Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Banned Words of 2011™: Countdown to the Final 10

Updated below!

It's time to submit final entries, debate the existing entries, and to cull the 2011 list. New items in bold. Please add your suggestions in comments.

Because it's never too early to put the world on notice...

  1. Frenemies
  2. Social Media
  3. Sexting
  4. Obamabot
  5. How's that workin' out for ya?
  6. Establishment
  7. Mainstream
  8. Lamestream
  9. Emboldened
  10. Litmus Test
  11. Blowout preventer
  12. Top Kill
  13. Real Housewives of ___________
  14. Gaga
  15. Junk Shot
  16. Enthusiasm Gap
  17. Mixologist/Mixology
  18. Folks (when uttered by any politician)
  19. Elites
  20. Hysterical
  21. Breathless
  22. Fee Fees
  23. Structural Unemployment
  24. Epistemic Closure
  25. Hippie Punching
  26. Bipartisan (itchy brother, from comments) "Bipartisan" made the 2009 List, but clearly, the banning did not take; so it needs to be banned again.
  27. The American People (when uttered by any politician) (Jill from comments) (Remember Harold Pinter's 2005 Nobel lecture: "Language is actually employed to keep thought at bay. The words 'the American people' provide a truly voluptuous cushion of reassurance. You don't need to think. Just lie back on the cushion. The cushion may be suffocating your intelligence and your critical faculties but it's very comfortable.")
  28. Homeland (Major Woody from comments)

Here are your 2010 and 2008 lists.

25 comments:

ItchyBrother said...

Compromise.

Anonymous said...

Can we make the 25 Banned Words of 2011 and just have a party to celebrate them?

matt said...

my candidates:

'don't touch my junk'
sarah palin
shovel ready

Pierre Tristam said...

Just sayin'.

Montag said...

Umm, conflicted about "hippie punching."

It's still going on, even though the phrase may be getting tiresome.

What new phrase replaces it?

MD said...

Shared ________ (pain, commitment, etc)

geor3ge said...

Deficit hawks.

Anonymous said...

7-dimensional chess

Anonymous said...

"My son Trig."

MarkC said...

Hopey Changey

pansypoo said...

uncertainty.

and by giving returds what they want, 2012 is looking very gppd.

ItchyBrother said...

Bipartisan

Anonymous said...

pwnd

pansypoo said...

ok, where's spellcheck?

you think the republikkklans were gonna be REASONABLE???

dave™© said...

Obama.

Jill said...

Refudiate! Also, any politician (especially Boehner)referencing The American People.

Michael said...

No particular word, but anything Mitch McConnell or Jon Kyl say. They both come across as rank assholes to almost anyone...except your Washington press corpse [sic].

Anonymous said...

"Growing a (business)."
It's unnatural to "grow" a bizness. You can grow a beard, your tools can "grow" legs, but the thought of "growing a business" repels me. I've been in business forty plus years, and have no idea what idiot came up with that metaphor of growing.
Some republican who never worked very hard to get a business going, I reckon. Like sunlight and a little water and hoeing, and horsehit terms like "growing" will make a bidness grow. Work, perseverance, more work, patience, more work.... Vox

Marcellina said...

It's still fairly new but I assume we'll be tired of it soon enough, if not by the end of this year:

Hacktivist.

AKjah said...

I have to go with "American people" Thats like saying i have gobs and gobs of stuff.

Anonymous said...

The professional left?

Major Woody said...

Good one Anonymous! Here's one I really, REALLY hate, which may have already been banned:

Homeland

As in "Homeland Security" or "Protecting the Homeland", a phrase that seems to have come into common usage in the news.

AKjah said...

OK all. Find all the useless uses of P in the fucking language. Start with nuematic. Man there is a sea of pee in me about P. Back then they must have had better drugs.

Anonymous said...

I second "homeland"... it's been an oversight since the 2002 list! It's got such creepy, nationalistic overtones-- like Vaterland.

Anonymous said...

Bartkid sez,
Our North Korean Allies.