 17 January | 07:34

The difference between a cliche and a meme is that one appears in the title of Marshall McLuhan's book, and the other is an archetype.

posted by Obscure Reference 17 January | 09:16

I've never quite understood the difference between a meme and a running gag. Except perhaps that the former sounds scientific, and the second sounds vaudeville.

posted by JanetLand 17 January | 09:43

I would like to retire the "I may just be blank from blank" construction cause whenever I read/hear it, I instantly stop taking said person seriously.

Cause in my head they are now hyper space chickens.

posted by The Whelk 17 January | 10:52

the Whelk, I don't quite get what construction you mean there? example?

posted by Firas 17 January | 11:11

"I may just be a simple crud farmer from Okie but I don't see why.."

"I may be a small-town girl from the hills but I don't see..."

"I may be a simple Space hyper chicken..."

posted by The Whelk 17 January | 11:13

I may just be a twenty-story tall teddy bear with a bright red fire engine for a penis, but I don't see why WOOO WOOO WOOOOOOOOOOOOO HONK HONK!

Hyper space chickens get all the luck.

posted by Hugh Janus 17 January | 11:58

I hereby declare that the I may be just a X from Y but construction. I'd never thought to go looking for that before; I smell a blog entry coming up.

Note that the results with "just" deleted are still pretty on-target but there's a lot more false positives that way, people talking about distance mostly. Also worth looking for "an" rather than "a" I figure.

posted by cortex 17 January | 12:35

Snowclones.

posted by oneswellfoop 17 January | 18:31

I still carry in my head the joke I heard in high school about the difference between parsley and pussy.

posted by serazin 17 January | 23:12

I think we should give John Rogers a pass for the genius of this one: "There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."

posted by maudlin 18 January | 01:20

Aforementioned blog post!

posted by cortex 18 January | 12:34

I love you just a little bit more cortex.

posted by The Whelk 18 January | 23:37

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