Irritating slang
Okay, I've been irritated with people saying "The fuck?/The hell?" for a while now. I think that originated with the first Blade movie when he mouths "what" but only says "the fuck?" Of course "What the fuck?" is a shortened version of something like "What in the fuck is going on here?", which in turn is a nonsensical version of "What in the hell, etc." "What the fuck?" has no literal meaning, but it can be interpreted as "What the fuck...?", implying trailing off before completing the sentence. (That's how I tend to interpret it, even if it's not intended that way.) But regardless of all else, "The fuck?" goes too far into complete nonsense for my tastes, and I can't even interpret it as "... The fuck?", as in Blade.
But the one that's really been bugging me is "What the literal fuck?" Okay, they put the "what" back in, which is cool, but they went and made it completely nonsensical. There's been an increase in the usage of "literal" as meaning its complete opposite in recent years -- "It's literally raining cats and dogs out there!" -- and the word is coming dangerously close to losing all meaning. It does sound good. It feels good to say! It feels like you're saying something that makes sense, if you don't think about it! But it's just jibberish.
In short, the internet gives me a headache.
But the one that's really been bugging me is "What the literal fuck?" Okay, they put the "what" back in, which is cool, but they went and made it completely nonsensical. There's been an increase in the usage of "literal" as meaning its complete opposite in recent years -- "It's literally raining cats and dogs out there!" -- and the word is coming dangerously close to losing all meaning. It does sound good. It feels good to say! It feels like you're saying something that makes sense, if you don't think about it! But it's just jibberish.
In short, the internet gives me a headache.