There’s an old Steve Allen routine, where random passers-by on the street would be interviewed on camera, and asked, “Would you ever let your daughter date a confirmed Homo Sapiens?” About 50% would answer, “Absolutely not!” (In the original, done in the late 50s or early 60s, the question involved “confirmed heterosexual”.) Alistair Cooke once told a story on BBC’s Letter From America of a politician who was voted out because of things like “and his wife is a thespian”. All of which were true but the morons who voted him out didn’t know the words.

A classic (don’t know if anyone every really used it or not): “My opponent tried to interest a 12-year-old boy in philately!”