Like, A Tip

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We assume you’ve all been glued to your television, watching the Season 24 finale of The Bachelor. Seriously, in the midst of this awful COVID-19 pandemic, we thought a bit of humor would be good medicine.

On his evening talk show, Jimmy Kimmel regularly satirizes The Bachelor for its celebration of the banal. But late this season, the banal became the ridiculous. Kimmel put together a reel from just one, 60 minute episode where contestants used the word “like” two hundred and twenty-nine times. 229!

Speakers use these “discourse particles” (e.g. like, just, right, uh, you know) out of habit and are blissfully unaware how irritating these terms can sound.

But to be taken seriously, you need to break this habit. Here’s the trick. Say aloud where you were born and went to school. Insert your filler word or phrase after every other word. Soon, you will be as irritated as your audience with the term, and more importantly, your brain will actually hear it. Next time, you will catch yourself and insert a pause instead of the filler word. Keep up this exercise and you will cure yourself of like, kind of, uh, sort of, well-- the filler.

And for a guaranteed laugh and object lesson, watch Jimmy Kimmel’s bit on The Bachelor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_X9cCC5NsU

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