Common cliches – a sure-fire way to demonstrate your unoriginality.
1July 20, 2006 by Colin
Jeremy Wagtaff’s got a list of cliches commonly used by media in the english-speaking world during the first six months of 2006. Number one? “At the end of the day,” which was used more than twice as frequently as “in the black.” The list is produced by Factiva.
In case you’re feeling spectacularly unoriginal, try using this handy cliche finder – it will list common cliches based on words you identify.
In September 2005, the BBC’s Magazine rhymed off the advertising cliches commonly found in British adverts. (Number 17: modern men own a cat).
Unfortunately, the cliche-a-day blog seems to have fallen into a torpid slumber. This blog led me to Robin Bougie’s “25 Cinematic Cliches I Never Wanna See Again“:
“12. If our protagonist goes to a sporting event, no matter who he is, his face will always end up on the fucking jumbotron.
and a little known fact is that, at the end of the day, 78.6 per cent of all cliches uttered in the media are from either professional sportspeople, retired sportspeople or sports pundits.