13 Common Phrases Popularized By Movies and TV Shows
![13 Common Phrases Popularized By Movies and TV Shows](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/1/4/894014_320x180.jpg)
Phrases, jokes, and even words themselves have been going viral long before “going viral” was ever a phrase. For example, the term “bite the bullet” originated when anesthesia was in short supply, and old school doctors literally asked soldiers to bite down on a bullet before whatever barbaric “surgery” they’d perform. Hey, there’s another one. Barbaric: Savage, and exceedingly brutal, ya know, like a Barbarian. Anyway… We like to toss around fun little terms and phrases like this to put a little spice in our descriptions, but some of the most popular ones today actually originated in TV and movies.
That’s some good writing right there. A screenwriter, or in some cases, a good improviser, conjured up a word or two that described something so perfectly that it went “viral” in our day to day vernacular. In many cases, Websters and/or The Oxford English Dictionary gave them official definitions, and that’s just “radulicious.” Feel free to take radulicious and run with it! Till that clearly takes off, here are 13 common phrases popularized by movies and TV shows.
Want to do that before you croak? Put it on your bucket list.
![CRACKED BUCKET LIST In the 2007 film The Bucket List, two terminally ill strangers cross things off their list before they kick the bucket. They were the first two to use the expression, which was created by screenwriter Justin Zackham in 1999 when he created his own bucket list.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/2/8/894028.jpg)
Nice name, Poindexter!
![CRACKED POINDEXTER One of the many names for a nerd, dweeb, or dork, it originated in the series Felix the Cat back in 1959. Poindexter is Felix's bespectacled genius nephew, named for the series creator's lawyer, Emmet Poindexter.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/2/7/894027.jpg)
No, it did not originate in Canada. Although, they definitely adopted it.
![CRACKED SORRY ABOUT THAT This expression of regret was popularized by the 1960's show Get Smart. It's one of many of the show's popular catch phrases, like Missed it by that much, and The old (so-and-so) trick. 86](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/2/5/894025.jpg)
Think it’s a new term? Think again.
![CRACKED GASLIGHTING We can't escape this term here in the 2020s, but its current definition - psychological manipulation that makes another person question their own sanity - was made popular by the 1944 film Gaslight. It evolved into the verb gaslighting in the 1960s.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/2/6/894026.jpg)
Take an improv class, kids. You might change the English language.
![CRACKED YOU'RE TOAST! Bill Murray created linguistic history when he improvised the line, All right, this chick is toast! in 1984's Ghostbusters. The Oxford English Dictionary added it as an alternate usage of the word toast, meaning a person or object that is defunct, dead, finished, etc.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/2/4/894024.jpg)
When it came to the phrase's lasting impact, Alicia Silverstone was clueless. Sorry.
![CRACKED MY BAD The term first surfaced in 1985, but was explicitly used in basketball. The 1995 movie Clueless brought it to the masses, and also gave us '90s hits whatever and as if.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/2/2/894022.jpg)
Bryan Cranston was the world’s first “regifter.”
![CRACKED REGIFTING The term was first coined in the Seinfeld episode The Label Maker. Elaine refers to Dr. Tim Whatley (Bryan Cranston) as a regifter after he gives Jerry a label maker that she had initially given to Whatley. It really took off from there. Skip Barber have .........](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/1/9/894019.jpg)
Technically, while watching Friends, we’re all in “the friend zone.”
![CRACKED THE FRIEND ZONE It was first used on Friends in 1994's The One with the Blackout. Ross is trying to be more than friends with Rachel, and Joey says, You waited too long to make your move, and now you're in the friend zone.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/2/3/894023.jpg)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the first to use Google as a verb. Google it.
![CRACKED GOOGLE AS A VERB. Google existed before Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but the show was the first to use the word as a verb in 2002. Willow asks Xander, Have you googled her yet? Googling someone as a quick background check quickly caught on.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/2/0/894020.jpg)
Five-0 caught on because of, you guessed it, Hawaii Five-0.
![CRACKED FIVE-0 The '60s show Hawaii Five-0 got so popular that it became universal slang for law enforcement. Five-0 doesn't even refer to any kind of police code, it's just an homage to Hawaii's status as the 50th state.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/1/8/894018.jpg)
Those whiskery little fakers.
![CRACKED CATFISH In the 2010 doc Catfish, Nev Schulman called people who create fake profiles catfish. When codfish are shipped, catfish are added to keep them agile, so he said by nipping at our fin they keep us on our toes. It was added to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/2/1/894021.jpg)
What does junk mail and canned meat have in common? Find out here!
![CRACKED SPAM Canned Spam was around, but Monty Python's Flying Circus spurred the junk mail meaning. In a sketch, Vikings sing the word until they drown everyone else out. In the '80s, fans flooded chatrooms with the lyrics, and it became known as spamming.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/1/6/894016.jpg)
It did already mean “the whole thing” but now we know it as “the whole thing.”
![CRACKED THE FULL MONTY It was a British expression that meant the whole thing, but the 1997 movie The Full Monty revived the term with a new meaning - men getting completely naked. This new definition was listed by Lexico, which is run by the Oxford English Dictionary.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/1/7/894017.jpg)