Catchphrases are Language That’s All the Rage

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Elizabeth and I’m calling from New Orleans.

Hey, Elizabeth, we’re glad to have you. What’s up?

I think I’ve kind of noticed this evolution from using catchphrases to words to just sounds.

Like an example would be the very famous Matthew McConaughey.

All right, all right, all right.

It’s evolving. People are saying it without the accent or even knowing where it’s from.

And I think that’s kind of cool.

I also did it with Despicable Me, everybody saying goodbye like Steve Carell does in the movie.

But I didn’t know that.

I just heard people saying it.

I thought it was fun, so I was saying it that way without knowing it was from Despicable Me.

How does he say it?

I haven’t seen the movie.

Oh, I think you guys are going to ask me to do the voice.

It’s like goodbye, just in a fun little way.

And I didn’t know what my siblings with kids knew.

I just thought that was really goodbye or very fascinating.

There’s a Disney movie called Heavyweights where they say the word buddy in a funny way.

And my siblings and I and people who went to summer camp with because it’s a summer camp movie, we all said it that way.

And now my friends are saying it and it’s just kind of evolving.

So I was just curious about what that evolution is called or if it’s been done before.

Know, if we’re in a cycle where we’ll be in catchphrases and colloquialisms 20 years from now, you know what I mean?

Yeah, you’re very perceptive.

You’ve noticed a thing that is an essential part of human connection, part of in-group behavior where we share these catchphrases and these, I guess what we would call them as vocal memes or prosodic memes even as part of our peer group behavior to just kind of show that we belong.

So the classic one that you mentioned, the Matthew McConaughey’s, all right, all right, all right.

But that is from the movie Catch Me Up Here.

I honestly don’t know.

You don’t?

There we go.

I honestly don’t know.

But do I know the word?

Yes.

Do I know it’s Matthew McConaughey?

But as my sibling who’s 10 years younger, he has no idea.

And you don’t even remember which, and you don’t even remember the film, and you probably don’t even remember where you learned them from, right?

Exactly.

So this is like a 30-plus-year-old movie, and we’re still kind of vocalizing this meme of it.

And these are known as vocal memes or prosodic memes.

And this continues a behavior that we’ve long had in English or any language.

People do this.

And it continues something that happened in the calls of vendors on the street when a vendor would be selling hot cross buns.

Or you go to the ballpark, and they’ll say, popcorn.

Hot dogs.

And you say it in a particular way.

You don’t say hot dogs.

You say hot dogs.

Popcorn.

Right?

And there’s a way that you have to say it because this is how you’re taught and you pass it on to somebody.

And you don’t even really need to hear the words to know what is met.

And it’s about the context.

And even Shakespearean performance has these traditions of certain lines being said in certain ways.

And obviously good performers will break out of these traditions and give it a new spin with particular force.

But friends, Romans, countrymen, or a horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse.

Or to be or not to be, that is the question.

And all of these have a thing to them, right?

And my son had one of these.

He didn’t know where it came from.

He had no idea.

But he said, say hello to my little friend from Scarface.

And he had no idea that it was a movie with Al Pacino about a drug lord.

He had no idea.

So partly it’s about the catchphrase.

And partly it’s about the impact of this performance that we execute.

We’re imitating all the other people and their performances.

Or the one that I really love is that we’re going to need a bigger boat from Jaws.

Which now is what, a 40-plus-year-old movie?

Is it almost 50 years now?

And a lot of times people will kind of clone it, and they’ll say, we’re going to need a bigger whatever.

It won’t be a boat.

We’re going to need a bigger whatever.

But it’s still in that same kind of tone that the phrase was said in the original movie.

Absolutely.

That’s fascinating.

But it goes back even further.

Classical orators did this.

They emphasized this voice modulation, this rhythmic delivery, particularly for certain kinds of speech.

So a lot of this, again, so there’s multiple facets here.

Some of this is about just catchphrases that catch on, we say them because they kind of pass along like jokes and humorous things, but sometimes because they slot into a need to represent a moment with an emotion and a feeling, and these phrases and the emotions and the ways that we intonate with them fit perfectly into that moment.

That totally makes sense. Oh my gosh, it’s all fascinating.

Yeah, and there’s so much more, but my producer’s going to chase me out of the studio if I go much longer.

I understand completely. Well, I appreciate you guys answering my question.

Like I said, I was a longtime listener, a huge fan of you guys, and so thank you guys so much.

Elizabeth, we’re so glad that you called, and of course you have to leave us with one of those goodbyes.

Of course. I’d say goodbye.

Goodbye.

Goodbye.

Goodbye.

Goodbye.

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