# History of phrase "It is what it is" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 22, 2013, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-phrase-it-is-what-it-is/674548 "2013-11-22T18:22:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-phrase-it-is-what-it-is/674548/1 "2013-11-22T18:22:12Z")
Tis doesn’t impress me as a terribly recent phrase, but over the past couple of months I’ve had the impression that I’ve heard this phrase way more frequently than ever before. I did just start working in a new place, so perhaps I am just being exposed to some individuals who use this phrase terribly frequently. Any thoughts as to the history/origin of this phrase? ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-phrase-it-is-what-it-is/674548/2 "2013-11-22T18:24:05Z")
Sorry all - should have done my search first. Voted top cliche of 2004 indeed! ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-phrase-it-is-what-it-is/674548/3 "2013-11-22T18:27:45Z")
And [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=468948). I ran into difficulty in my SDMB search due to the short words involved. ---
**Author:** ![EdwardLost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@EdwardLost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdwardLost)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-phrase-it-is-what-it-is/674548/4 "2013-11-22T19:56:43Z")
Funny to see this because I was just thinking of that phrase this morning. It was used, with modern inflection, in an episode of _Mad Men_ and it immediately struck me as anachronistic. I’m positive I didn’t hear the phrase when I was growing up and _Mad Men_ is set even before that. The writer, Matt Weiner, is roughly my age so I’m surprised he let that in. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-phrase-it-is-what-it-is/674548/5 "2013-11-22T20:14:12Z")
While I can’t recall specific instances of hearing it before, it did not impress me as a “new” phrase. But when I reported to work at this new place, I heard it used nearly daily by my #2. It is also used regularly by others in the office, undoubtedly as a result of his useage. AND - I’ve found it creeping into my own vocabulary - something I’m pretty confident I never said before. Amazing - and irritating - how insidiously infectious a phrase like this can be. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-phrase-it-is-what-it-is/674548/6 "2013-11-22T20:17:26Z")
First time I noticed it was Tony Soprano on “The Sopranos.” His character says it frequently. After that (confirmation bias alert!) I started noticing it more often. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-phrase-it-is-what-it-is/674548/7 "2013-11-22T20:25:11Z")
What it is, is one of my favorite Adam Again songs: [It Is What It Is (What It Is)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMyt4ULs25s) (1992) ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-phrase-it-is-what-it-is/674548/8 "2013-11-22T20:30:12Z")
I don’t know who invented it, but the guy I think popularized the phrase most was, like Tony Soprano, a Joisey guy: Bill Parcells. Presumably, Parcells was just using a phrase blue collar guys in New Jersey had been using for years. But as coach of the New York Giants, he helped turn the phrase into a sporting cliche. When I first heard the phrase, I liked it. It meant, essentially, “Deal with the facts as they are, not as you’d like them to be.” The two main ramifications? 1. If a star player leaves the team, either via trade, free agency, retirement or injury, there’s no point in a coach using that as an excuse. Lawrence Taylor is missing a big upcoming game with a broken ankle? No hand-wringing! “It is what it is- we just have to plug someone else in and make it work.” 2. If a talented team loses several close games, and winds up with a 7-9 record, the coach doesn’t want to hear his players claim they were better than their record, and that with a few breaks, they’d have been 11-5 and in the playoffs. "The record is what it is, and if you’re 7-9, you’re a bad team that doesn’t deserve to be in the playoffs. " But the phrase has been so overused as to become meaningless. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-phrase-it-is-what-it-is/674548/9 "2013-11-22T22:22:33Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > But the phrase has been so overused as to become meaningless. Amen.