I was listening to a science and technology podcast called Babbage produced by The Economist and the guest used “streets ahead” as a serious way to discuss certain approaches to using AI! Here at time mark 29:24.
Anyone with other sightings of usage not as knowing reference to the show?
Today I learned…
Thanks for that.
So was already an established British phrase, even if usage has been of debatable breadth. Probably the guest did not pick it up from Community after all!
Here’s the scene from Community:
https://youtu.be/gCktKQKXNWg?si=5kfkHtCa_1kj4F5e&t=30
“Your social skills aren’t exactly streets ahead.”
I’m confused about the writers’ intent in the show. Apparently nobody else around the table has heard the expression before, they think Chevy is trying to invent a new expression. But the way Chevy uses the expression is not correct, for two reasons.
(a) The British idiom “streets ahead” is never used as an attribute, it is invariably comparative - X is streets ahead of Y.
(b) It would not really make sense to negate it, the point is to emphasize that X is far ahead of Y.
We might say “Your social skills are streets ahead of Britta’s.”
Presumably the idea is that Chevy (as an older guy) has heard the expression, but is trying to pass it off as his own invention? So is the fact that he doesn’t know how to use it an intentional part of the writing, or do the writers not know how to use it?
Correct. The full phrase is usually “streets ahead of the competition” like you’re racing in a marathon, and you’re currently placed further along the path.
From the article above:
Harmon was apparently making fun of it and the person who said it completely ignorant of its established usage.
And many of us, like me, have been ignorant of that usage too!
I’m still a bit confused about what you mean here. This usage was correct:
So was Harmon making fun of himself for not knowing the expression, in a self-deprecating joke?
Harmon was ignorant. His making fun of it was based on his being ignorant of the fact it was an established phrase being used correctly.
I realize that he was initially ignorant. But surely by the time he wrote the show he must have known?
No. Plus more characters.
It does not seem so. I have remained ignorant of that myself until today. Why surprising that he was for a few months?
The way Community is written makes it sound like Chevy really did just invent it. And I assume that you are not particularly invested in it!
Whereas Harmon was so intent on mocking this guy online over an extended period that he wrote the mockery into his show, yet at no point did he or any other writer on the show bother to google the expression? I find that… baffling.
And apparently the writer of that article also didn’t bother to google the expression.
I find it bizarre that there are only two possibilities with regard to Harmon.
(1) Throughout his extended online mockery and into writing it into his show, nobody told him it was an established British idiom, and he never googled it himself.
(2) He did find out, but rather than admit his mistake he continued the mockery, as though he were living in some alternate universe where the mockery was justified.
Either possibility makes him look an arrogant fool.
From the article:
EDIT: Claimed by amyfairycakes and a commenter, and verified by a friend who lives over there, “streets ahead” is a British/Irish term that’s relatively common over there. Fair enough. Harmon was evidently aware of this but continued unfazed with the mocking anyways.
Sure, but that was obviously added after the original article was written, when a commenter pointed it out. The author wrote an entire long article about an expression without bothering to google it. That’s incomprehensible to me.
The point is, it verifies that Harmon was told about it.
Oh, yeah, I did see that, but “was evidently aware” seemed a bit uncertain.
If he was aware, I think that’s a terrible look for Harmon. Why continue to mock an unremarkable idiom in another dialect, to which you ascribed the connotation street=cool that doesn’t exist because of your ignorance of the idiom, as though you live in an alternate universe where it was just coined by a random guy on the internet?
Because you are a bit of a jerk? I mean the making fun of the person’s word choice was already being a bit of an ass, and by then he was committed to it. He doubled down on punching down.
Yeah he seems to be a bit of a bully and an ass. Good show though!
Streets behind.