The 15 Most Overused Words of 2009
I’m going to get a little snarky today. I decided to have a little fun and make my list of the “Ten Most Overused Words of 2009″. These are words or phrases I’m just sick of hearing right now. Ask me two months ago and it would have been a different list (see either “Swine” or “Flu”), though I’m trying to take into account the whole year with this list of annoying words.
So in no particular order…
15 Most Overused Words of 2009
1. Twitter – Alright, I kind of like Twitter, but it seemed like a few politicians tweeted from the State of the Union about the same time Shaq and a few NBA guys started tweeting, and suddenly everybody in America was suddenly on Twitter. I could have used the word “tweet”, too, but I think I hear the brand name more often. One advantage is that we hear about Facebook less these days.
2. Zeitgeist – As in “Google Zeitgeist”. It seems like everywhere I go online these days, I’m seeing something about Google Freaking Zeitgeist. Okay, I’ll admit that I looked at Zeitgeist to make sure I didn’t overlook an overused word, but I still hate Google Zeitgeist.
3. Michael Jackson – Okay, “Michael Jackson” is two words, but it’s a name and this list shouldn’t exist if it doesn’t have the “King of Pop” on it. For all these people saying Jackson will go down as the greatest entertainer in history, where were you the past five years when Michael Jackson was so invisible that most people thought he was living in Dubai or somewhere. And as big a phenom as he was back in the day, Michael Jackson hasn’t really been relevant (on the charts) for most of the past 15-20 years.
4. Twilight - I think this movie came out in 2008, but it became ubiquitous again in 2009 when the movie came out on video. Any store you walked in had that guy with too much makeup on leering at you. Maybe it’s because I have a friend with a horror book store and we had to read that book for the store’s book club, but I really caught the full brunt of the Twilight nonsense in 2009.
By the way, not much happened in the book. I call Twilight “descriptive fiction”. Instead of seeing Edward doing much, we get 500 pages of Bella describing his face. “His eyes turned from gold to black…His face turned from angry to curious…He beautiful face darkened and then turned away.”
And Edward’s family? It’s a family of vampires, but they never talk or do anything cool. They’re just described to us over and over (except the baseball scene, but that wasn’t enough). You’re a vampire. Kill something.
Besides, how pathetic do you have to be to be 100 years old and still hanging around the high school? We thought kids were weird when they did that as freshmen in college.
5. Gaga – As in “Lady Gaga”, the dance-electronic-pop singer with hits like “Poker Face” and “Just Dance”, but who made her name by only performing in underwear. That kind of reminds me of those two Russian girls from a few years ago whose claim to fame was kissing each other onstage. Neither ploy is offensive in-and-of itself. I just don’t like such obvious ploys to get attention.
That being said, I was highly entertained by Michelle Phan’s Lady Gaga Poker Face Makeup Tutorial, which I found looking at Lady Gaga videos while writing this post. By the way, Michelle Phan is a doll (and I mean that as a compliment).
6. Palin – Now that Sarah Palin has resigned as Governor of Alaska, does this mean we get to stop hearing about her for a while. Well, it’s not too much to hope, right? Yeah, I’m living in a fool’s paradise. I’m betting that’s not the last time we’ll see the words “Sarah Palin” and “fool’s paradise” in the same paragraph. Bada-bing!
7. Bailout – I could have said “Obama”, but Obama would have won the contest of most overused words of 2008 and I don’t think we should repeat ourselves. I don’t want this to be political, so I’m putting Palin to represent the Republicans and “bailout” for the Democrats and leave it at that. For my money, you could put “Democrat” and “Republican” as most-overused words every year.
8. Potter – I really have lost count of what number Harry Potter movie we’re on now. Don’t get me wrong. I saw the last Harry Potter movie, but I don’t remember a whole lot about it. There was a prom or dance or something, or was that the movie before?
It really does seem like JK Rowling just started using a random book name generator in these later books. I swear, half the titles from that Harry Potter Story Title Generator are as good or better than “Deathly Hallows”.
9. Quakebuttock – This probably won’t register by the end of 2009. At least, I hope “quakebuttock” doesn’t. But quakebuttock is somehow the most-searched term on the internet as of this moment. Um…for your information…quakebuttock means “coward”. Somebody needs their butt kicked over creating this word.
10. Avatar – I’m making a prediction with this one. I’m saying sometime in December 2009, we’ll all be trying to choke ourselves over the word “avatar”. That’s the name of James Cameron’s new movie, fully titled James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game, that’s getting crazy buzz for it’s next generation special effects.
Given that this is Cameron’s first written/directed movie since the all-time grossing Titanic and all the special effects people are raving about this mysterious project, the hype for this one is going to be huge. Whether this sci-fi film based on a video game (?) challenges Titanic for highest-grossing ever or is a complete flop, I know I’ll sick of hearing about this thing.
11. Apetow – I enjoyed the few episodes of Freaks & Geeks I saw, and then enjoyed watching the full series through Netflix. I enjoyed a few of Judd Apetow’s first few movies. But his movie-making has become a one-note performance these days, even with darker subjects and more gunplay. For something really funny, reading “How To Make Your Own Judd Apetow Movie” in 5 easy steps.
12. Zombies – I’m officially out on the zombie phenomenon. I read World War Z in our book club and loved it, but that was from 2003, when zombies were cool. I really enjoyed Zombie Haiku, which had the excellent haiku:
Brains brains brains brains brains
Brains brains brains brains brains brains brains
Brains brains brains brains brains
But it’s getting ridiculous when one of the New York Times Bestsellers is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Yes, it’s Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, except with zombie scenes added into the narrative for good measure.
13. Transformers – Did they really have a couple of gangsta robots? A movie with Megan Fox running around can’t be all bad, but there’s no way I’m handing out my money to watch gangsta Transformers. Maybe I’ll give it a Netflix watch, but only maybe.
14. Swine – I don’t want to make light of the plight of those who suffered from swine flu, so I’m not going to say anything breezy about swine flu. But when the media beats infection stories to death like this, I’m afraid it’s going to make media burnouts like me skeptical when the really killer disease hits the mainstream.
15. Slumdog – I actually saw a British movie poster for “Slumdog Millionaire” that called this film the “Feel Good Movie of the Decade”. I defy anyone to watch Slumdog Millionaire from start to finish and call that a feel-good movie. Those people were miserable for pretty much every single minute of the movie, except the last one. Well, and that really cool dance scene in the credits.
Honorable Mention Most Overused Words: Katy Perry, Bing, Kobe, Lebron, Vick, HP6
How about “palpable”
All of the sudden print reporters love to use the word that formally was used mainly by doctors who were able to “feel” a tumor or other malady.
hola
i know french bonjur
How about “problematic?”
HATERS, HATING, HATING ON
It’s not hip to be negative so stop going around calling people haters. I also thought the “hatin” thing was on its way out in 2005 after a minimal run from 2001-2004.
Ever is sickeningly overused. I want to vomit when I hear or read anout something being the worst ever.
“Apatow,” not “Apetow.” An apetow is what you get when your gorilla gets a flat tire.
I HATE…”At the end of the day…”PLEASE STOP saying that!!!!
Basically! I HATE THAT WORD!!!!
The word “Bundle” in every damn cable company commercial makes me wanna blow my brains out
Actually, all the titles of the Harry Potter series relate perfectly to the stories their based on. You’d probably understand that better if you read the books rather than waiting every year or two for another crappy movie to pop out.
I agree with most else you’ve said, though, particularly the thing about Twilight. And really accurate prediction on Avatar’s popularity, btw. Personally, I loved it