Let's discuss the "of it all" of it all.

December 18, 2019 5:10 PM

In the last 6 months I've occasionally heard a quirky, not-quite grammatical use of the phrase "the [blank]of it all."

Examples:

• In a movie review podcast I listen to, when the host wants to move to the subject of a character named, say, "Alex," she will say "Let's discuss the Alex of it all." A friend of hers also has his own podcast on which I've heard him use the same phrasing.

• I remember seeing this phrasing used on a website like IGN or Screenrant in discussion of a movie or video game, again discussing a character by "getting to the [name] of it all."

• In a video I watched, the narrator moved to the topic of fire by saying something like "Let's get back to the fire of it all."

Is this a new phrasing, or am I just now hearing it?
Where did it come from? How was it popularized?
Is this a Canadian thing? (The podcasters are from Toronto.)

For obvious reasons it's impossible to search this subject online though please feel free to suggest ways. I could conceivably email the podcasters and ask where they picked it up, but I'd rather not bug strangers. Thanks, and apologies for the vagueness of it all!

posted by ejs to Writing & Language (16 answers total)

Ohio’s state tourism slogan has been Ohio: The Heart of It All since the mid 80s.
posted by coppermoss at 5:39 PM on December 18, 2019

The first time I remember hearing it was Rupert Everett in My Best Friend’s Wedding saying “The misery, the exquisite tragedy, the Susan Hayward of it all!” in the ending. That was 1997.
posted by sallybrown at 5:40 PM on December 18, 2019

According to John McWhorter, the answer to "is this a new phrasing or am I just now hearing it" is usually "it's been around a long time." I tried looking for "the * of it all" in Google Ngram Viewer but none of the results had a name in it. Which I think means that it was still uncommon as of 2000. Which doesn't answer your question, but I guess doesn't really NOT answer it either...

But you might try writing McWorter about it and if he's interested enough he may address it in the podcast. Which is great, by the way.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 5:43 PM on December 18, 2019

I think of, but haven't yet tracked down any good cites for, generic "the x of it all" as an older expression, not something particularly recent, where x would be some adjective seen as central or characteristic or notable of some larger thing being described, or particularly the feeling or emotion that larger thing brings on. "The thrill of it all", "the agony of it all", "the beauty of it all" all feel like natural uses of the expression as I'm accustomed to it, though those are all nonce examples rather than anything in particular I'm recalling or referring to.

That said, the specific examples in your post feel idiosyncratic and different: using some concrete or proper noun there instead of an adjective feels like a more contemporary twist on the template, and has much more of an internetish vibe to me reminiscent of a lot of deliberate violations of older syntactical expectations we see in memey or faddish language.
posted by cortex at 5:50 PM on December 18, 2019

“The Thrill of it All” is the title of a 1963 movie. What’s new, at least to me, is the use of a proper noun in the phrase. I haven’t heard that, but I’m old and very out of it.
posted by FencingGal at 6:03 PM on December 18, 2019

Also, thrill, agony, and beauty are nouns, not adjectives. It’s a proper noun that seems weird.
posted by FencingGal at 6:04 PM on December 18, 2019

Ha, you're right; sloppy writing on my part. Abstract nouns with a descriptive, conceptual referent vs. the proper nouns or the somewhat more concrete "fire" in the post examples.
posted by cortex at 6:17 PM on December 18, 2019

Cortex has the wise, as usual. Between “the beauty of it all” and “the Alex of it all” would be something like “the Alex-ness of it all”.

These folks you quote are 100% playing with a (rather old) known phrasal format by subverting the grammatical parts.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:24 PM on December 18, 2019

Sorry folks, I probably should have been more clear that I am accustomed to hearing phrases like "the thrill of it all" or "the beauty of it all," and it's using a proper noun or "somewhat more concrete 'fire'" that I'm asking about.
posted by ejs at 6:28 PM on December 18, 2019

This questioned reminded me of the clip episode of Community, when Annie says, in reference to her and Jeff's sexual tension: "What about the Annie of it all?" (You can see the clip here.)

In Googling for the clip, I found this question on the r/community subreddit: "What does the "Annie-of-it-all" mean?" One of the writers on the show, Andy Bobrow, responded:

"The X of it all" is an annoying phrase that had started creeping into business speak, particularly in the meetings we had with executives. Typically in reference to the process of making the show. "We need to address the Bob Greenblatt of it all," or "What are you guys doing about the budget of it all?" It was super annoying to us so we made fun of it. Seemed like a thing Annie Edison would do.

The episode aired in 2011, and Community is a cult hit TV show with other examples of cultural influence on catchphrases ("the darkest timeline" is one that comes to mind) - maybe this is another example?
posted by airplant at 6:45 PM on December 18, 2019

Deliberately using one part of speech as if it were another for the purposes of light humor has accelerated in the past several years. It's by no means new (see the "Verbing weirds language" Calvin and Hobbes strip), but I remember when you would only encounter familiar varieties (e.g. "access" as a verb) unless you were watching something written by Joss Whedon. Now, you hear it casually in conversation. I'd guess the doge meme had a lot to do with it (adverbs used as adjectives).
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 3:03 AM on December 19, 2019

I absolutely remember Niecy Nash using this on Clean House which aired with her as host from 2003-2011.
posted by selfmedicating at 7:48 AM on December 19, 2019

If we're specifically talking about the recent ish increase in quirky use, Jorting has it, it's definitely Drag Race.
posted by ominous_paws at 9:53 PM on December 19, 2019

Deliberately using one part of speech as if it were another for the purposes of light humor has accelerated in the past several years.

This. See also "how to adult" and "adulting"or "because reasons" - constructions you can easily find with other words. It's part of an overall trend of juvenilizing language, and it's been going on for at least a decade. See the Atlantic piece Why Do Adults Talk Like Children?
posted by Miko at 5:55 AM on December 20, 2019

I object to that Atlantic piece. It's needlessly infantilizing. And I think they're connecting the dots wrong. It's just as reasonable to describe the process as an increasing level of abstraction and rhetorical allusions. "Because science" is short not because I find being childlike to be comforting, but because you're probably already aware of the science, and I'm skipping that part of the conversation. Specifically, I'm trusting in our shared experiences (or assumed shared experiences) to allow you to fill in the missing piece yourself.

It seems like a complaint that "The other day" isn't as specific as "On Thursday." Of course it's not. The specifics, it turns out, aren't actually that important for most situations.
posted by Zudz at 12:07 PM on December 23, 2019

I'm not convinced. What's wrong with "because of science," which is both short and conventionally grammatical? It's the dropping of the "of" that's childlike and unconventional, not the replacement of "(long explanation)" with "science."
posted by Miko at 9:03 AM on December 24, 2019