Monday, 9 January 2012

Catch Phrases

I really like the website, tvtropes.org, which is a huge collection of devices and conventions that crop up in the media, particularly TV but film and comics too.

I was just looking at their page on the 'catch phrase', which they define as 'an expression used by a character in numerous episodes of a show':

tvtropes.org on catch phrases

I got to thinking about the fact that catch phrases often get picked up in everyday language use where they turn into 'double-voiced' utterances. When someone drops one into conversation, you're meant to hear the utterance as (1) their own comment on what you're talking about - the idea is that their use of it should be *relevant* to the present conversation - but also, (2) an echo of the original voice - the character in the TV show who says it. What catch phrases are current at the moment? When do people use them in conversation?

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