Colm O'Regan: Let's celebrate our little phrases. Who knows where they might end up?

I wonder who was the very first. Did they know they’d created a 100-year phrase? Every little throwaway, unremarkable little joke must have started somewhere

Colm O'Regan: "Who was the first to tell the shopkeeper, “If it doesn’t scan, you have to give it for free?” I bet they took the rest of the day off. I know I do." Picture: Chani Anderson.

Technically, this is not a column about The Traitors. But it’s hard to avoid. It seeps into every conversation like doubt into the mind of a faithful. But whatever happens in The Traitors next, it’s been a good couple of weeks for “It is what it is”.

It’s the go-to phrase when a traitor or faithful has to say something without saying anything at all. Except for Oyin — it is whatever SHE says it is. If The Traitors went on any longer, Oyin would eventually be voting out the faithful because they were going to become traitors anyway.