- Joined
- Jul 19, 2004
- Messages
- 29,622
- Location
- Out of Bounds
Well similar to that, a friend and I will use 'I want my sweater back' when we want to change the subject from a discussion going nowhere or we're just being silly. I think I started it after seeing some comedy routine about not having the argument the other person wants and starting your own.
Yep - that's the sort of conversational context associated with the canonical throwaway phrases I described.
I've run into this sort of tactic many times over the years, but I've never again encountered a group, circle, etc., that consistently used a widely recognized set of specific phrases when doing it.