Copying people.

[Mister Six]

Oh, and I nicked pronouncing acronyms as words (DVD as duhvuhduh, HDTV as huhduhtuv etc) from one of Kayvan Novak's Fonejacker characters. Still do that for fun. Pleasingly,* in this system the New York Public Library becomes "nipple".



* A genuine unconscious Amiga Power word, I think from Jonathan Nash.

[SpiderChrist]

After repeatedly watching my Dad's bootleg video of  Derek and Clive Get The Horn as a teenager, "Fuck a priest" is my most commonly used exclamation.

[seepage]

Radio Times = raddiottimmies

[jamiefairlie]

Completely stole the austere post-punk look from Ian Curtis for most of teens and early 20s before relaxing a tiny bit.

Adopted the Lee & Herring shtick like "do you see, ahhhhhhh, consider the Lilly, in his suit and tie" for a long time too.

[holyzombiejesus]

Radio Times = raddiottimmies

Nicked calling it 'The Rad T' off my mate Stuart.

[FeederFan500]

I had a period of trying to wrap up sentences really neatly, and I realised it was because it was the sort of dialogue they ended a lot of scenes with on Peep Show, but crucially, it was not how people actually talk. It wasn't a conscious project, I just ended up doing it.

[Rizla]

when forced to visit Glasgow, I always think to myself "glaz goz me lez be etter". Is it from Absolutely? I do "rest a) your aunt, rest b) your uncle" etc too.

[Cloud]

Oh god a LOT

More broadly I picked up "I was like xyz" but that's not really new now

"I mean..." when expressing an opinion - this might actually be picked up from other languages as I've seen "ich meine" come up on Duolingo German in that context so I wonder if the usage got adopted that way. 

More personally I pick up cutesy ways of saying things but usually only say those things to other people of the same mindset (furries basically) like adding "ies" to words like "sleepies"

Lots of deliberately bad English that is said because.... I don't know actually, again maybe it sounds "cute" or something.... "I'm doing the sleepies"... Probably comes from years of adaptation of lolcat speak.  Always impresses me when people whose first language isn't English also know how to do it - like, I struggle enough to learn a language, if people were deliberately using it wrong on the internet I'd just give it up as a lost cause.

I found myself saying "skill issue" at work, but this was in response to someone saying "sounds like a Them Problem"

[jamiefairlie]

I can do manager speak fluently but I try to laden it with as much eye rolling as I can, something that infuriates my upper management who are paid to pretend to believe this shit.

[dex]

I can do manager speak fluently but I try to laden it with as much eye rolling as I can, something that infuriates my upper management who are paid to pretend to believe this shit.

Ha! Nice one.

[Kankurette]

If I'm in Liverpool or around Scousers, I get a slight Scouse twang.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

If I'm in Liverpool or around Scousers, I get a slight Scouse twang.

Is that them pulling your bra strap?

[Kankurette]

Once I did get asked by a member of Space if I wore a bra.

[AllisonSays]

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.

I do this too, so you, me and flotes will need to fight it out for who has the worst personality vacuum/is the most empathetic.

The shit thing for me is that I've lived in Belfast, Dublin, south of England, north of England and Scotland in the last 15 years so my accent is a bizarre and alarming smorgasbord of the strongest accents our sceptered isles have to offer. Plus my girlfriend is French.

[Sebastian Cobb]

If I'm in Liverpool or around Scousers, I get a slight Scouse twang.

I was starting to think that living in Scotland for half my adult life and moving towns (I think the latter was the real culprit) had shaved off my Midland drawl and left me with 'nondescript English', but it seemed to come back when I had a bit of a cold and got slightly croaky.

[Jockice]

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.

The woman who broke my heart in the 90s (etc etc) had this thing where she'd smile really quickly with her mouth sort of slightly open and then shut it again (hard to describe but I know what I mean) and to my horror I started subconsciously doing it too. Until she dumped me that is.

Mind you she had what seemed to be a light Scouse accent even though she was from Doncaster. Turns out her previous boyfriend was from Liverpool. As soon as I found that out I should have ran a mile. Or whatever the equivalent for me would be.

[Ray Travez]

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

I actually do this and can't stop.

That's pretty cool. Similarly, I sometimes run down the street chased by a massive floaty ball.

