"It's the story of my life!"

The BBQ Pit
1

“It’s the story of my life!”

Really fucking funny, asshole!

What is it with all these people who spout this phrase and think they’re being so clever and witty?

The expression has been around for so long that it itself can no longer be funny, and it’s not like it takes a genius to find an appropriate context for it!:

“Hey, you just missed the best part!”
“That’s the story of my life!”
I’ll give you a fucking story, it goes like this: Once upon a time, FUCK YOU!

“I know you tried hard, but you just can’t when them all.”
“That’s the story of my life!”
FUCK YOU!

“He said he’d do it tomorrow”
“That’s the story of my life!”
FUCK YOU!

“Hey, what’s for dinner?”
“That’s the story of my life!”
Great! Can I get it with a side of FUCK YOU?

The other thing that pisses me off is the implicit faux-martyr sentiment in the expression. It’s like, wow, look at this guy! That’s so fuckin cute what he did! He said something humble about himself, about how fucked up his life is, so now we can pretend that we think that he’s not kidding and pretend that we both think we’re going to feel sorry for him, and also relate to him, because our lives are so fucked up too! It’s the story of our lives. Fuck you!

In order for the expression to be funny, you have to use it a new situation, for example, let’s say you’re Samuel Johnson, and somebody points at this book by Boswell and says, what’s that?

That’s your cue to say, it’s the story of my life.

So unless you’re Samuel Johnson, forget about being funny with that stupid fucking trite hackneyed platitude of an excuse for a totally idiotic joke.

2

But … it’s the story of my life!

3

Someone get turned down by the Reader’s Digest?

4

I was all set to say something arch and superior to the OP, until I read this part:

Which justified the entire rant, as far as I’m concerned.

Very nice.

5

So do all idioms bother you this much?

6

Bwahhahahahahahah
Once upon a time, FUCK YOU!
Whenever I have a child that is going to be their bedtime story when they aren’t behaving.

7

You call this shit an idiom?

No, idioms don’t bother me. I’m a fucking linguist. I live and die by idioms.

This is more than an idiom. This is the sorriest attempt to sound cute I’ve ever seen.

8

Although, actually, it was Johnson who wrote the Life of Boswell, and not Boswell who wrote the Life of Johnson. :slight_smile:

9

Sundog66-

Could I pleas eplease use the Once upon a time line as a sig. Please, please, please with grilled cheese.

10

Unless, of course, you live in the real world, where Boswell wrote the book.

I’m sorry…it’s late, and I’m tired…

<slinks off like an idiot>

11

I feel your pain, Captain.

12

I enjoyed that rant.

It reminded me of the Joe Pescie character in “Casino.” Which was on USA network last night. Probably tonight too. I think they must be up to their 112th showing of it this year.

Picture that character reading this rant. It just fits. Like that sceen where he is playing blackjack and he keeps getting all those face cards. Funny.

13

Yes.

Most of the time when I hear it, it’s not an attempt to sound cute. I wonder whom you’re hanging out with.

14

So … “Even as we speak” represents no problem for you. There’s only “It’s the story of my life!” that really twists your knickers?

15

Go ahead.

In regard to the specific queries addressing my stance on other expressions, I will say that there are some expressions that don’t annoy me (“Even as we speak” isn’t that bad, especially if I don’t stop to think about it), and there are some others that do annoy me. Nevertheless, I’m fairly sure that the story-of-my-life one upsets me more than any other, at least for now.

16

Uh… whenever I use this (and I can’t recall that I have much), I’m not trying to sound clever and witty. Why in the world would anyone “try to sound clever and witty” by repeating a common idiom?

It’s just an easy way to say, “This kind of thing has been happening to me frequently all my life, and I expect it to continue to frequently happen to me.”

17

No, like the man said, it’s martyrdom. Personally it really depends on whether the person says it with some verve & personality or if they repeat it over and over again. Most things are tolerable occasionally, it’s those motherfuckers that are like a stuck fucking record that irritate me, of course that is the story of my life.