On a similar vein, every single episode of Cops I’ve ever watched, regardless in which US city it was taped, has every locational interrogative by the police ending with “at.”
Where’s your ID at?
Where do you live at?
Where’s he at?
Very jarring to these British/Canadian ears.
I hate the unnecessary addition of pre- to many words, such as drilled, packaged, planned, and just about any word ending in -ed. The -ed says it was done before, so the pre- is unnecessary.
I think they just want the end user to have a warm and fuzzy feeling of “oh, somebody already did that for me, Great!”
Although I wonder why “chopped garlic” doesn’t say “pre chopped garlic”.
Decimate means destroying or killing one out of 10. Now it means destroying/killing almost everything/everyone. Ticks me off. ARGH! I just looked it up and now the definition I know is “historical”. Pounds head against the desk.
Penultimate is the second to last, not the last. Ultimate is the last thing. Runs out of the thread screaming because this has set off all of my pet peeves.
OK, George.
Inflation.
Today I went nuts trying to untangle a bunch of music chords. I don’t know why, but tangled chords drive me insane.
People who think there are only two fonts in the universe, Helvetica and Times Roman. Guys: we are blessed to live in a time and place that have thousands of fonts literally at our fingertips. Why be stuck with only two?
And don’t get me started on kerning. The only thing worse than no kerning is over kerning.
People who can’t understand the correct use of its and it’s.
I had to look up what that is.
How about people who misuse the terms “font” and “typeface”?
The phrase, “It is what it is.” I have to bite my lip, when I hear people say this. Could you say anything less meaningful? Sounds like a valley girl to my ear. I always want to ask if they’re sure it isn’t what it isn’t?
Is there anything that isn’t what it is? No, there isn’t. Everything is what it is. When I hear someone I thought was pretty damn smart say this, I consider that I may be mistaken.
It is a meaningless phrase, that adds nothing. Except makes the speaker sound akin to a teenager saying, “Whatever!”
I never let on, but I confess, I’m a little judgey, inside, whenever I hear this stupid phrase. I’m sure it’s just me though!
Well, you are what you are.
I tried to make payments on my pre-owned car with pre-spent money, but they sent around a prehistoric-looking individual to drive it away.
As someone who’s been known to use that phrase, it always puzzles me when people say it’s meaningless. It has a definite meaning. It means “We have to deal with the situation as it is, not as we wish it were.” Quite a useful thing to be able to say.
You’ll get my “It is what it is” when you pry it from my cold, dead hands! 
Did you somehow get a Gmaj7, a C#m and a Dsus4 all tangled up with each other, or did you mean cords, better known as cables?
You’re welcome to it!
‘Dealing with the situation as it is, not as we wish’, is a fully formed and well expressed thought. Which I can totally appreciate.
“It is what it is”, is for people unable to recognize or express a fully formed thought, it seems to me.
The table? Is what it is! The door? Is what it is! The carpet? Is what it is! Everything, everywhere, always, is what it is!
Sorry, still a silly, meaningless, totally redundant, unnecessary, non illuminating phrase.
The expression is typically used in the context of a bad situation. It is also typically used as a response to another person whining about the situation without actually offering any solutions. The expression is, in fact, a fully formed and well expressed thought when taken in context.
Nobody points to a table and says “It is what it is.” I defy you to find a case of that ever happening, anywhere.
As Scumpup beat me to saying, the expression is used in the context of people complaining about a bad situation, and wishing that it just wasn’t so. If people were just pointing at random objects and exclaiming that they are what they are, you might have a point. But that doesn’t happen.
I agree. It’s a succinct way of saying there are things we can’t change, now what are we going to do in the meantime.