Anti-cliché

An anti-cliché is a literary device or figure of speech that twists the meaning or phrasing of a known cliché. Although not named as such by literary critics, many writers, comedians, and poets have made use of the anti-cliché to provide a memorable and often ironic phrase, line, or passage.

Another concept of the anti-cliché relates to the relative merit of any particular news story. A report that will likely garner interest in the target readership must be considered newsworthy; reporting similar trivial events does not generate a sufficient level of interest. The most prominent example of this is the Man Bites Dog paradigm. A daily newspaper would become increasingly stale if there were constant reports of dogs biting men, as the phrase suggests. However, the reverse concept of a man biting the dog is unusual, perhaps novel and hence particularly newsworthy purely due to the inherent irony of such an event.

Notable examples

* I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue has made several games of this, including "Complete Quotes" and "Proverbs"
*Peter Schickele's sign off - "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that certain ." --a play on the words of jazz composer Duke Ellington
*"It's better to copulate than never" --Robert A. Heinlein
*Edward Albee makes use of anti-clichés in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", such as "left to my own vices" (Martha), "that's blood under the bridge" (George) and "our blond-eyed, blue haired son" (George).

See also

* Cliché
* Stereotype
* Stock character