Literally Speaking of ‘Literally’

This has become very annoying.  I speak of the misuse, and abuse, of ‘literally.’  I was listening to a late-afternoon talk show host recently who misused the word, in the same way portrayed in this comic, at least a dozen times in about five minutes.  Each time he used some colorful figure of speech, he prefaced it with ‘literally.’

It seems that people throw ‘literally’ around for what they think is emphasis.  But all it emphasizes when used this way is the stupidity of the one misusing it!

You see, if the little dude to the left was literally ‘too cool for school’ he would have a depressed physical temperature that for some reason would be unworkable or unacceptable for attending school.  The very sobering possibility that comes to mind with this is that he cannot attend school because he has ‘assumed room temperature’ – that is, he is dead!

Please talking voices on radio and talking heads on TV, PLEASE don’t shove a ‘literally’ in front of every figure of speech you ‘toss at us.’  And there is a good example.  Speech is NOT ‘literally’ tossed at us, so if you stick a ‘literally’ in front of that, it makes you sound REALLY STUPID.

Don’t do it!  DON’T  DO  IT  !!!