Nothing says A like B

In my “going better with” posting, I mentioned in passing the “snowclone-like” sentence

Nothing says summer like a delicious Picnic Pasta Salad

(of the form “Nothing says A like B”, roughly conveying ‘B is evidence for A, B indicates A’). It certainly feels formulaic, and I considered the possibility that it was a playful variation on some existing model, but the range of examples suggests otherwise; so the form does indeed look snowclone-like: a compact template available for connecting B to A.

I did consider possible models for playful variation. What came to mind immediately was the slogan of Poppin’ Fresh, the Pillsbury Doughboy, the rhyming:

Nothin’ says lovin’ like something from the oven

Pillsbury introduced Poppin’ Fresh in 1965, and (as far as I can tell) introduced the jingle along with the character. Nothing I’ve found on the web is at all close to the jingle, which suggests that the jingle exploited an existing template, rather than that the jingle inspired the template.

An assortment of instances:

‘Bachelor in Paradise’ recap: Nothing says romance like wrestling in Mexico (link)

Nothing says ‘presidential’ like a chainsaw stunt (link)

Nothing Says ‘I Love You’ Like Lucky Charms: It’s Last Night’s New Ads (link))

BLK Book List: Nothing Says Summer Like a Good Read (link)

Nothing says Christmas like a drone from Walmart (link)

Nothing Says I Love You Like Bad Poetry (link)

“Nothing Says Party Like A Box Of Fine Wine” (link)

Nothing Says “Old Dude” Like Getting a Motorcycle (link)

Nothing Says Intel and Computers Like Anime Art (link))

Nothing Says ‘Old Hollywood’ Like Cold Cream and Ostrich Feathers (link)

Nothing says “badass” like a feminist coloring book! (link)

Nothing says HOME like the smell of baking! (link)

Nothing says regret like the email address you made as a kid. (link)

(Other variants have more than rather than like.)

This entry was posted on August 26, 2015 at 4:37 am and is filed under Formulaic language, Language and food, Snowclones. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Nothing says A like B”

arnold zwicky Says:
August 27, 2015 at 12:31 am | Reply
From Chris Waigl:

I’ve been listening to a number of knitting/spinning/fiber arts podcasts. Currently, the market that caters to this type of interest is full of tiny and often ephemeral businesses that offer hand-dyed yarn or fiber, in a large variety of designs, which are referred to as “colorways”. Even the number of *kinds* of colorways is surprising: solid colors, variegated, tonal, heathered, gradient, self-striping, and long-repeat are probably the most common ones. They are frequently sold under highly imaginative names.

An indy dyer who goes by White Birch Fiber Arts (WBFA — her Etsy shop is empty right now and indicates she only offers custom orders at the moment) has designed a colorway for self-striping yarn, which combines a GLBT-style rainbow with a tonal sky-blue background. The name is “Nothing Says Screw you Like a Rainbow”(*). I didn’t initially connect this yarn with the upswing of same-sex marriage, but this blogger did (picture of the color way knitted up and in the skein included): https://middlechilddesign.wordpress.com/…/skies-are-blue/ , and indeed the height of popularity of WBFA’s (multiple) rainbow-themed colorways (there’s also “My Rainbow Can Beat Up Your Honor Student” etc. ) coincides with same-sex marriage going from success to success in the US.

Now for the last bit, I heard about this yarn on a podcast whose authors, while not prudish in their book and TV consumption per se, have strong feelings about what kinds of language is inappropriate to be used in front of small children, and have decided to keep their podcast (which is recorded and often played within earshot of small children) free of it. To my surprise and amusement, “screw you” was apparently beyond the threshold, so the yarn designation was morphed, on the air, into “Nothing says I love you like a rainbow”.

(*) I’ve heard it referred to as “Nothing says screw you like a rainbow on a cloudless day”, but couldn’t confirm it on the web.

…Skies are Blue
Unless you’ve been living under a rock (and don’t have a Facebook account), you are aware that yesterday our…
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