"not so much" 'no'

[Laurence Horn]

At 8:20 PM -0700 5/25/10, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>an exchange from an episode of the tv series Eureka:
>
>High school student: So we're not getting an A.
>
>Sheriff Jack Carter [the central character in the series, played by
>Colin Ferguson]: Errr... Not so much.
>
>.....
>
>this is "not so much", a formally muted negative, conveying a
>straightforward negative answer.
>
>it's conventionalized for the character, who uses it fairly often.
>
>any record of this use elsewhere?  (i don't recall having heard it
>before, which is what made me notice it, but i just might not have
>noticed earlier occurrences.)
>
>arnold
>
>
It's been a catchphrase for awhile, at least since Buffy.  See this
piece from 4 years ago, for example:

http://www.azcentral.com/ent/pop/articles/1031catchphrases1031.html

Michael Adams can probably fill us in with a bit more detail.

LH

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