So, my friend Sam has this thing….I was going to try and describe it, but I’m lazy, so we’ll just let him do it:

Amongst myself and my crew from college, there sprung up a phrasing that still remains used today. It’s the concept of telling someone: “You’re the best.”

“You’re the best” is generally to be directed at someone who has an incredibly smug sense of satisfaction, and who, sometimes, when they’re alone at night, looks in the mirror and actually thinks that they’re the best. So, by telling that person “You’re the best”… you’re letting them know that they are not, in fact, the best at anything.

Recently, I’ve been discussing this with some friends, trying to come up with a cannonical “you’re the best” example, that people would just get, without having to use multiple paragraphs to explain it to them. For example, David from Real World Seattle is totally the best (”Kirrrraaaa! I love you SO MUCH!!!“) but not everyone knows who he is. Bill O’Reilly is more like a direct descendant of Satan than the best. Paris Hilton might be the best, but she’s so many other things the meaning isn’t exactly clear.

So I leave it to you, intrepid JeremyAbramson.com Readers™ to come up with who you’d consider “the best”. Either a list — Sam got quite a few good ones — but even better, that one example that everyone would just know what you mean, even if they didn’t know what “the best” meant.

Regardless, here’s my list:

5. C.T. from Real World Paris
4. Jeremy Round
3. Bill Walton
2. Anyone who’s ever been a bouncer anywhere with the notable exception of of the people who work at Busby’s
1. Lyza Gardner

Perhaps next week we’ll get into Gabe’s “Bring to the Table” line. Cuz really, all my catch phrases come from Northwestern alumni.