Phrases, why they work...but really shouldn't

Is nothing more pop influenced and cliché in life then phrases? I don’t think so, well except for maybe Madonna’s new self-image but that’s beside the point and point. How often can you remember phrased being phased in and out of the English dialect? For instance, how many times over the past several years did you hear; “Groovy Baby! Yeah!”, or “Shagadelic baby!”. These and many others have been the creation of the popular Austin Powers series the brainchild of Mike Myers. Now like most pop culture induced sayings, these phrases have drifted off the radar so to speak. I think TV is one of the chief culprits in the phrase making game. “That’s hot” I think everyone and there dog knows that this is Paris Hilton’s signature phrase. “Seacrest Out”….Ryan Seacrest’s sincere interpretation of I have to go know thanks for watching, y’all come back now. Perhaps it is  unfair to blame all television for the cliché phrases that we all get so sick of hearing. There are some channels that I just don’t see as producers of memorable catch phrases. Take for instance the History channel. I have watched the history channel a lot and I’ve yet to find myself slapping an “Andrew Carnegie was totally such a powerful player in the industrial age”, into a conversation among friends. In all fairness I’ve never actually attempted to, but don’t let that discourage you. Let me know how it goes. Movies as you also might imagine may be even a guiltier party for producing these mind numbing sayings. “Where is my automobile…automobile”, ever made immortal by the movie sixteen candles is just one example of the movies catch phrase power.

These are powerful forces my friends but none is more powerful then the following player…one man…responsible for so many clichés. That person is Calvin Broadus. You know who Calvin is you come across him so much today. You see him in movies, you hear him on the radio. You even see him in the news. His popularity with the media and society in general enables a tremendous power of persuasion and influence. I imagine you’re scratching your head right now. Who the hell is Calvin Broadus? Oh…you might not know him by that name. You might know him as the one the only Mr. Dizzle…pho shizzle…Snoop Doggy Dogg. That’s right Snoop may be the leading instigator of catch phrases and not even good ones, just normal catch phrases with “izzie” and “izzle” on the end of normal words. However, most people don’t realize that Snoop didn’t invent these catchy endings to modern words; he just made them better known. The real force behind the frizzlefrazzledizdazzle dialect was Charlie Hustle or E-40. E-40 was a precursor to Snoop’s California rap style. E-40 is the innovator of the “Izzle” it’s all him.  This doesn’t stop Snoop though, I think that Snoop’s acting and music and subject of news is just a clever clever ploy to cover his true hidden agenda. I think snoop is out to take over the dictionary. That’s right I think Snoop wants to infiltrate the English dialects highest regarded reference, the dictionary. He wants izzle and azzle permanently affixed to the end of all modern words. He’s proving to be a dangerous force and just may succeed in his ambition to change the way future generations speak.  To older individuals the phrase “I’m just chillin in the hizzle with Mr. Dizzle scoping some televizzle and drinking my wizzle” may as well be ancient Hebrew. As far as they know this person is retarded and trying to give an account of their sitting on a couch made of ice with their imaginary friend watching some kind of TV device while drinking their own urine. The generational gap is simply much much too great. Snoops type of dialect is definitely an extreme of catch phrases.

On the other side of the catch phrase world are those catch phrases that stuck around, the ones that had staying power. “Rock and Roll”, how many times do you hear this used in completely unnecessary contexts. That’s not as impressive as the fact that we don’t question the unrelated use with the context. We accepted. Just the other day I was telling my supervisor at work I was taking out for the day. He simply responded “rock and roll”. I didn’t stop and question his use of “rock and roll” I knew what he meant; basically this use was to imply “Cool, catch you later take care”. Somehow I just knew what it meant. I didn’t stand there saying…yeah rock and roll is cool, but seriously I’ve got to get going. I just knew what the context was. Why is that? How did I know?  I simply don’t know. Perhaps a certain new period of development is taking part in the human brain. Perhaps the area of our brain that can decipher these catch phrases is somehow utilizing a low level ESP of sorts, the power to know something but not know exactly who. Nothing cool like knowing next week lottery numbers….but the power to reach further to grasp implied statements. Know what I mean….yeah…probably not. In parting there is nothing more annoying then someone who over  utilizes catch phrases someone who has this check list in their head of catch phrases they have to spew out in a day. Come up with your own catch phrase; don’t just steal somebody else’s. Be your own self. Don’t depend on others for your little conversational segways, be inventive, be creative. “Just do it”….er..Uh...I mean yeah “it’s a good thing”…CRAP! I guess all the good ones for this closing are already taken. Rock and roll everybody!