Catch Phrase/Real Life

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Real Life catch phrases.

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Other Examples

  • Hello! Project examples:
    • Niigaki Risa: USOOOO!
    • Michishige Sayumi: Usa-chan Peace!
    • Tanaka Reina: Otsukareina!
    • Linlin: Bacchiri desu~
    • Umeda Erika: Tsukatta towel! (Used towel!)
    • Hagiwara Mai: Check it out!
    • W: W desu!
    • Ishikawa Rika: Happy~♥!
  • Humor columnist Dave Barry: "I am not making this up" and "(Silly phrase) would be A Good Name for a Rock Band."
  • Walter Cronkite [CBS Evening News, 1962 - 1981] ended almost every broadcast with "...And that's the way it is". He even carried it over to when he voiced a character in We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story.
    • Parodied BTW in Bruce Almighty with "...and that's the way the cookie crumbles."
      • And that's the way, uh-huh uh-huh, I like it, uh huh, uh huh.
  • Edward R. Murrow ended his broadcasts with "Good night, and good luck."
  • Emeril Lagasse: "Bam!" and "Kick it up a notch."
  • Rodney Dangerfield: "I get no respect, no respect at all." As subverted in an episode of The Simpsons that he guest starred in.
  • The great radio broadcaster Walter Winchell (1897-1972) began every radio broadcast with "Good evening Mr. and Mrs. America from border to border and coast to coast and all the ships at sea. Let's go to press." He would then proceed to talk at 197 words PER MINUTE.
  • Glenn "Instapundit" Reynolds: "Heh. Indeed." This phrase is required to appear in any of the many mockeries of him, his blog and his politics.
    • Read the whole thing.
  • Paris Hilton famously overuses, "That's hot."
  • "AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!"
    • OI! OI! OI! (Interestingly, a Catch Phrase is mentioned on this page, but it has nothing to do with that little bit of responsive cheering.)
  • "And they same I'm boring", Fernando De la Rua
  • "Follow me, I'm not gonna let you down." and "To the triumph!", Carlos Menem
  • "The people united will never be defeated!", Juan Peron
  • "My vote is not positive", Julio Cobos
  • "I'm the father of defeat" and "We are condemned to sucess", Eduardo Duhalde.
  • P.T. Barnum's catchphrase was often said to be "There's a sucker born every minute" when it was really "There's a customer born every minute".
  • In popular culture Elvis's catchphrase was often said to be "Thank you, thank you very much".
  • HI, Billy Mays HERE!
  • Barack Obama's "YES! We can!"
    • Actually this is more a Democratic Party catchphrase, as it has been used by several other campaigns over the years. More often, I see the Spanish version (Sí se puede!!), which I even have a button for.
    • And, by extension, John McCain's "My friends..."
  • "Hello, Americans, I'm Paul Harvey. Stand by for news!"
    • "Now, page 2."
    • "Paul Harvey...Good day?"
    • "And now you know the rest of the story."
  • Toy critic Michael Mozart has a couple "Really!" and "What were they thinking!"
  • Difficult to categorize is Andy Kaufman's Foreign Man character, who didn't understand comedy but was so enthusiastically inept that one couldn't help but feel bad for him. Anyway, his catchphrase was "Tannk You Veddy Much."
  • Glenn Beck:
    • "Hello, you sick, twisted freaks."
      • "Hello, America."
    • "But here's The One Thing"
    • "Now, I am may not be X, but I am a thinker."
    • "From New York, goodnight America."
  • The historian Robert Caro's epic Crowning Moment of Awesome, The Years of Lyndon Johnson has two that are used as themes throughout the books. The first, said by Lyndon himself is, "If you take care of everything -everything- you'll win." The second, said by one of Lyndon's childhood friends is, "He just had to win. Had to!"
  • This blogger ends the first paragraph of several articles with "He's wrong, here's why." Recently Lampshaded.
  • "God Bless America" was a popular speech closer among U.S. politicians. It's dropped off in popularity over the past several years, though.
  • "Hello everybody, I'm Don Newman, welcome to the brooaaadcast." Longtime CBC political correspondent Don Newman.
  • Michael Caine: "Not a lot of people know that" (actually a Beam Me Up, Scotty- it's from a Peter Sellers spoof) and "My name is Michael Caine". Madness turned the latter into a hit record.
  • The newsgroup comp.sys.sinclair has many Catch Phrases amongst long-term regulars. From The Fast Show they nicked borrowed "I'll get my coat" (usually rendered as "IGMC") as a way to abruptly end a post. An even more abrupt (and usually euphemistic) ending is [NO CARRIER] or some variant. Then there's replying to "name this game" requests with "it's definitely not Stonkers", and responding to sundry remarks with "you said that yesterday"... The list goes on.
  • Joe Elliott says "Don't forget us, and we won't forget you" at the end of every live gig.
  • Thomas Babington Macaulay (who was very intelligent) was wont when he was a child to refer to some item of knowledge as "what every schoolboy knows".
  • "You're fired!" - Donald Trump.
    • And Lord Sugar
  • "I agree with Nick!"
  • Bruce Forsyth has a lot which all started on specific TV shows but which he then seemed to carry into everything else he ever did. Most famous are "Nice to see you, to see you... [Invites audience to say 'Nice']" and "Didn't he do well?". In recent times he has also adopted "I am not doddery, doddery I am... [Invites audience to say 'Not']" as a sort of self-parody.
  • "Thank you for your very amusing review. After reading it, in fact, my brother George and I cried all the way to the bank." - Liberace
  • Garrison Keillor ends every broadcast of NPR's Writer's Almanac with "Be well, do good work, and keep in touch."
  • Nathan Fillion's "Bam, said the lady."
  • Greg Gutfeld:
    • "And if you don't agree, you're a racist homophobe/worse than Hitler."
    • "It's my disgusting sidekick, Bill Schulz."
    • "Let's see what we've gotten wrong so far, for that we go to TV's Andy Levy."
    • "Now we go to TV's Andy Levy for the pre-game report. Andy, what's coming up on tonight's show?"
  • Chick-fil-a (a fast-food restaurant that specializes in chicken and is closed on Sundays) employees are required to say "My pleasure" any time a customer says "Thank you."
  • Did somebody say George Takei? Oh Myyy!
  • Lloyd Robertson of CTV ended his lead anchoring days [1984-2011] with "And that's the kind of day it's been".
  • Keith Olbermann's news cast is awash with catchphrases, from the opener ("Which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow?") to the signoff ("That's Countdown for this the xxxxth day since the previous President declared 'Mission Accomplished' in Iraq. Good night, and good luck"), the last in Homage to Edward R. Murrow. In between there is "Worst Person in the woooorrrllld!!!" (which is another homage, in this case to Bob and Ray).
    • It shouldn't be possible for "Sir" to be a catchphrase, but somehow...
  • HM The Queen has "My husband and I..."
  • Foster Hewitt had a couple when he was the announcer for Hockey Night in Canada:
    • He started every broadcast with, "Hello, Canada, and hockey fans in the United States and Newfoundland" (until Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949)
    • "He shoots, he scores!"

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