I’m officially tired of hearing Elton John songs every time I go into to a store. Nearly three decades ago Daniel, Crocodile Rock, Rocket Man and Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (with Kiki Dee, oh my!) were popular on the radio. They’re still so popular with elevator music companies that they feel compelled to slip one of these in on their music tracks at least once every fifteen minutes. I’m beginning to think that there’s some legal loophole that allows them to play them ad nauseum without having to pay Sir Elton (and Kiki) any royalties at all. Occasionally, just for the heck of it, they’ll throw in Can You Feel the Love Tonight because it’s the only recent song of his that Americans readily recoginze.
I don’t mind Elton John in general. I realize he still has quite a following and I respect that he still writes new music, rather than resting his laurels on his old hits. I’m just tired of hearing the same old songs nearly every single time I walk into a store.
There might be certain particular Simpsons quotes that have been done to death. But Simpsons quotes, as a category, are so vast and multi-faceted that I can’t believe you’re sick of ALL of them. It just doesn’t seem possible.
What I’m tired of the cliche as exluder; if you don’t watch the Simpsons enough to recognize an obscure quote, then you’re likely to get whooshed.
Now Princess Bride quotes, there’s like 3 or 4 of those that have been done. To. Death. Simpsons, BECAUSE there are so many, they come at you from all sides, and the cliche dropper thinks he’s communicated something, when many of us are scratching his heads.
So I “object” to Simpsons cliches on different grounds, I guess. Anymore, if someone drops a non-sequitur, I say to myself, Must be a Simpsons reference.
I feel the same way about Firefly sometimes. My life doesn’t revolve around the series like so many of my friends and I’ve only seen the episodes and movie once and have no plans to see them again any time soon I don’t know all the quotes. That’s ok, I’ll get over it when they move on to something else.
Yeah. I’m a hardcore Buffyhead, but I think I only drop Buffyisms among other Buffyheads. I wouldn’t drop one in “mixed company” because it would only communicate anything to other Buffyheads. See? Instant exclusion.
I just smile and nod politely. I know people aren’t trying to deliberately exclude me from the conversation but that’s just life sometimes. My eyes pretty much just glaze over when people start talking about Firefly because I don’t really care all that much about the series. I recognize it as a decent series but I have a hard time forming a strong attachment to show that didn’t even last a whole season.
<sigh> Maybe I’ll start quoting Treasure Island and Peter Pan to them just for fun.
No, I know they’re not deliberately trying to exclude. Kinda my point. They think they’re communicating, but their “cleverness” is just sabotaging their conversation.