Words, usages, and phrases that annoy the shit out of you...

baldy

"turnabout is fair play"

i don't know why i have such a strong hatred of this phrase, but i do. reading it or hearing it grates on my nerves like nails down chalkboard.

when people use track as a verb, as in "that doesn't track"

"american ______" movie titles

^ yes very much, werewolf in london excluded though obv

^ reads to me like a giant sticker that says "THIS IS SATIRE". are the people of any other country as boringly fixated on their national mystique? xp

like "american sniper" what the fuck is that?

Yeah, I hate this too (but Tokyo Fist is one of my favourite films), I think it seems like it's supposed to sound cool or something, but I can't work out how or why it should make it cool.

Someone said a while ago that American Hustle was total fluff but got into the Oscars because it had "American" in the title.

Here's something I hate even worse that I posted on a games forum a while ago.

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Something I used to associate with comics when they were attempting to make a storyline seem important but loads of games and blockbuster films do it now. It basically looks like a hackish attempt at gravity or awe. I'm not saying everything with these subtitles are bad, but better writers dont tend to use them.
You may want to dispute some of my examples or point out why you think they make something sound the way they do.

These really annoy me and I've been meaning to talk about it for a while. One of my pet hates in entertainment.

Requiem (the worst, I'd say)
Retribution (almost as bad)
Revenge
Revelation(s)
Ressurrection
Redemption
Revolution
Reborn
Rebirth
New Beginning
Awakening
Evolution
Insurrection
One More Day
Brand New Day
Aftermath
Exodus
Ultimatum
Convergence
Osmosis
Legacy (or Legacies)
Origin(s)
Big Time
Last Stand
Tipping Point
Crisis
Extinction
Extermination
Inception
Deception
Rising
Risen
Reckoning
Wrath
Unbound
Vengeance
Judgement
Defiance
Devastation
Absolution
Desperation
xtreme
x-treme
eXtreme

Terminator: Salvation is a perfect example.

Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem sounds especially dumb.
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There were a few contributions from other users. Looking back at these makes me feel a bit ill thinking about the type of moron this type of title probably excites.

Yahtzee in particular made fun of them and when Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs came out he joked that the publisher probably said "can't we just call it Amnesia: Revelations?"

Mumdex

American Requiem

That's great! Don't know why I didn't think to combine the horrors.

Could put America or American with every word on your list, although it may have already been done. I sometimes use "convergence," though usually tongue-in-cheek, like "thee convergence," and, just this past Saturday night, non-ironically mentioned "Son House as killing it" on Twitter. No regrets.

fumbled the self-quote, so here's the whole thing
Am.Routes,A. Lomax: "If I don't go crazy, I'm gonna lose my mind." Son House killing it

American Hustle 2: Retribution

"both sides of the aisle"

"he'll really need to work hard to bring in support from both sides of the aisle"

"this is really something that will need support from both sides of the aisle"

fuck off, you trite-ass pundit

all of you

I have mixed feelings about that thing people do on the internet where they make a statement about personal preference but deliberately omit the personal pronoun (which gives their opinions an air of irony/detachment even when they're being sincere). did this begin with Hipster Runoff? that's where I first noticed it, but ilx-type people (including me, probably) seem to do it a lot.

dyl wrote this on thread Charli XCX on board I Love Music on Aug 26, 2014

not really feeling "break the rules" at all. i'm excited she's getting her chance at a legit mainstream breakthrough tho. "boom clap" is closing in on #1 on top 40 radio.

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Jimmywine Dyspeptic wrote this on thread Spoon - They Want My Soul (2014) on board I Love Music on Jul 29, 2014

Really liking this on first listen; really good on headphones. Not sure how it rates in the larger discography yet, of course, but so far, diggin' it. One of the last indieTM bands whose new releases I actually look forward to.

have mixed feelings about that thing people do on the internet where they make a statement about personal preference but deliberately omit the personal pronoun (which gives their opinions an air of irony/detachment even when they're being sincere). did this begin with Hipster Runoff? that's where I first noticed it, but ilx-type people (including me, probably) seem to do it a lot.

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/psbKsJ7Kg48/hqdefault.jpg

"We moved to west Texas 40 years ago. The war was over, and we wanted to get out and make it on our own. Those were exciting days. Lived in a little shotgun house, one room for the three of us. Worked in the oil business, started my own.

In time we had six children. Moved from the shotgun to a duplex apartment to a house. Lived the dream - high school football on Friday night, Little League, neighborhood barbecue."

I feel like that's a different phenomenon. Bush = imitating front-porch working-class speech <-> Carles = imitating hipsters airing their 'deep thoughts' on aim/twitter. Bush = affecting plainspoken rural simplicity <-> Carles = affecting plainspoken urban cool. they have more in common then they think, but I don't think they come from the same lineage.

(and yeah, I know it's slightly ridiculous to cite Hipster Runoff as a trendsetter in 2015)

not seeing it

True that

I can't tell you how strange it was to hear Bush slicing off those pronouns in '88. Using "I" meant he wasn't being sufficiently humble, according to Peggy Noonan.

not getting over "speak to" sthing

Starting to get annoyed at 'hot mess'

starting

not getting over "speak to" sthing

― local eire man (darraghmac),

speak to
in terms of
with respect to

I'm getting used to "hot mess", but for a long time it had strong connotations of "diarrhea" for me.

"...because of the way it's culturally encoded."

and anally encoded

with respect to

'in respect of' I associate with lawyerly Blairite politician stroke wankers

... even worse I've noticeD Ian Wright now can't get through a sentence without using it

Hot Mess could have been a swarthy 1978 EuroDisco outfit.

"FTW." "Aaaaaaannnnnd..." I'll take "impact" as a verb over any and all internet shorthand. I'm not even sure what "Aaaaaaannnnnd..." is supposed to communicate.

have i mentioned how much i hate, hate, hate people who say they love, love, love things

ITT: Tell The Beatles to Fuck Off

i really hate "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over"

Have we mentioned "disrupt" yet? Because tech-hype speak is a subsection of corporate/PR jargon that really makes me wanna slit throats. The desperate employing of stupid catchphrases and insider terms to grant oneself an air of importance and connectedness is like that thing dumbass entertainment reporters do when they employ cutesy nicknames for celebrities as if they were close personal friends.

Only I travel a lot, so I have to encounter shit like "disrupt" on huge banner adverts in airports all over this dumbass continent featuring smug-ass Bay Area-types who usually turn out to be Part of the Problem.

definition of insanity includes repeating that phrase over and over

Disruption is very popular these days. Doesn't bother me though, appropriate in some business contexts.

Disrupt will soon go the way of synergy and satisficing all the ones I have blissfully forgotten.

that sentence came out funny

"Definitely" as a meaningless intensifier of assurance. "I'll definitely get right on that for you."

^ often used every other sentence

So true, I have to be careful to remove excess "definitely" and "very" usage, and I still don't get to all the ones that ought to go. Verbally, with no hope of editing, I add these stupid "definitely"s to the point where I sound like some sleazy car salesman closing a deal.

**************

Here's one closer to grammar pedant stuff, an association I don't want because I don't have any sympathy for 99% of the usage that bothers them, but anyway. Where I live absolutely everybody says and writes "based off" rather than "based on". Like, nothing is based ON anything, it's always based off of something. "This movie was based off of a true story." "We decided not to do it based off of our financial figures."

Why does this usage in particular irritate me, when I couldn't care less about "could care less" or "irregardless"? I can't explain. Even the illogicality of it doesn't explain it.