Friday, May 20, 2011

Ode to Awesome


I was reading a blog post today and I was awed by it. Now what would I comment? "Awesome," right? Wrong. Awesome sounds entirely wrong...and it makes me sound like a bimbo. Or like a ten year old boy from Delhi who's just discovered that talking in English is "cool." No wait, "cool" is outdated. He disovered that talking in English is awesome.

My predicament about commenting reminded me of this Reader's Digest joke (you know, the ones they put below depressingly sensational or sensationally depressing stories to cheer you up?): How did "awesome" end up among such stalwarts of the English language such as and and the? (They named two more stalwarts but I can't remember them. Sorry.) And they were right. Everywhere you go: "Awesome!"

A new dress is awesome, a new house is awesome, a cotton candy is awesome, Katrina Kaif is awesome. What would Shakespeare think? Dan Brown got it right: Someone should ban that word.

Please let's stop using this word in every other sentence and reserve it for when we're really awed. (Most people who use "awesome" don't know what being awed means. For them: Say "Awe." That's what you look like when you're awed.) And please let's not confuse it with "Awful." (Some people do. Honestly.)

Image source: http://catcubed.com/


Oh, and no posts till the 27th of May; or possibly the 24th. One must attend weddings.

25 comments:

  1. Truly 'Awesome'. Yeah you are completely right with this. I am amazed to see the number of 'Awesome' that someone says....Is it the happening thing in english now? Anyway a really nice blog to read.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you! :) I think smileys are so much more expressie than "awesome."

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yeah, Shakespeare wouldn't mind smileys.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The other stalwarts must be 'of' and 'to'.I'm AWESOME,right?

    ReplyDelete
  5. @Anonymous: That was probably sarastic, but no, he wouldn't. He was a playwright, remember?
    @Varun: Thank you! You were awed, right?
    @Aishwarya: Yeah, maybe! It rings a bell. You are awesome. :D

    ReplyDelete
  6. And I meant expressive in the second comment.

    ReplyDelete
  7. What if it is company policy to use "awesome" in every other sentence??

    ReplyDelete
  8. So true. And I hate it when someone tries to bring in the american-cool-dude kind of accent and says "Awwwwww.....sum!". You're right. It is dumb.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Awesomely awesome way to discuss about the awesomeness of all things "awesome". :D

    Great post. I got to know about it through Sneha.
    Had a great laugh. Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Rightly said. A truly over rated word!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Awesome is so last week! Now, things are legen....waitforit........

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks Tarunima! I'm glad :)
    @Anonymous: I suggest you resign.
    @The Xeno: Thank you. I think I will write a post about fake accents soon.
    @Aurindam: Thank you! I suppose I should be thanking Sneha too :D
    @Vyankatesh: Thank you! I agree, it is. I just hope it's days are limited.
    @deadman: Hahaha, yes, this is probably a late post :D Can't say I'm waiting for the next word, though!
    @Neeraj: Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  13. haha thats "awesome" :P nah!!! this ones something i have been thinking of too :) how so many people uswe the word awesome everywhere that awesome has lost its 'awesomeness'

    thts a good thought :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Just 2 days before on 18th May, i have also published a post on 'Awesome'. This post somewhat sounds similar.Check out
    http://atlasshrugged-eccentric.blogspot.com/2011/05/awesome-awful-or-awesome.html

    ReplyDelete
  16. Now a days people have no time to read literature and are very weak on vocabulary. So any exclamation ends in AWESOME. Inclination to shorten the written language is another reason. In this rat race to catch up on materialistic world expecting any thing better is futile.

    ReplyDelete
  17. "good" beats "awesome" anyday. You bet.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I would still say it was awesome :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. @atlasshrugged: Yes, they're similar, only with different inspirations. *high-five*

    ReplyDelete
  20. I guess I would try to use now famous (by Poo, the Panda) Awesomeness. :)

    ReplyDelete
  21. Haha, I suppose that's still better than awesome!

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...