Copying people.

[holyzombiejesus]

Do you ever copy people? I do 3 or 4 things that I've basically nicked off others.

I pronounce poor so it rhymes with sewer rather than pour because I liked the way it sounded when an old friend from the North East used to say it.

If I stand on my doorstep, I will look up and down the street whilst rubbing my arms, like David in American Werewolf in London just before he changes.

I sometimes say "aw, man" just like a bloke called Paul I used to work with.

I used to say 'kinda' like someone else I used to know but am trying to ween myself off that one now. Also used to answer the phone with 'hey', which I copied off an ex-flatmate, again weened myself off that. They're both a bit cringey when said by someone past their forties.

[madhair60]

Do you ever copy people? I do 3 or 4 things that I've basically nicked off others.

I pronounce poor so it rhymes with sewer rather than pour because I liked the way it sounded when an old friend from the North East used to say it.

If I stand on my doorstep, I will look up and down the street whilst rubbing my arms, like David in American Werewolf in London just before he changes.

I sometimes say "aw, man" just like a bloke called Paul I used to work with.

I used to say 'kinda' like someone else I used to know but am trying to ween myself off that one now. Also used to answer the phone with 'hey', which I copied off an ex-flatmate, again weened myself off that. They're both a bit cringey when said by someone past their forties.

[Captain Z]

No but I've pasted a few

[Brundle-Fly]

Everybody copies everything they ever do off of other people. Next.

[Midas]

really everything anyone does is part of a patchwork of responses and behaviours copied from others

not me though! i come from in here *taps head*

[Midas]

Everybody copies everything they ever do off of other people. Next.

babies nibble milk bottle tops, look up "genetic mammary"

[Zero Gravitas]

I say "be seeing you" as a farewell, just like Patrick McGoohan.

I actually do this and can't stop.

[Oosp]

I've built my career on entire Denis Leary sets

[The F Bomb]

Personally, no. I am the world's original man of the 21st century.

[salr]

My brother-in-law has a certain way of scratching the facial hair on his cheek/jawline with the back of his fingers. I found myself doing it soon after I first noticed him doing it. I hate myself for it though because my bro-in-law is a cunt-bag.

[canadagoose]

I feel like tons of things like that that I do are copied from other people. One thing that I ended up doing during Covid was pronouncing "-air" like "err" because I was binge-watching Limmy and that's how he says that. I was in the living room and I said to my partner "look at his hair" or something and he said "herr?" in confusion. I tried to get rid of it but I still end up saying it like that sometimes.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Personally, no. I am the world's original man of the 21st century.

I'm truly original, a panther pink from head to toe.

[jobotic]

^ you definitely copied that. I just can't quite work out where from.

[flotemysost]

Oh god, I'm the worst for involuntarily adopting someone else's patterns of speech if I'm around them. Realised how bad it was when I was talking to some random at a festival and they asked whereabouts in Australia I'm from, which baffled me until I remembered one of my flatmates at the time (who I didn't even particularly get on with) was from Brisbane.

My brother's turned into a proper Northerner these days, actually pronounces vowels how they're spelled and all. Mind you my dad (Tottenham-born) does this too with certain words like "bath" and "graph", no idea where he gets that from but it would seem we're all basically just deeply unoriginal easily-led sponges.

I also once had the "infectious yawning" response after seeing a timid greyhound doing that canine nervous whining yawn thing on the Tube. Then I had to stifle a laugh and the dog got scared.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I've built my career on entire Denis Leary sets

I've done this but with Bartleby the Scrivener.

[Norton Canes]

Oh god, I'm the worst for involuntarily adopting someone else's patterns of speech if I'm around them

No, I'm the worst, and I'm not even being ironic. Stick me in the middle of a group of people and I'll immediately start adopting their phrases, speech patterns, expressions, postures, even their accents. Its blatancy is quite embarrassing, it's almost like I've got a... personality vacuum, or something.

