"What if I told you . . ." used to introduce what the speaker thinks will be a profound revelation to the hearer.
Example:
"What if I told you that you've been opening cans wrong your entire life."
What if I told you I don’t wish to be a Debby Downer here?
The gist of this 53-page thread, having slowly worked my way through all the bits I missed (namely, the first 40 or so pages) is this:
While all who’ve posted have shared a few things which annoy them, some more than others (I’m guilty as charged), none surpasses the quantity of linguistic quirks which vex you
specifically, consuming a lot of the air in the room. Dang.
Shifting gears to a magnificent example of recent art, roasting clumsy appropriation of annoying vernacular, is a film I re-watched over the weekend —
The Matrix: Resurrections — contained by the character of Jude Gallagher, Neo’s co-worker (who joins him for coffee in the first act).
While there were plenty of critical gripes about the film (in its defence: the film was never meant to exist, and one Lana Wachowski didn’t want to
have to make), Lana used the story to critique, bluntly, several linguistic and memetic annoyances, as well as a
misappropriation of tropes and ideas from the first film in the quartet. Her critique, laced throughout, sort of mirror-images what this thread comes back to.
In Lana’s case, she distilled some of that into a couple of characters, but much of that went into one, particularly odious character: Jude.
Jude’s cringe-worthy leaning on overboard slang was a big part of why he was such an annoyance (and why, if you’re in on the roast, is so delightfully dry and, at times, acerbic). Examples include his use of “shook” (what he meant was “blown away” or “amazed”, relying instead on AAVE long appropriated, as so much AAVE is); “bee-tee-dubs” (pretty self-explanatory, but up there with “deets” and “dollabills”); “total f’ing MILF” (you know, straight guys being crass when they think they’re in safe company of kindred men); and scowling viscerally at a handsome married man named Chad (because his name was, literally, Chad — the name used to signify everything a, quote-unquote, “involuntarily celebate” guy, like Jude, envies — played by an actor named, literally, Chad… definitely Lana’s wink-nod of tumbling down the rabbit hole).
And since I reached for the third rail by bringing up
The Matrix, what if I told you no one at any point in
The Matrix Quartet ever opened a question with, “What if I told you…”?