'Unlimited ammo - You’re not John Woo, so start counting the bullets. Only He has this right!'

June 25, 2005 12:49 PM

cli·ché :: 1 : a trite phrase or expression; also : the idea expressed by it; 2 : a hackneyed theme, characterization, or situation; 3 : something (as a menu item) that has become overly familiar or commonplace
posted by anastasiav (42 comments total)

[this is good]
free quonsar, he vibrates
metafilter: something that has become overly familiar or commonplace
posted by Rumple at 1:07 PM on June 25, 2005

Hardly best of the web.
posted by brain_drain at 1:08 PM on June 25, 2005

Adam Smith's Corollary - No matter how thoroughly devastated the continent/planet/universe is, there's always some shopkeeper who survived the end of the world and sits outside the gates of the villain's castle, selling the most powerful equipment in the game, like nothing ever happened.

check and MATE!
posted by mcsweetie at 1:10 PM on June 25, 2005

Do popups count as a cliche?
posted by danwalker at 1:19 PM on June 25, 2005

pancakes.
posted by Dean Keaton at 1:34 PM on June 25, 2005

Tour de force, please god stop telling me the book is a Tour de force, because right now that translates as average to bland.
posted by 517 at 1:40 PM on June 25, 2005

the letter 'x' as in xbox, xtreme, xXx (the movie)
posted by scheptech at 1:50 PM on June 25, 2005

Overused plots:
1.) A human male becomes pregnant.

I guess I don't get out enough. I could only think of one, and it was a comedy, not a scifi movie.
posted by kozad at 1:55 PM on June 25, 2005

There doesn't seem to be a listing for advertising cliches such as:

People who become ecstatic upon using the new cleaning device.
Toothpaste that promises to whiten teeth better than any other brand.
Snack food with "bigger, bolder flavor."
Unbelievably sexy women drawn to the user of the deodorant, beer, shaving cream, etc. advertised.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 1:56 PM on June 25, 2005

everything is a cliche.
posted by yedgar at 1:56 PM on June 25, 2005

is this perhaps a more modern version of morrisey's "dial-a-cliche"?
posted by cloudstastemetallic at 2:39 PM on June 25, 2005

Please tell me the cliché of using a dictionary definition was intentional.
posted by Robot Johnny at 2:50 PM on June 25, 2005

Overused plots:
1.) A human male becomes pregnant.

I guess I don't get out enough. I could only think of one

I assume you're thinking of Junior with the Governator.

But there's also:
Futurama, in which Kif is impregnated by (IIRC) Leela
The Cosby Show, in which Bill Cosby gives birth to a sandwich.
Star Trek: Enterprise, in which one or another male character gets knocked up
Enemy Mine, sort of, in which Lou Gossett gives birth to a bouncing baby thing
Rabbit Test with Billy Crystal (?)
Alien, if giving birth to a monster counts

There's even a page devoted to it! I very like to observe him and touch his inflated belly. It's great!
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 3:07 PM on June 25, 2005

yedagar sez: " everything is a cliche."

How cliche.
posted by CrayDrygu at 3:18 PM on June 25, 2005

Good site. My friend's making a satire film titled "Cliche." I showed him this site. He's peeing his pants.
posted by NickDouglas at 3:59 PM on June 25, 2005

I would like to announce that as much as I enjoy this thread, and the fine people here, and the important things we have accomplished, ... I have, after much thought, decided that...

"I would like to spend more time with my family."
posted by R. Mutt at 4:06 PM on June 25, 2005

ROU_Xenophobe
What about The Young Ones where Vivian is preggers with a fart? Now THAT was a plot twist.
posted by Kloryne at 4:30 PM on June 25, 2005

crayDrygu sez: yedagar sez: " everything is a cliche."

How cliche.

It's cliche to point out other people's cliches
posted by cyphill at 4:32 PM on June 25, 2005

R. Mutt, you're a goner for sure.

I want to point out what I think is male-bashing in many advertisements, especially for drugs. It usually goes like this:

Him: "Boy, my [insert body part here] hurts! And this drug, it does nothing!"

Her: "Why don't you try [advertised product]. I've been using it and it's great!"

Him: "Whore! Why are you witholding something that could have helped me weeks ago!"

Maybe that last part was made up. The heat, it's driving me mad.
posted by sdrawkcab at 5:05 PM on June 25, 2005

crayDrygu sez: yedagar sez: " everything is a cliche."

How cliche.

