look kids- a great blue heron!

[nisajoy]

I have enjoyed reading about all the family expressions that people use- I really like the " I am going to Switzerland!"
In our family, my father was famous for pointing out birds while we were on car trips. My step brother does a great impersonation of my dad saying " look kids a great blue heron!" He ( dad) is always so excited when he makes these pronouncements- you would think he'd seen a purple rhino.
Now that we are all grown up this expression has come to be used to divert people from "unsafe" topics.

It's interesting to see how many families have similair expressions!

[Suze]

Working with a bunch of women and very few men - sometimes we get carried away with "girl talk" and sort of forget they are there..

(for the record I have worked with some of these women for 30 years - we are comfortable talking about ANYTHING together)

from the depths of the room comes the phrase

GUY TABLE -- GUY TABLE

opps

[wheeitsme]

"Speaking of..."

Yes, that is how my family changed the subject. 

[NutMeg]

"And there goes a chicken."

Seriously. My family used to have chickens, among other animals, which we let run loose during the day. At one point most of my family was in the basement living room discussing something that I believe was relatively serious, when one of us (can't remember who now) suddenly said "A chicken!" A chicken had run by the basement window. It doesn't sound that funny now, but at the time we all thought it was hilarious and cracked up. Now whenever we want to change the subject, or if someone else changes the subject out of the blue, someone says "There goes a chicken."

[Browyn]

When an inappropriate/awful topic or just a conversational lull would occur, my circle of friends always did "there I was in the Congo" and it would get picked up and go around the room, "were there monkeys" "yes there were monkeys" "did they have hats?" "panama hats" "and they were eating peas!" "mmmm i like peas" and on and on....

We are very silly people.  And the original topic would be long forgotton, it was extra priceless when there was a new person trying to figure us out.

[KatPsych]

"Look!  The Goodyear blimp!"

Used to divert or lighten an awkward pause.  It comes from when my sis and I were young--we got incredibly excited whenever the blimp came to town.

[Information_queen]

My husband is infamous for knowing absolutely nothing about sports - to illustrate, a friend's kid once told him that the Superbowl was the previous week (it was that day) and that the Miami Dolphins beat the Wisconsin Badgers.  He believed him.

So our line is "How about that local sports team? You have one, right?"

It usually gets a laugh, especially with people who know us well.  And it changes the subject, too!

[mmmchocolate]

Our line, forever and always is "So, how 'bout them Cowboys?"

Funny because Everyone knows it's a bean dip!

[wendelenn]

I might use this with my husband and son, who have both seen the movie UP:

Squirrel!

[Night_owl]

In my family, you turn to the person next to you and say, "How about the Mets?"  The Yankees and Red Sox can lead to serious blows.

[skbenny]

We use "we got cows", changes the subject every time (quote from the movie Twister).

[claddagh lass]

Dad often uses, "And there goes a cat!"

We have three kitten-cats that love to tear the house up.

I might use this with my husband and son, who have both seen the movie UP:

Squirrel!

I've shouted "Squirrel!" from time to time as loudly and as shrilly as I can.

Mom thinks it was the funniest thing she ever heard and will even have me do it from time to time to make her laugh.  I try to keep my voice down when I do that for her.

Edited to add the bit about my shouting "squirrel!"

[JadeGirl]

In my circle of friends, we say "Look!  The Pope!" pointing in a random direction.

[Corbin]

My son is very ADHD, and we joke that it really should be ADOLS (Attention Deficite Oooo Look, Shiney), so we tend to say "Oooo look, shiney!" It usually works too 

[AnnaB]

A long time ago, I was playing in a role playing game. The story had gotten exceptionaly intense, feeling were getting frayed, people were cranky. And then, at a pivital point, somone yells:

"Oooo, candy corn!"

Cue everyone dissolving into laughter. That's my go to phrase. "Ooo, candy corn." Does the trick every time.