[lauraxsynthesis]

Lots of things I say and do are the result of spending my teenage years religiously watching Monty Python. Picked up lots of intonation and pronunciation from Graham Chapman. No idea why him in particular as Eric was my fave. In more recent years, I've started exclaiming "Yaaaaaasss" from watching Limmy on Twitch. I've even picked up some mannerisms from my Jack Russell Terrier.

[lauraxsynthesis]

No, I'm the worst, and I'm not even being ironic. Stick me in the middle of a group of people and I'll immediately start adopting their phrases, speech patterns, expressions, postures, even their accents. Its blatancy is quite embarrassing, it's almost like I've got a... personality vacuum, or something.

Apparently a particularly extreme chameleon affect shows you're empathetic so it's a good thing.

[Norton Canes]

Apparently a particularly extreme chameleon affect shows you're empathetic so it's a good thing.

Oh. Cool, I like that.

[non capisco]

In more recent years, I've started exclaiming "Yaaaaaasss" from watching Limmy on Twitch.

Ha ha, same! I also recently realised when I'm typing into a search engine I always say what I'm typing out loud, which is 100% picked up from watching Limmy's stream.

[checkoutgirl]

I say "be seeing you" as a farewell, just like Patrick McGoohan.

I actually do this and can't stop.

I say "later yeah?". There's no way I came up with this myself. No way.

[Average Comedy Enjoyer]

I say "later yeah?". There's no way I came up with this myself. No way.

Sound like you nicked it from Modern Toss, yeah?

[TrenterPercenter]

later yeah is very common people where saying that back at my uni house in early 2000s, it sounded like it was copied from somewhere.  I've heard loads of unconnected people using it since.

[Sebastian Cobb]

do people still say 'in a bit', I do and it feels a bit juvenile as I've been saying it since I was about 13.

[dissolute ocelot]

I used to work with a guy who said "to be fair" all the time, which is something I definitely picked up.

I had another friend who used "Le sigh!" as an expression of woe, which I still use far too often. Even occasionally in speech. We also constructed an elaborate mythology around Amy Winehouse complete with numerous alternative names for Ms Fielder-Civil and frequent calls for her to be kidnapped and padlocked to radiators for her own good, but there's been less opportunity to refer to it lately.

And there are things copied off comedy, like Digitizer's mock-French. And multiple threads on things you heard on CaB and incorporated into your vocabulary. Mainly "Hi X mate!"

[canadagoose]

later yeah is very common people where saying that back at my uni house in early 2000s, it sounded like it was copied from somewhere.  I've heard loads of unconnected people using it since.

It reminds me of irritating posh students at Aberdeen Uni in the late 00s. UGHHHH

[dontpaintyourteeth]

do people still say 'in a bit', I do and it feels a bit juvenile as I've been saying it since I was about 13.

I do and everyone knows how mature I am so it's fine

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

A weird example I remember is from when we were in our early twenties, when a friend seemed to develop a crush on this softly-spoken, long-haired biker who had started visiting our local and who eventually became part of our little social group.

Not only did my friend adopt (an exaggerated version of) this bloke's Black Country accent, but also his facial tic, which involved occasionally screwing his eyes tightly shut before opening them really wide. Very strange.

[TrenterPercenter]

It reminds me of irritating posh students at Aberdeen Uni in the late 00s. UGHHHH

These were posh students in Bournemouth in the early 00s so it obviously took some time and made its way up there.  This is infinitely less annoying as that American byyyyyeeEEEEEEE stuff that people started doing semi-sarcastically for a bit in 2010s

[Mister Six]

I liked Adam Buxton's silly voices on XFM so much that I started doing them myself, and now I just break into a variety of daft voices to emphasise points when talking to Mrs Six. It's fun!

As a kid I also copied a bunch of catchphrases and tics from Your Sinclair and Amiga Power, and they still occasionally erupt into my writing like verbal lava. Or something.