Talk:1576: I Could Care Less
Another excellent comic by Randall. In case of interest to anyone a different perspective, David Mitchell did a wonder rant on this... "Dear America... | David Mitchell's SoapBox" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw 141.101.98.100 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
The only people who complain about this phrase are pedantic morons who have never heard such things as "head over heels".
Here, I've composed a list of common vernacular/slang idioms which are valid, clear, and diametrically opposed to their original meaning:
- "Head over heels"
- "Break a leg"
- "It's the shit"
- "That's bad"
- "She's phat"
- "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar"
- "Irregardless" -- Cwallenpoole (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
'I couldn't care less' is the standard formulation in the UK, for one. I always assumed that the US version was originally a variant on this which was later contracted, eg 'I could care less, but not much'.141.101.99.106 07:10, 11 September 2015 (UTC)
Given that xkcd is so pro-science, I don't think the analysis here should endorse the peeve that there's anything wrong with "I could care less" (or use of "literally" as an intensifier), since most actual linguists, experts on how language works, think it's fine. See for example the list of posts dealing with the question here: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=21170#more-21170 And of course, the comic itself points out how petty an besides the point this kind of "correction" is. 162.158.92.19 07:43, 11 September 2015 (UTC)
As it's currently written, the explanation seems to suggest that "I could care less" is the American form and "I couldn't care less" British. In fact, both forms are in use in the US, and it wouldn't surprise me if "I could care less" occurs occasionally in British English as well. There are also other English-speaking countries in the world. 162.158.92.19 07:47, 11 September 2015 (UTC)
As for the title text, I'd disagree with "The sentence is also ambiguous, as it may mean that literally or figuratively, the speaker could or couldn't care less." I think that Randall is pretty clear here: he should ('could' as in polite request) care less about irrational idioms instead of wasting time drawing comics about it. But he just can't resist. And without him doing so, we wouldn't be here. So in fact, it is nonsense for Randall to care less, and this contradiction is the point of the title text joke. But then again, I'm not native English speaker, and even less of a thought reader to understand what was on his mind. -- kavol, 141.101.96.224 08:30, 11 September 2015 (UTC)