[Sebastian Cobb]

The woman who broke my heart in the 90s (etc etc) had this thing where she'd smile really quickly with her mouth sort of slightly open and then shut it again (hard to describe but I know what I mean) and to my horror I started subconsciously doing it too. Until she dumped me that is.

I used to drink in a pub where an otherwise nice and normal bloke would sometimes start silently move their mouth as you talked to them as if they were miming along. They didn't do it all the time but when they did it was quite unsettling.

[Yussef Dent]

Oh, and I nicked pronouncing acronyms as words (DVD as duhvuhduh, HDTV as huhduhtuv etc) from one of Kayvan Novak's Fonejacker characters. Still do that for fun. Pleasingly,* in this system the New York Public Library becomes "nipple".



* A genuine unconscious Amiga Power word, I think from Jonathan Nash.

DHL parcels arriving at my work will always be known as "Duhuullll" because of this.

[Jockice]

Pulp consider rewrite.

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

...she'd smile really quickly with her mouth sort of slightly open and then shut it again (hard to describe but I know what I mean) and to my horror I started subconsciously doing it too.

Well I'm lucky in having so many facial and other tics of my own that I haven't got the capacity to adopt other people's. #Blessed.

[Jockice]

Well I'm lucky in having so many facial and other tics of my own that I haven't got the capacity to adopt other people's. #Blessed.

Yeah, I've got a few myself. I think that's the only time I've noticed myself picking one up from someone else though.

When I was in the lower sixth form at school (and therefore didn't have to wear uniform anymore) I blatantly copied the dress sense of one of my best mates, who I'd been friends with since the first year. He was a longish-haired rocker type at one point (I've never been into that sort of stuff) but by the time we'd done our o-levels he'd turned 'cool' and I was very jealous indeed. He'd also turned into a tall good-looking guy, which helped. Him if not me. He even had proper girlfriends and all that. I think I felt overshadowed by him. So wanted to be him.

As this was the early 80s, it involved having a wedge-style haircut, ex-army gear and a checked shirt with the sleeves cut off. Now I did wear checked shirts ((I'm Scottish after all) but not long after ******* started wearing a sleeveless one I did the same to one of mine. Or one of my dad's to be  accurate. When I took off my jumper to reveal it during an economics lesson it attracted a large laugh of derision. I think my copying had by now become just a bit too obvious. But I continued to the point that when he turned up wearing a pair of pinstripe jeans (I know. I KNOW) I almost immediately bought a pair myself, only with a thinner pinstripe, so I couldn't be accused of deliberately ripping him off. Sheer chance that I'd purchased them. Why, I hadn't even noticed his...

Even after we'd left school this continued a bit. He left home, got a flat and a job in another city and I remember once staying at his place and when he'd popped out to the shop trying to measure the lapels on his work suit to make sure when I bought a new one they'd be the same size. Shameful. I'm still mates with him incidentally but I've grown out of wanting or even trying to be him. Just about.

If I was any good at accents I'd probably have copied his too (he doesn't have a strong regional one and has been described as sounding like Cliff Richard) so thank heavens I'm not. I still can't get over bumping into a guy from the year above me on a train a few weeks after he'd started at Sunderland Poly and discovering he now had a pure Mackem accent. Some people will do anything to blend in. Meanwhile I can't do anything to blend in.

[curiousoranges]

Has anyone ever passed a joke they read on CaB off as their own in real life?

[Jockice]

Has anyone ever passed a joke they read on CaB off as their own in real life?

Yes thanks. The John Le Carre one.

[Russ L]

I picked up the habit of addressing people as 'bud' from someone I only vaguely and dimly knew about a decade ago (can't even remember his name) and it's never gone away.

[madhair60]

Has anyone ever passed a joke they read on CaB off as their own in real life?

all of my jokes

[non capisco]

I wonder if Rishi Sunak is such a fan of The Inbetweeners that he's copying Simon Bird's mannerisms.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I wonder if Rishi Sunak is such a fan of The Inbetweeners that he's copying Simon Bird's mannerisms.

Is it Bird what's done the voices for the Tesco tills? I keep thinking it sounds a lot like Sunak but obvs isn't.

[kalowski]

I regularly stand like this.

If I was coming to the Manchester meet you'd see me do it.

[Sebastian Cobb]

You know how @Jockice has mentioned they fucked up an interview by resting their arm on their head? I do that quite a bit although I think I did it before he mentioned it.