In my last newsletter I presented what I thought was a pretty thorough list of the great clichés. Well, it turns out it wasn’t thorough enough, as hordes of cartoon-cliché mavens were quick to point out. Now, some of the clichés that I left out were omitted but, in the service of historical accuracy, it includes some that rightly have seen their last iteration, which I won’t mention for fear of, well, offending. So here is the new complete list, so far. I say so far because I’m sure I will have missed something.
If you come up with that something, send it to thegreatcliches@gmail.com.
Abominable snowmen Airport-security lines Aliens arrive on Earth Alien abductions Anvils falling Asking directions Atlas holding up the world Banana peels Beached whales Beds of nails Bedtime stories Big fish eating little fish Birds versus worms Board rooms Bowling pins versus bowling balls Brides and grooms on wedding cakes Burglars in masks Cannibals Cats versus mice Cavemen and -women Cave paintings Centaurs Chalk outlines at crime scenes Chickens and eggs Christians and lions Cinderella Clowns in a tiny car Cloudwatching and identifying Comedy and tragedy masks Complaint windows Cornucopias Counting sheep Couples caught cheating in bed Couples on a house during a flood Crash-test dummies Crawling through deserts Customs agents Damsels on railroad tracks Damsels and dragons Desert islands Detectives at crime scenes Dinosaurs and extinction Dogs fetching Slippers Door-to-door salesmen Dungeon prisoners Easter Bunnies Easter Island heads Equations on blackboards Eskimos Evolution The Fountain of Youth Funeral-parlor viewings Firing squads Galley slaves Gallows The Garden of Eden Gates of Hell Genie in the Lamp Gladiators in Front of Ceasar God looking at Earth Goldilocks Good cop, bad cop Greeting Cards Grim Reaper Groom Carrying Bride over Threshold Guillotine Guru on mountain Guy in Stocks Hansel and Gretel Hibernating Bears Humpty Dumpty Husband behind newspaper at Breakfast Igloos In Out Boxes Invention of fire Invention of the wheel Ice Hole Fishing IRS Auditor and Tax Payer Jesus on Cross Jesus Walking on Water Jesters Judges Jumper on the ledge Kid and Report Card Kids sitting on Santa’s lap King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table Knife Thrower and Assistant Lawyer reading will Lemmings Life-raft survivors Light-bulb idea Lion and Mouse Little Engine That Could Little Red Riding Hood Lover hiding in closet Man in stocks Marriage counselors Maternity Ward Mazes Men working Men’s Club codgers Mental undressing Mermaid on rock Metal detector Military round table Mimes Mobsters and victim with cement shoes Moby-Dick Modern Art Mount Rushmore Moses and the Burning bush Moses parting the Red Sea Moses and the Ten Commandments Mother-in-laws Mountain climbers Murphy beds Napoleon Noah’s Ark Nudists Operating Theatre Ostrich with Head Underground Owl and Pussycat Panhandling Password Security Questions Patent office Pinocchio Pirate’s Buried Treasure Pirate’s Flag Police Lineup Political Stump Speech Prisoners Counting the Days with groups of //// and a Crosshatch Poor Person in Barrel Psychiatrist’s couch Rapunzel Road Sings Robin Hood Robots Rubik’s cube Sandcastles Sandwich Board Ads Santa’s Elves Santa’s Sleigh Scarlet letter School of fish with leader Sherlock Holmes Sisyphus Sky Diving Smoking after Sex Snails Snow White Song lyrics as captions St. Bernard rescue dog St. Peter Star constellations Statues Stock-market graph Stonehenge Suggestion Box Superman / Batman / superheroes Talking trees The Last Supper The-End-Is-Nigh Guy The Thinker The Scream This Side Up box Three Little Pigs Thinking Outside the Box Tombstones Traffic cop pulling over speeding motorist Trojan horse Tunnel of Love Turtle and Hare TV Weather Forecasts Two Guys in a Horse Costume Umpires Unicorns Volcanoes:Gods are angry Voting booths Vultures Walking the plank Why did the chicken cross the Road Wife with Rolling Pin William Tell Wishing Well Witch’s broom Witch’s cauldron Woman trying on shoes Woman trying on hat You-are-here map Zen Zeus throwing lightning bolts Zorro —Bob Mankoff |