It's cliche to point out other people's cliches

Exposing someone to ridicule by subjecting his own offensive to the selfsame tactic is a clichéd manuever.
posted by ori at 5:15 PM on June 25, 2005

yeah, like i said, everything is a cliche. get over yourselves.
posted by yedgar at 5:31 PM on June 25, 2005

Not worth the pop-ups...
posted by AloneOssifer at 5:34 PM on June 25, 2005

brain_drain writes "Hardly best of the web"

Now that's what I'd call a Metatalk cliché.
posted by clevershark at 6:56 PM on June 25, 2005

Is meta cliche?
posted by blue shadows at 7:02 PM on June 25, 2005

get over yourselves

everyone does
posted by nervousfritz at 7:14 PM on June 25, 2005

everyone does

His middle name was Donald? I never knew that....

nervousfritz, that's a hell of a detailed comment. Good job.
posted by anastasiav at 7:27 PM on June 25, 2005

crayDrygu sez: yedagar sez: " everything is a cliche."

How cliche.

It's cliche to point out other people's cliches

Exposing someone to ridicule by subjecting his own offensive to the selfsame tactic is a clichéd manuever.

How cliche!
posted by Mr Bluesky at 7:49 PM on June 25, 2005

Don't forget Design Cliches.
posted by wendell at 7:59 PM on June 25, 2005

I for one welcome our evil overlord cliches.

/cliched link from cliche page
posted by Dunvegan at 8:48 PM on June 25, 2005

How cliche!

Behold, the same fractal utility as "I know you are but what am I".
posted by catachresoid at 10:12 PM on June 25, 2005

"The Web's Largest Collection of Cliches, Euphamisms (sic), Sayings and Figures of Speech"

Spelling mistakes in your tagline are cliché.

</spelling snark>
posted by sharpener at 10:25 PM on June 25, 2005

</hosed by the preview function>
posted by sharpener at 10:26 PM on June 25, 2005

He fell out of the Stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down.
I've never heard that one. Sounds to me like he did everything right, except climbing the Stupid tree in the first place.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:42 PM on June 25, 2005

Sounds to me like he did everything right, except climbing the Stupid tree in the first place.

Now, let's not be presumptuous: he might've chanced on the Stupid tree by accident, leaping as he quite possibly were from treetop to treetop, or otherwise placed in the Stupid tree by malicious people.
posted by ori at 12:44 AM on June 26, 2005

"He fell out of the Stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down."

I've heard this since childhood, once upon a time in the 1960's, only it was with "Ugly" substituted for "Stupid"....
posted by Dunvegan at 2:33 AM on June 26, 2005

If you have sex in the woods, you will die in the woods!

oh dear!!
posted by bumpkin at 5:13 AM on June 26, 2005

years ago, when I was working on an offset litho press in Germany, the printer would refer often to "cliches" -- which in this case were the little images we would use repetitively, certain portraits and whatnot.

Evidently, the word originally (or also) referred to printing. Back when everyone was setting lead type, one had to assemble a word one letter at a time, which was tedious stuff (understatement emoticon).

Since so many words were so common (like "the"), printers would take the letters for those words and melt them together into readymade clusters. These common words, ready to set quickly, were called "cliches" and kept in a separate "cliche drawer."
posted by cloudscratcher at 5:51 AM on June 26, 2005

Not worth the pop-ups...

the fish in my pants recommends Firefox.
posted by quonsar at 7:30 AM on June 26, 2005

cloudscratcher: See also the stereotype.
posted by tommyc at 12:28 PM on June 26, 2005

Some of these are funny, but really, I don't think a lot of them are cliches... just things that have happened before. I don't know how many movies besides Return of the Jedi I've seen that involve a scantily clad princess choking the bad guy to death with the chain he's keeping her captive with. Kozad, I'm with you on the male pregnancy thing. Even if it's been done a whole bunch of times before in disparate genres, it's not a cliche (and ROU_Xenophobe, you forgot the Alien Nation TV show). It's just something that's been done. I don't think it's a cliche until we're all rolling our eyes collectively.

And that list of sitcom cliches are just poor. Half-assed sentence fragments with no punctuation? Now that's a cliche.
posted by hifiparasol at 4:27 PM on June 26, 2005

What, a MALE giving birth is a cliché? What non-vulval orifice did YOU come out of? It's been nothing but uterus, uterus, and uterus since we first evolved from the Flintstones and now you people want to knock something "cool" and "new".
posted by the quidnunc kid at 6:23 AM on June 27, 2005

brain_drain writes "Hardly best of the web"

Now that's what I'd call a Metatalk cliché.

Hey, I was just kidding! I even used a sarcasm dot!
posted by brain_drain at 1:30 PM on July 7, 2005