"...not so much" - The New Hot Buzz Phrase?

[JSngry]

I've noticed a marked uptick in the usage of this phrase the lase month or two. What gives?

Huh?

[Larry Kart]

I've noticed a marked uptick in the usage of this phrase the lase month or two. What gives?

Huh?

Because "the powers that be" have decided that it's "spot on."

[Big Wheel]

I haven't noticed anything particularly in the last few months, but it does seem like it's become more popular in the last few years.

My completely uninformed guess is that Jon Stewart is actually responsible for the phrase becoming popular again. The ironic "not so much" when you really mean "the diametric opposite" strikes me as an old Yiddishism, though I have no evidence to prove it.

[Jazzmoose]

Huh. I thought it was older than the hills and that I was dating myself in using it. Then again, these days, I'll take any date I can get...

[Big Wheel]

http://www.azcentral.com/ent/pop/articles/1031catchphrases1031.html

[Ted O'Reilly]

I've noticed a marked uptick in the usage of this phrase the lase month or two. What gives?

Huh?

I think it's farther back than that. Big Wheel's right: at least a couple of years ago Jon Stewart was using it on The Daily Show. Memes multiply like mushrooms. (In the dark and covered in shit?)

Meme: a cultural unit -- an idea or value or pattern of behavior -- that is passed from one person to another by non-genetic means,as by imitation.

See: "Ginormous", or "Brangelina".

Now that I think of it, what happened to "truthiness" now that we're out of the bushes?

[JSngry]

Oh....so it's just now reaching critical mass...ok.

[Dave James]

[.:.impossible]

Oh....so it's just now reaching critical mass...ok.

Uh, yeah, no. Not so much.

So, I was reading one of my favorite websites the other day...

[Dave Garrett]

"Ginormous"

[Neal Pomea]

Good points on catchphrases.

12 Things We Should Toss (Wash Post, 5/9/2010)

Internet Memes - Joe Randazzo, editor of the Onion

"At some recent point, bacon became a meme. Bacon. The cured pork product that has been a staple food for hundreds of years was suddenly a fashion accessory for Internet style-mongers. There were odes and T-shirts and cartoons. People taped bacon to their cats and took photos. It was so ubiquitous that I started to hate bacon.

No one should ever have to hate bacon.

What used to be an amusing by-product of Internet use has mutated into something horrible: an insatiable parasite that impairs its host's judgment, rendering it totally useless. Instead of acting as an organic cultural touchstone, the modern meme -- from LOL... to Lolcats -- now sucks the joy out of our interconnectedness. It destroys uniqueness. Once an "enjoyable thing" becomes a "meme," we stop enjoying the thing for its own sake, but consume and regurgitate our enjoyment of it as a symbol of hipness, as if to say: "I am aware of this thing's popularity --- therefore I too exist!"

______

Also, why meme? We already had a word for that. Catchphrase. Another one. Fad.

Here are 2 I hate. Much. And Hmmm?

"Biting the hand that feeds you much? Hmmmm?"

[A Lark Ascending]

"Awesome" and "Word" when used by anyone not currently in a US high school (as a student!).

[Alexander]

The first time I recall hearing the phrase "not so much" was in the film "Borat." Borat is at a dinner party where there are two women present. One is very attractive, the other is a little less so. Borat is commenting on the very attractive woman:

"The men in my country, they go crazy for this one!"

Then he dismissively gestures at the other woman.

"...Not so much..."

But according to my research, Sascha Baron Cohen did not originate the phrase (however well it works in Borat's broken English).

Anyway, when I hear the phrase, I personally associate it with Borat, and I think that's a big part of its popularity.

[Big Wheel]

______

Also, why meme? We already had a word for that. Catchphrase. Another one. Fad.

A meme is a more general concept than a catchphrase and not necessarily transient, like a fad is. "Not so much" is a meme that also is a catchphrase, but bacon (or really, the wacky fixation some people seem to have recently acquired with bacon) obviously isn't a catchphrase. And I think it's at least arguable that that fixation isn't really a fad.

From wikipedia:

A meme...is a postulated unit of cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. (The etymology of the term relates to the Greek word μιμητισμός ([mɪmetɪsmos]) for "something imitated".)[2] Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes, in that they self-replicate and respond to selective pressures.[3]

The British scientist Richard Dawkins coined the word "meme" in The Selfish Gene (1976)[1][4] as a concept for discussion of evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. Examples of memes given in the book included melodies, catch-phrases, beliefs (notably religious beliefs), clothing fashion, and the technology of building arches.[5]

[Quincy]

I know it from Buffy, which is mentioned in the article Big Wheel linked to. To this day it's easy to spot people loved the show as Buffyisms will pop up when they speak.

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

The first time I recall hearing the phrase "not so much" was in the film "Borat."

But according to my research, Sascha Baron Cohen did not originate the phrase (however well it works in Borat's broken English).

I've heard this from people in Russia, Poland, etc many times over the past 30 yrs. But I think you're onto something with 'Borat' connection. My language tutor started mouthing it (always delivered w/wry smile) soon after she saw the film. Borat jump-started it over here.

[papsrus]

I thought "Get out of my fucking way you moron" was the new buzz phrase.

[papsrus]

[.:.impossible]

"Awesome" and "Word" when used by anyone not currently in a US high school (as a student!).

What? These are generational/cultural. Fourth quarter twentieth century worldwide usage in my traveling experience.

Sweet!

[Dan Gould]

I've never seen Borat for more than the length of a TV commercial but I've been saying "not so much" for the better part of this century if not longer.

[Alexander]

I've never seen Borat for more than the length of a TV commercial but I've been saying "not so much" for the better part of this century if not longer.

Well, you've been missing out, then.

I know a few people who are offended by Cohen's "gotcha" style, and in the case of pretty much anyone else, I would agree with them. I've always HATED shows like Punk'd and Candid Camera. I'm not one for practical jokes at all, and I find videos where people do stupid things just to baffle regular folks to be juvenile in the extreme.

What sets Borat apart is that Cohen exposes people who actually deserve to be exposed, such as racists, sexists, homophobes, and Republicans. One of the most brilliant of his bits was when he got a Holocaust denying redneck to admit that, not only did he really believe the Holocaust took place, but that he regretted that Hitler failed. Cohen then got the guy to admit that he would like to hunt Jews on his ranch ("People would shoot deer, then Jew." "That's right").

[Jazzmoose]

"Awesome" and "Word" when used by anyone not currently in a US high school (as a student!).

What? These are generational/cultural. Fourth quarter twentieth century worldwide usage in my traveling experience.

Sweet!

Yeah, they're hellacool...

What sets Borat apart is that Cohen exposes people who actually deserve to be exposed, such as racists, sexists, homophobes, and Republicans.

I didn't realize there were a lot of hidden Republicans out there...

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I thought "Get out of my fucking way you moron" was the new buzz phrase.

Nah, that's an oldie but goodie. In New York in 1996, I heard a car driver, belting across on the red, use it on his car horn to get the pedestrians out of the way. It worked.

MG