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Tuesday, December 3, 2019

A broken record



Example 1
13-year-old son: Oh, mom, just a reminder. I don't have soccer practice today so you have to pick me up right after school. I'm just reminding you so you don't forget to come and get me. Remember, you forgot one time and I waited for you for an hour all by myself? I didn't know if you were going to come at all!
Mom: OK, I got it. I'll put an alert on my phone so I won't forget this time. Of course I remember that one time I forgot. I'm still very sorry about that.
Son: Yeah, I can't believe you forgot about your own son!
Mom: I was very busy that day and I'm still so sorry! 

Son: I would never do that to my own kid.....
Mom: OK, young man! You are really starting to sound like a broken record. I have already apologized for that at least 10 times! Will you ever forgive me so we can move on?!

Example 2
Politician on TV: "...yes, but my opponent had done the same thing and no one accused her of any wrongdoing. Why is everyone being so unfair to me? This is the worst witch hunt in Presidential history....."
Me: Let's turn the TV off. This guy is a broken record; constantly making the same false claims and accusations. Let's not give him the attention he craves and hopefully he'll go away soon.

Explanation
a broken record is a person who is (annoyingly) repeating themselves and/or talking about the same thing over and over again.
you can use the verb phrase sound like  OR  the be verb
examples: She sounds like a broken record, constantly complaining about the food. OR She is a broken record....

In Example 1, the boy is continuing to talk about the time that his mother forgot to pick him up even though he was never in danger and his mother had apologized many times for it. He continues to talk about it until his mother gets annoyed!


In Example 2, the politician on television is talking about the same points that he always does. The viewer opts to turn the television off because it's always the same in their opinion. It is implied that the viewer is not a supporter of this politician and finds the speech annoying.

Are you familiar with vinyl records? It is said that when a record is scratched or "broken," the needle skips while playing and repeats the same portion of the record over and over until someone stops the player.