Global phrase trends are getting really annoying and should be addressed dammit. They’re another substitute for original thought. The phrase “rent-free”. This exists rent-free in everyone’s head at the moment. “Low key” is an epidemic on the scale of the “literally” epidemic we had in the noughties.
Accusing people you disagree with of having “low IQ” is another one. This one is because of the bad joke though, and his habit of conflating cognitive tests with IQ tests.
I’ve always found IQ a faulty metric. I can recognise patterns and am reasonably competent mathematically and logically but the final test is usually “do you want to pay for a certificate telling people how clever you are”. I like to think I’ve passed that one by always clicking “absolutely fucking not”. “I’m a member of MENSA” is code for “I’m an idiot but I’ll try and patronise you”.
The tests don’t catch intelligence, intelligence isn’t measurable. Observation, deduction, pattern recognition – you can get a good idea of someone’s brain I suppose. To me I can’t fully compute how anyone would struggle with these things, maybe nobody does, maybe they are designed to blow smoke up everyone’s arse and then take their money. Or maybe there are millions of people who genuinely can’t think beyond their needs.
People who are good with patterns can be catastrophic idiots too. Look at me! Look at the huge colourful world of what we like to call conspiracy theory. The pyramids and the speed of light. Etc etc. So yeah, that phrase “low IQ” can get in the bin. It had no meaning before the idiot started overusing it it and it has less meaning now.
I’m not an angel here. I can be prone to jumping on the phrase bandwagon. “Your mum” jokes are part of my lexicon. “Get in the bin” was overused and I just used it dammit. “Dammit” is a favourite of mine too.
Growing up it was Monty Python. That was one of the only shared cultural things so everyone would just suddenly start saying “Ni” or whatever. God it was annoying. And then they’d wait and look at you like you’re supposed to say “well done” or name the film. And they’d name it if you didn’t, like they were informing you of something new. “He’s not the Messiah he’s a very naughty boy” “this parrot is dead” oh fuck the lot of you.
I always tried to avoid doing it. At drama school people would bring these things into improv classes and I would never understand why everyone would suddenly fall about laughing about something entirely banal and not at all theirs. Now the delights of internet mean we can share these things like diseases, and I’m culturally more curious now than It was then so if something feels like a touchstone – like the Louis Theroux recently, Lily Allen’s latest, etc – I try to get up to speed just so it doesn’t surprise me. Although I haven’t the patience for talent shows or the bad acting they call “reality tv”.
The craze for noun as verb. “I’m adulting”. “Shall we internet?” I noun-as-verb frequently. I like language and I enjoy playful language but it is also noticeable how quickly playfulness stops being playful when its overdone. And everything is always overdone all the time online. The loudest voices are not the voices with the most merit. We have some morally repugnant characters leading the cultural conversation online. They are sometimes “going viral”. “Go viral”? No meaning anymore. Nowadays millions of people WANT to be Star Wars Kid. No skill but everyone is looking at you. Be careful if someone says they can make something go viral, they’re selling you an NFT. Or is it a tulip? It used to be something negative, now people use it in marketing.
In schools we are now pretty much through 6-7 the spiritual successor to dabbing. Everyone has been “Gaslighting” everyone else for years. No they haven’t actually. And I didn’t say they have been. You’re just making it up. Read this paragraph again. I clearly said “Everyone hasn’t been Gaslighting.” You need to be sectioned.
Unalive. That’s just to get past censors but it’s a horrible word. I dunno there are gonna be loads that I’m not aware of. “So demure, so mindful” apparently… I don’t even know the meme there, just know it IS one. It came up in the R&D the other day.
Oh, and we will have a sharing soon in the west end somewhere tbd. I’ll let you know because fuck it, nice to see some familiar faces afterwards and I really like the crowd I’m with.
AlBarclay 