General cliches that get on your nerves.

[Click Ticker]

Inspired by Michael Phelps and the movie cliche's thread.

"You can do anything you want as long as you put your mind to it."

Often said after some amazing accomplishment that it would seem only one person on the planet has ever put their mind to. I believe the 41 year old swimmer said something similar. Must be nobody else has the mind power of these two individuals.

[mike alexander]

"Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

And often causes masssive internal injuries.

[redshifter]

'Let's think outside the box'

[geonuc]

"There's no such thing as a stupid question."

Just stupid people asking them.

[jj_0001]

Well, down the line:

General Cliche'
Colonel O. F. Tematter
Major Mistake
Captain Obvious
Lt. ???

Seriously, there are so many I've heard, but the religious ones come to mind, so I'll stop now.

[tdvance]

The only stupid question is the one not asked

(which is far from true)

The best things in life are free

(they might not be purchasable with paper money, but that doesn't make them free!)

[billslugg]

"Money can't buy happiness."

They just don't know where to shop.

[Van Rijn]

"Violence never solved anything."

Sure, it is important to avoid unnecessary violence, but sometimes there is no choice, and it certainly can solve things.

[pzkpfw]

"Beauty is only skin deep".

(Plenty of good looking people are nice people too, and some not so good looking people are ugly inside too.)

[nauthiz]

That one about the Inuit having 5.28E34 words for snow.

It's never quite as exciting anymore after you look in a thesaurus and realize that English has 8.32E37 words for snow.

[sarongsong]

"a self-made man"

[Tog]

"Men want to be him, women want to be with him."

One I noticed in TV shows in the mid-80s. This was in every detective/action show I can think of, and it bugged me when I was 14. There will be the episode where:
The gruff hero falls for the woman who is either blind or deaf.
The person that is afraid for their life is really a split personality and is also the "badguy".
A secondary character finds love. By the end of the episode, the newfound love is revealed as a "badguy" that was just using the person.
Any new character that is likable to anyone but one of the main characters will have a breakthrough with that main character just in time to be killed, usually in the arms of the main character, in a long drawn out death scene.
Fleeing suspects will always run up to the roof of a building.
Any moderately well known actor that gets a guest spot on a show will be the badguy.
The judge will "allow it, but it better show some relevance".
Any scene of something very common and ordinary that goes on just a bit too long will end in a shock, such as the death of a major character, or a big reveal on some secret association.

[mfumbesi]

"It takes two to tango.."

I don't know about you, but I am not big on dancing.

[mfumbesi]

"Rome wasn't build in a single day"

I suppose London or New York were just banged together in one afternoon.

[geonuc]

"Money can't buy happiness."

They just don't know where to shop.

Or rephrased:

"Money isn't everything."

But it's way ahead of whatever's in second place.

[slang]

There are two sides to it, and the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

But not when there's a correct and a wrong side.

[jokergirl]

Godwin's Law, also known as the reductio ad Hitlerum:

"You know who else liked Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs? HITLER DID!"

[jokergirl]

Oh, and:

"Girls always go for the jerk, not for the nice guy."
(usually to be read as that the whiny jerk speaking thinks of himself as the nice guy)

[Neverfly]

Godwin's Law, also known as the reductio ad Hitlerum:

"You know who else liked Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs? HITLER DID!"

Dwarves gotta stick together.

[AndreasJ]

"Beauty is only skin deep".

(Plenty of good looking people are nice people too, and some not so good looking people are ugly inside too.)

“I'm tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep. That's deep enough. What do you want, an adorable pancreas?”
-- Jean Kerr

[Lianachan]

Racial stereotyping.

[Click Ticker]

"Money can't buy happiness."

They just don't know where to shop.

It may not buy happiness, but it can sure make misery a lot more fun.

Good stuff so far.

[SeanF]

"Money can't buy happiness."

They just don't know where to shop.

"You're dead for a real long time.
You just can't prevent it.
So if money can't buy happiness.
I guess I'll have to rent it."
--"Weird Al" Yankovic

[Moose]

"Girls always go for the jerk, not for the nice guy."
(usually to be read as that the whiny jerk speaking thinks of himself as the nice guy)

Glenn "That Canadian Guy" Foster had a routine where he'd point out the obverse cliché of women claiming to want "nice guys" but can never find them.

"There are lots of nice guys out there. They're easy to recognize. They're the ones you [gripe] to about the jerks you're sleeping with."


----

"Money can't buy happiness. But it can rent it."

[edit: Ha. You beat me to it, Sean.]

[Moose]

"If money is the root of all evil, I'd like to be a bad, bad man." - Huey Lewis.

[jfribrg]

Inspired by Michael Phelps and the movie cliche's thread.

"You can do anything you want as long as you put your mind to it."

Often said after some amazing accomplishment that it would seem only one person on the planet has ever put their mind to. I believe the 41 year old swimmer said something similar. Must be nobody else has the mind power of these two individuals.

I heard the same thing and had the same reaction. Without a doubt, Phelps deserves his accomplishment, but he should at least acknowledge that he chose his parents well. To do what he did requires an enormous commitment, but all that training would have meant nothing if he didn't inherit a body that was perfectly suited for swimming. The right type of muscles, perhaps a larger than normal heart, relatively short legs, very long torso and arms, etc. Without those, he would not have been so dominant.

[Matherly]

"It was a Perfect Storm of (pick one: Economic factors, political motivations, rabbit infestations, etc.)."

It has gotten to the point where anyone who uses the "Perfect Storm" cliche immediatly loses any credibility.

[Delvo]

"Beauty is only skin deep".

(Plenty of good looking people are nice people too, and some not so good looking people are ugly inside too.)

This is an especially odd category of cliché: the kind that not even the speaker really believes is true, and would, even if true, be irrelevant to the subject that it's usually brought up to address. (They talk about whether they'd choose looks or personality to imply that they don't want both, but of course everybody does want both, which wouldn't change even if the combination were impossible as they're claiming it is.)

However, in this thread, using things that women say about men and relationships and what they supposedly want from either of the above is a kind of cheating, too easy: practically everything women say on that subject is a cliché, and usually even this particular type (not just worn out but also dishonest and irrelevant to the context in which it's usually raised). It's like going into a thread about bad science in science fiction and using examples from SPOOFS of science fiction, or copying & pasting from the Ikea website in a thread about cheap furniture.

[Gillianren]

. . . practically everything women say on that subject is a cliché . . . .

But not men?

[SeanF]

This is an especially odd category of cliché: the kind that not even the speaker really believes is true, and would, even if tree, be irrelevant to the subject that it's usually brought up to address. (They talk about whether they'd choose looks or personality to imply that they don't want both, but of course everybody does want both, which wouldn't change even if the combination were impossible as they're claiming it is.)

"Beauty is only skin deep" does not claim the combination is impossible. It's no different than "You can't judge a book by its cover." While it is sometimes true that the "outside" and the "inside" match, it is also sometimes true that they don't. That's why using the outside to make assumptions about the inside is a judgmental error.