The Overplayed Line of "Use English"

A common line in medical shows and forensic shows and any show where characters use complicated terminology is "Use English!" or "Say it in English!" or, more wearily (if you are Gibbs), "What does that mean in English?"

The line has a purpose. As with Marty's justifiable question, it is usually an excuse (opening) for exposition: one character will now explain science or math or medicine to another character. 

And like the "you're not God" line (which I will address later), though it was funny (or evocative) once, even twice, it then got tedious--especially when the terminology was something that the audience understood (if you watch enough forensic shows...). Yet the so-called boss of a crime fighting unit didn't? 

Monk, in fact, spoofs this line. When the investigators visit the set of a popular crime show, and the main actor/character says the line in a deadpan "I'm just too cool to learn the terminology of my profession" way, Monk rolls his eyes. MONK would know what the term meant. 

And Jessica Fletcher uses it in a Murder She Wrote movie. Wielded by Angela Lansbury, the line comes across less as ignorance (Can't ya speak normal like the rest of us?) and more as a rebuke: Don't try to snow me with your bureaucratic twaddle; tell the truth. 

Still, with those exceptions, it's a line that needs to go.