TV Catchphrases Are the New Punch Lines

This article, TV Catchphrases Are the New Punch Lines, takes a look at one of my favourite new shows How I Met Your Mother, with the thought that a handy weapon in the sitcom writer's arsenal is the catchphrase: Master of my domain; Don't Have a cow man; We were on a break, etc.

How I Met Your Mother dispatches dozens of catchphrases like a shotgun blasting the audience, in the hopes that one or two will stick to the collective pop culture conscience. A couple of phrases have creeped into my regular vocabulary include bachelor Barney's battlecry of "Suit Up!" and "Legendary!"

I still have not found a situation or audience (yet) for "Bad idea jeans", an obscure reference to a Saturday Night Live commercial parody. called Bad Idea Jeans:

Guy #3: Well, he's an ex free-base addict, and he's trying to turn around, and he needs a place to stay for a couple of months. [Cut to image of him wearing his BAD IDEA jeans]

As proof of the ludicrous nature of the show, or maybe in answer Barney's Blog, "written" by the character played by Neil Patrick Harris, posted an article with no less than 10 "awesome words coined by Barney", and had a whole episode of Barney trying to get his idea of a "Lemon Law" to catch on.