Today, I’ve decided to test the waters and talk about Clichés. Clichés, they’re everywhere you go - like verbal cash-cows chewing cud. No one can conduct a casual conversation without a slip of the tongue, using clichés at a drop of a hat to demonstrate what they want to get across. Problem is we really did reinvent the wheel by using clichés, most of which were born yesterday. We have added our two cents to make sense of our daily language, using clichés commonly whenever the cat has gotten our tongues. Bluntly writing, unless we are speaking to other Americans, or very knowledgeable other-landers, clichés are about as useless as a lead balloon and in most cases no one has a ghost of a chance (or chance in hell) of understanding their true nature.
I’m going to lay my cards on the table-- a lead balloon does bring up an interesting picture and it could be understood as not being very useful, but say for instance snug as a bug in a rug or don’t let the bedbugs bite; why are we talking about bugs being snug and how can you possibly not let the bedbugs bite you while you’re sleeping? Drop in the bucket/ kick the bucket – one of little meaning (one of many) and the other pertaining to death (hoisting a slaughtered pig up by its feet like a bucket in a well) but neither actually have anything to do with an actual bucket; talk about confusing! Yet we play the hand we’re dealt, right? Or is it a horse of a different color? How about this one: knockoff. Knock it off? No, knockoff. You would think it meant what it looks like- to knock something off, (maybe even some gangster might do) not to fabricate or make a copy of something. And while they’re doing this “knockoff” are they as cool as a cucumber? Yes, granted cucumbers are chilly but only if you stick them in the refrigerator. Right out of the garden they’re hotter than heck! What if you don’t have a refrigerator? Taking under consideration that only ten-million refrigerators are sold world-wide every year, and let’s say half of those are replacements, that leaves only about five-million refrigerators that are going to new people. It is estimated that there are twelve billion people on the planet, and every year there are another ninety-million born every year (Wiki answers – take it or leave the facts) which means there are eighty-five million people every year going without refrigerators and without cool cucumbers. That just won’t fly! Now come on – hold your horses, there’s more! By using so many clichés does it make our society dumber than a box of rocks? Or have we expanded our language, trying to keep up with the Jones of other nations? Otherwise is it just the tip of the iceberg and we are tarnishing our ability to communicate naturally by constantly using clichés like a crutch in our everyday speech? Have we fallen in love with clichés? Maybe. I’ve been told love is blind. Maybe I’m jumping the gun too soon. Maybe I’m not playing with a full deck and all this use of clichés is simply a drop in the hat and will eventually take a long walk off a short pier. Who knows, Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was any given language. Maybe we should give clichés the red-carpet treatment, embrace their usage, and when it’s all said and done see what happens. When the dust has settled we can see where clichés stand and allow the rest to be history!!! (Knock on wood) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asZEojIh-gg
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