"Catphrase" - for when people misinterpret a catchphrase

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Blue Lou

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I was watching Dave Gorman's Modern Life is Goodish on TV and one of the sections of his show (aired 22 September 2015) was talking about how people misinterpret commonly used phrases.

Having read that someone complained that "Doggy Dog World" wasn't a pun in a local newspaper, he came to the conclusion that someone actually thought that "Doggy dog world" was the catchphrase, not "Dog eat dog world". He went on to find other examples:

His personal favourite seemed to have been people using "A bowl in a china shop" instead of "A bull in a china shop", because some people didn't understand what the phrase means, they had come up with their own definition.

Some people are using "A bowl in a china shop" to mean 'boring', others 'fragile'. As language is constantly evolving, they're not wrong.

So, what are you favourite catphrases?
 
I actually did think it was "bowl in a china shop" as a kid when my mom would say that to me. It didn't make sense to me for years, until it finally hit me. Oh, a bull in a china shop, now I get it.
 
I've generally understood them as malapropisms, though to be specific that applies to words, not phrases so may not always be applicable.

Anyways, my favourite internet bugbears are "peaked my interest", "for all intensive purposes" and "right on queue".

Should be "piqued my interest", "for all intents and purposes", and "right on cue".

I see these ones all the time. The queue/cue I find particularly interesting.
 
People who say 'close minded' instead of 'closed minded'.

Kinda related though, I only found out the other day that the phrase 'the squeaky wheel gets the grease' doesn't mean that the person who needs something gets it first, but means the person who is loudest gets the attention.
 
As soon as I read the topic title, I instantly knew that this was related to the latest episode of Modern Life Is Goodish. Fantastic show! Love Dave Gorman a lot. Highly recommend his Googlewhack stand up!
 
Peaked instead of piqued
All intensive purposes.
Chomping at the bit. Yes, I know that the proper word, champing, essentially means the same thing as chomping, but still...

Gorilla warfare I find amusing.
 
OP all I'm seeing when I search on twitter for Escape Goat is people either discussing the episode of the show on Dave or people talking about the game series.

Oh and your search link in the op is Ecape Goat. :P


Anyway, my contribution is "By and large" = Buying large :L
 
Dot Matrix said:
People who say 'close minded' instead of 'closed minded'.
Click to expand...
Dropping Ds like that seems common in American English. I notice "suppose to" instead of "supposed to" and "use to" instead of "used to" and assumed they were typos, but there are a lot of others.

"First come, first served" becomes "first come, first serve"
Skimmed milk becomes skim milk
Iced tea becomes ice tea
Biased becomes bias ("You're bias")
Prejudiced becomes prejudice (as above)
Clichéd becomes cliché ("That's so cliché")
etc...

Some of those like bias/biased seem recognised as errors while others are the standard in American English. I don't know if it's a difference in pronunciation migrating into written language or what.
 
sixteen-bit said:
"Another thing coming" instead iof the correct "another think coming"
Click to expand...

The wrong one is better, though. If you expect X, you have something other than X coming as opposed to 'another think' which A) isn't grammatically correct and B) is illogical. Like, do you mean I'm inevitably going to reconsider it and change my mind? Or that after I'm proven wrong I'll rethink it? That's not another think, that's contradictory evidence...
 
VegiHam said:
The wrong one is better, though. If you expect X, you have something other than X coming as opposed to 'another think' which A) isn't grammatically correct and B) is illogical. Like, do you mean I'm inevitably going to reconsider it and change my mind? Or that after I'm proven wrong I'll rethink it? That's not another think, that's contradictory evidence...
Click to expand...

It's a usage of "think" that has mostly been abandoned in modern English. "Have a think" used to be a more common phrase, so the notion of an idea or prediction being "a think" wasn't as weird as it sounds to us. "Another thing coming" is probably an improvement, or at least a more sensible form of the expression for the 21st century.
 
MattKeil said:
It's a usage of "think" that has mostly been abandoned in modern English. "Have a think" used to be a more common phrase, so the notion of an idea or prediction being "a think" wasn't as weird as it sounds to us. "Another thing coming" is probably an improvement, or at least a more sensible form of the expression for the 21st century.
Click to expand...

I get that it's oldentimey, but even then the idea doesn't make sense. Why would someone have another think unless something happened to change their opinion? If it was an instruction, like 'think again' that'd be fine but 'you've got another think coming' suggests that you rethinking it is inevitable.

I mean it works. It's just the wrong version works better.
 
Beauty is in the eye when you hold her

Catch 23 situation

Crop of Shit

Denial and error

Friends with the Benedicts

Get two birds stoned at once

Gorilla see, Gorilla do

Honesty is just a test policy

It doesn't take rocket appliances

Let guy bonds be guy bonds

Mexicali Stand-on

Passed with flying carpets

Selling me under the bus

What comes around is all around

Where there's smoke there's wires

Vacational school
 
demon said:
Beauty is in the eye when you hold her

Catch 23 situation

Crop of Shit

Denial and error

Friends with the Benedicts

Get two birds stoned at once

Gorilla see, Gorilla do

Honesty is just a test policy

It doesn't take rocket appliances

Let guy bonds be guy bonds

Mexicali Stand-on

Passed with flying carpets

Selling me under the bus

What comes around is all around

Where there's smoke there's wires

Vacational school
Click to expand...


JUST GIMME THE FUCKIN' LAND PAPERS JIM!
 
NekoFever said:
Dropping Ds like that seems common in American English. I notice "suppose to" instead of "supposed to" and "use to" instead of "used to" and assumed they were typos, but there are a lot of others.

"First come, first served" becomes "first come, first serve"
Skimmed milk becomes skim milk
Iced tea becomes ice tea
Biased becomes bias ("You're bias")
Prejudiced becomes prejudice (as above)
Clichéd becomes cliché ("That's so cliché")
etc...

Some of those like bias/biased seem recognised as errors while others are the standard in American English. I don't know if it's a difference in pronunciation migrating into written language or what.
Click to expand...

But Americans don't seem to pronounce it as close (the opposite of open), but close (the opposite of far).
 
Not a catch phrase but patients always misunderstand things said.

'Fireballs in the ucherist' is actually 'fibroids in the uterus'. Bonus points if they have a heavy accent.
 
VegiHam said:
I get that it's oldentimey, but even then the idea doesn't make sense. Why would someone have another think unless something happened to change their opinion? If it was an instruction, like 'think again' that'd be fine but 'you've got another think coming' suggests that you rethinking it is inevitable.

I mean it works. It's just the wrong version works better.
Click to expand...

It's generally because your mom will smack you upside the head until you have another think. It's a bit of a threat.
 
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