I have a thing for words. I’ve written about terrible words, annoying words, more annoying words, even more annoying words, happy words, and even difficult-to-spell words. Words are awesome.
Wait a minute. I just said “awesome”–which is one of our culture’s most overused, filler, meaningless words right now. Honestly, I probably say “awesome” way too often–and if I actually thought about what the word meant, I wouldn’t say it near as much.
Here’s an uncensored, profanity-laced rant from Louis C.K. about how we waste words like awesome. Sorry for the profanity, but it’s spot on.
As humans, we waste the shit out of our words. It’s sad. We use words like “awesome” and “wonderful” like they’re candy. It was awesome? Really? It inspired awe? It was wonderful? Are you serious? It was full of wonder? You use the word “amazing” to describe a damn sandwich at Wendy’s. What’s going to happen on your wedding day, or when your first child is born? How will you describe it? You already wasted “amazing” on a fucking sandwich.” - Louis C.K.
In his own way, he makes a great point.
Words like awesome have been used to the point that they’ve entirely lost their meaning. Generally speaking, that word has little meaning now other than just to say something is “cool.”
The birth of your child is awesome. The Grand Tetons are awesome. The cosmos is awesome. Your Wendy’s burger? Not awesome.
Thanks Louis C.K.
