Is it just me, or is the use of the phrase “it is what it is” on the upswing? I find myself using it - as in “no use complaining, let’s figure out how to move on.” But I feel like I am hearing it more in conversations and even on TV. Have you noticed this in your neck of the woods? Sorry I can’t provide specific cites; just a feeling I have…
If so, it reminds me of “don’t go there” - one of those phrases that seems to bump in popularity for a while…
In my case, I believe my ears perked up to it when I heard Nick Saban use it more than a few times in press conferences. He has a number of stock phrases and buzzwords he feels obligated to toss out and something about that one caught my attention.
That said, I’m sure I have heard it long before Saban’s usages, but how far back would just be guessing.
And yes, it’s moving into the overuse zone for my ears.
(There are quite a few threads over the years that have looked into the expressions that linger versus the ones that fade fast after the fad has burned out on them. “Cool” is one of the old-timers, as I recall. “Da bomb” couldn’t die fast enough for me!)
Yeah, I was assuming it has been in use for a long time - probably centuries - so I wasn’t looking for a starting point for it. If anything, that is kinda my point: it is a long-in-existence phrase that seems to be getting used more for some reason. The fact that you feel it is being overused gets at my OP - you also feel like you’re hearing it more…interesting.
It’s already past it’s peak, and declining. Pretty soon, it will be “it was what it was”.
Que sera sera! 
We are where we are.
I think the one that was more grating on my ears was the similar expression, often used in an exchange along the lines of:
A: What it is?
B: What it was; what it shall be.
There’s no good reason to stop with one iteration either! In fact, entire conversations could be had with no more content exchange than that.
Okay - so this is going to be one of “those” threads, i.e., a collection of funny responses, and not actually be a collection of responses to the OP?
Cool. I can deal with that - it is what it…nah. 
Denny Green’s use of a variant did him little good. “The Bears are what we thought they were. They’re what we thought they were.” etc, etc, etc. In fact, he was mocked mercilessly in one of the Coors postgame ads, by sports talking heads and others.
He wasn’t really being mocked for his choice of phrase. He was mocked because he was ranting - he’d totally lost it.
I’ve definitely noticed an upswing in its use, though I’ve only heard it from football coaches. It’s a totally pointless statement, though, and the only reason to say it is because you haven’t got anything meaningful to say.
In the circles I converse in, “it is what it is” seems to be declining in frequency lately. It serves a purpose in particular circumstances, when the speaker wants to move a discussion from something that can’t be changed to some fruitful area of discussion. As with many such phrases it got overused to the point of meaninglessness. I will not mourn its desuetude.
“It is what it is” creep started around 2000. I heard it first in a sports context, but that might be because I watch and read about sports more than other topics. Players and coaches discovered it was handy blow-off for reporters pestering them about things they couldn’t fix (as for example their team having no talent)–it is what it is.
Some time around the mid-2000’s it metastasized into business buzz-speak and all-purpose conversation filler. It spread more slowly and lasted longer than other expressions–way longer than “show me the money” or “the mother of all (x)”.
But all bad things must come to an end, and “it is what it is” is past its peak. It’s day is ending, just like “at the end of the day”.
See - I totally get where you and **RNATB **are going, Crotalus, and to that extent, sure, good riddance. But I find myself using it almost like “Serenity now” - i.e., a half-hearted attempt to remind myself that I am better off accepting this situation and dealing with it from there…but I can’t quite recall how it became my little under-the-breath mantra of choice…
As a shorthand version of the serenity prayer, I think it’s useful. Whatever mental switch you need to flip to move you from dwelling on the unchangeable is worth flipping. I’m just happy to be hearing it said out loud less often than I used to.
We need a new paradigm, so that “It is what it is” is eventually over. Let’s think outside the box. Going forward, let’s be game changers, grab some low-hanging fruit and make it happen. Are we happy to be stuck with the same catch phrases? Not-so-much.
Just sayin’…
My vote goes to I will not mourn its desuetude.
I thought “It is what it is” reached a critical mass when Roger Clemens used it during his testimony to Congress. But maybe not - the Slate article links to a William Safire “On Language” column from 2006.
But maybe that’s just Safire being Safire. :smack:
We have a winner! 
Marley - I never even thought to see if Safire had commented on it…fascinating…
It be’s that way sometime, man.
Too soon?
Too late?
I’d heard it before, but it really jumped out at me in the mid-90’s when Adam Again’s album Dig contained a song called “It is what it is (what it is)”
A foolish apparition
A donkey in a zebra’s coat
All I know is what I say, this one thing:
It is what it is what it is