Lexicon. Derived from this bit in Steve Martin’s 1991 movie, L.A. Story:
L’Idiot is the hot restaurant of the moment, and pronounced as if French (as one might expect from the apostrophe). The phrase is generally used when someone is being a dick.
“I see Congress has cut Medicaid spending.”
“Part of the New Cruelty?”
Interestingly, the New Cruelty also shows up with lightning speed in this deleted scene that featured John Lithgow:
“And that’s what’s wrong with publishing today.”
Lexicon. Mild reworking of a bit William Goldman has in his foreword to Morgenstern’s The Princess Bride:
WHEN I WAS twenty-six, my first novel, The Temple of Gold, was published by Alfred A. Knopf. (Which is now part of Random House which is now part of R.C.A. which is just part of what’s wrong with publishing in America today which is not part of this story.)
Usually used to illustrate something being overly intricate:
”That restaurant is run by Fussmucker, but it’s owned by Muckenfuss, which is really a part of Gilded Octopus, LLC.”
”And that’s what’s wrong with publishing today.”
Lexicon. Usually used affectionately. From Steel Magnolias. A mild re-working: “You are evil. And you must be destroyed.”
From Denis Leary’s 1997 comedic routine/record/video Lock ‘N Load. Lexicon. Re-worked from the original (“You took the donut, you dunked it in coffee. Thus the fucking title of the place!”), as he explains why Dunkin Donuts is called that.
Used when it can explain a tautology:
“Turns out Hal’s Tavern is owned by a guy named Hal.”
”Hence the fucking name.”
(YouTube isn’t letting me embed any of the many videos with his Lock ‘N Load “Coffee” segment. Hence the fucking link. [see?] Not sure why the curly quote algorithm is broken in that line above, but I’m out of spoons for what I thought would be a quick entry.)
Lexicon. Also Galaxy Quest. An expression of exasperation. Kids today say FML, but that’s not a cute reference to a (today) 24 year old movie, so it’s clearly inferior.
Lexicon. From Galaxy Quest. Sometimes re-worked to, “Does the {x} help?” where x is something odd.
From Blake Edwards’ other great movie, The Great Race. Lexicon, obvs.
Lexicon. A two-word portmanteau, referring to the candy Almond Roca, and to how our dogs will root around in our cats’ litter boxes, looking for cat turds to eat.
Lexicon, but usually misquoted as, “Verbing weirds nouns.” Close reading shows Watterson tosses in adjectives as well.
Lexicon. Only mine. From the movie Lawrence of Arabia:
Lawrence: Good morning, sir.
General Murray: Salute! (Lawrence salutes, in an offhand gesture) If you’re insubordinate of me, Lawrence, I shall put you under arrest!
Lawrence: It’s my manner, sir.
General Murray: (flatly) Your what?
Lawrence: My manner, sir. It looks insubordinate, but it isn’t, really.
General Murray: You know, I can’t make out whether you’re bloody bad-mannered or just half-witted.
Lawrence: I have the same problem, sir.