i sat there on the bus wondering if i read the writing wrong on the back of the bus in front of me. no... "parking is pants." i assumed it implied something negative, because who likes parking? but "pants" in england means "underwear" to me and equating parking to undergarments didnt make sense either. i figured the phrase was popular enough to be printed on the back of a metro bus, so it shouldnt be hard to figure out.
indeed, something that "is pants" is something that sucks. someone told me that a particular person (a comedian?) popularized the phrase, but i cant remember the popularizers name. i'm left with hearing the phrase all over and seeing it a lot!
the challenge is to use the phrase smoothly in conversation, but i'm pretty sure i'll just laugh if i try. we'll see...
1 comment:
It pains me to say it, but it was popularised by BBC Radio 1, now Radio 5, DJ Simon Mayo. It was used as a relatively family friendly expression of disapproval, there being many other words for the kind of thing he was trying to say (as in "a pile of pants") that would get you out of a job in no time at all. A man for whom I have a limited amount of time but he does seem to have left his mark on the English language with that one.
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