As ‘The Apprentice’ draws to a conclusion, the days of office workers pointing at each other after every mistake and saying ‘You’re fired!’ are numbered - for this year at least. Will ‘You are the weakest link’get another airing or will the hot weather bring a languid ‘Big Brother will get back to you’ response to any question? Many catch phrases have started with repeated use on TV and, whether we watch the programmes or not, we become familiar with them - but will they still mean something and bring a laugh in fifty years time? Probably not. That’s why some of the jokes on old comic postcards seem nonsensical now, although at the time they probably had people roaring with laughter. The 2003 postcard catalogue lists seven:

a) Are We Downhearted? No!

b) My word! If I catch you bending

c) My word! If you’re not off

d) On the knee

e) We are seven

f) When father says ’turn’

g) When shall we three meet again,

and I’ve dug one out - ‘My word if I catch you bending’ (which I’ve seen applied to a number of different situations) - but this was postally used in 1910 - long before both television and home radios. So where did they come from? The names of popular plays or songs sung in music halls? Another possibility is oft repeated phrases in political slogans and sayings, and we’ve certainly heard one of those repeated too often in the last few weeks. Yes, I can see ‘I acted within the rules’ being re-interpreted in many a cartoon and comic sketch in the months to come.