In a perfect world, the uttering of tired cliches would be punishable by imprisonment. This will never happen, and at the end of the day, perhaps something not so severe should be imposed. That said, if I never hear the two above cliches again, it will be too soon.
What are some of your most hated cliches?
I’ve always hated “Well, you never know!” Because, to be perfectly honest, most of the time you do know. I’m all for optimism, but let’s be realistic, huh?
The two I hate are :
“I’d tell you but then I’d have to kill you.”
“I wouldn’t kick them out of bed for eating crackers.”
Describing someone as “happy go lucky”.
Geez, I want to puke just writing that!!!
The oft mangled “I could care less” OTOH " I couldn’t care less is ok.
Maybe it’s all for the best–rarely is.
Maybe it’s better this way–see above.
Look at the bright side–there is rarely one.
I think they are OK for a >insert racial slur here<
And finally I know it’s more of a catch phrase than a cliche–All your base be…Ow who threw that?. Never mind.
I’m really tired of being introduced to a group of people only to have someone say “There will be a quiz on this later!”.
Likewise anyone using any variation of “I won’t bite - unless you want me to” deserves a good swift kick in whatever part of their anatomy the thought came from.
“You go, girl” and “Whazzup!” should never be uttered again by any sentient being. In retrospect that lets way too many people off the hook, change sentient being to anyone in the preceding sentence.
whenever I meet someone, they say “Pamela Anderson right?” Right, I look just like her. It was cute the first 500 times or so. Now it’s just old. Just because my name is Pamela also, it doesn’t mean I’m the Baywatch queen. I had my name long before she had her implants.
Musical cliches. You know the ones–Beethoven’s 5th is an example. Any type of great music that’s used over and over again in movies, cartoons, commercials (those are the WORST), etc. It makes me wince just hearing a great classical piece (or even vocal music like Oldies, Beatles songs, or music from the 70’s–as 80’s kids are growing up, you’ll see more 80’s songs out there, as well) being abused by advertising for antacids.
Anytime some new bill is introduced or some new law is recommended that is suppose to make our lives safer there is someone that will say “If it saves just one life …”. Just where would civilization be if it adopted just some of the things that would save just one life? Are there really people out there that think that can live in a risk free world?
“He gave 110%.” Right…then why did he fail?
“Do you want the good news or bad news first?” I want you to shutup.
“Who died and made you boss?” – Are you looking for suggestions?
The phrase I’m sickest of, and this is one that is used a lot on the SDMB, is (usually in reference to a movie) “that’s two hours of my life I’ll never have back” (or the equivalent). So? What two hours of your life can you have back?
“You can’t have your cake and eat it too.” WTF is that supposed to mean?
I realize it’s somewhat not in the spirit of this thread, but I think I can explain this one. It just means that you can’t keep your cake and eat it too. Like, it’s great to have cake, and it’s great to eat cake, but you can’t do both. Once you eat the cake, it’s gone, so you no longer have any cake. Hence, you can’t have your cake and eat it too.
That having been said, I think it’s a lame and overused cliche. 
I also HAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE the expression “on your plate”. As in, “So Jan, what’s on your plate this week? Think you can squeeze in some proofreading?”
I see this in print more than actually hear it…
“It was all I could do to keep from…”
What was all you could do? What the hell are you talking about?
Wazzup is just plain stupid.
Ian Fan wrote:
The phrase has been corrupted through usage to something that doesn’t make sense word-for-word. According to http://www.wordwizard.com:
The phrase has no definite originator, but its first citration comes in 1562, among John Heywood’s Proverbs and Epigrams: ‘What man, I trow ye raue, Wolde ye bothe eate your cake, and haue your cake?’
I hate all cliches like the plague.
“I believe everything happens for a reason.”
Some of my favorite people say this, and I find myself saying it… “It’s all good.” No, it’s not! Ok so a lot of is good, but a lot of it is pretty shitty too. And what is IT? Oy.
This is not so much a cliché as it is a current stock phrase:
“He cleans up rather nicely, doesn’t he?”
I really find this offensive, perhaps because it’s sometimes said to me upon those dread occasions when I have to wear a suit.
I don’t know if those who say it imagine they’re paying me a compliment. Of course, what they’re really saying is “You look like dogshit the rest of the time.”
I am actually perfectly content to look like dogshit but be comfortable, so I don’t really look upon this as a personal affront. I’m just offened by the speaker’s condescension and overall lameness.