Ad Hudler - Ad Libbing

A new blemish in the language
Tuesday, November 11, 2008

There's this very annoying trend among millions of people today that makes me, you know, angry. And, you know, you can hear it in conversations among teenagers and, you know, adults, and just about anywhere, you know, even in movies and on TV. And, you know, I really don't know where it came from, these annoying two words. And I'm not sure why we're, you know, infusing them into just about every sentence these days. I'm guessing that, you know, it's because we've completely devalued the spoken word with all the mindless, unnecessary chatter on cell phones and text messages and talk-tv and talk radio ... and so, you know, we feel the need to make a stronger case for whatever we're saying so we, you know, add a few "you knows" to try to convince increasingly skeptical listeners who, you know, probably aren't listening anyway?

2 Comments:

geeky Heather said...: Arghhhhhhhhh! My head almost exploded reading that.

The husband did this in the car this morning whilst trying to explain the subprime mortgage crisis in the context of accounting regulations. I had to tell him to stop because it was causing me too much cognitive overload to mentally stitch together the thread of his sentence across the "you knows". His response was, "Just kill me now. I don't want to be one of those people." So at least some of us care....; November 12, 2008 4:29 PM
Ad Hudler said...: Yeah....it takes a few caring people to uphold standards for all the rest.....Go, Heather!; November 12, 2008 7:55 PM