Frick.

I'm very happy with the pilot I started writing Thursday. I've made alot of headway today. It's an exciting, funny, very unusual sitcom... assuming the planet can still support electricity in the near future. I mean, honestly, look at what we've done to this planet.

Double frick.

http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles/_a/southern-ocean-loaded-with-carbon/20070518204409990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001

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So I've been thinking about catchphrases, or signature words a character might use to make him more memorable. Look at the Scrubs one I used earlier in this post. Lots of sitcoms and even some dramedies employ them. How I Met Your Mother has Barney's choice spins on "It's gonna be legen -- wait for it -- dary" and "Suit up." Grey's Anatomy has "Seriously" and the rather trite "You don't get to.../I don't get to" stuff. Joey had "How you doing?" on Friends, and the whole "We were on a break" phrasing which persisted until the very last episode. Seinfeld provided us with "Newman," which seemed to become less of a name and more of a disparaging comment, as well as "No soup for you," which I still use today. Firefly had "Shiny." Sex and the City brought us the art of sticking the f word in the middle of an adjective, such as "Fan-(curse word)- tastic." Michael on The Office employs "That's what she said" like he has Tourette's. The obsession with catchphrases and their cousins was even a major plot point on Extras, which had a show within the show where the irritating catchphrase was "Are you having a laugh? Is he having a laugh?" -- and so while writing the pilot, I can't help but think of signature phrasing.

Which is clearly dangerous. While I should be on the lookout for something with a hook, it has to come organically, otherwise it will drive people away. And just because a phrase might be something repeated often by a character doesn't mean it will attain the cache of a great catchphrase. It just might end up becoming annoying...