A great hack to this rule is to say something like “I hate giant chocolate candy bars…wait..there’s one right behind me isn’t there.” Because there will undoubtedly be one standing right behind you according to the laws of all media.
Allen Strickland Williams told Vulture that his least favorite stand-up cliche is the phrase, “Dating is hard.” Williams said, “I’m so sick of hearing about how hard it is to date. Dating isn’t hard. Dating is easy. You’re just hard to deal with.”
[subtitle][num]6[num]”So, I Have This Friend”[/subtitle]
So let’s just say I have this friend who is writing an article about his least favorite overused comic devices. And let’s just say that he wanted to include an overused joke where the main character asks for advice using a fake hypothetical friend they’ve made up. Do you think that is a fair criticism of that joke?