mail it in
v. phr.— «Actors often go through the motions, mouthing the dialogue in a natural way and simply following the blocking.…This kind of acting is often referred to as “mailing it in” or “walking through it.”» —by Delia Salvi Friendly Enemies Jan. 1, 2003. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
After hearing our conversation about how dictionaries decide on a preferred pronunciation, and specifically about how to pronounce aioli, Vern from San Diego, California, wrote to say that a friend once made fun of him for pronouncing grimace with a...