Cited on HN 4 times, 2015–2023, never outright recommendedscore 0
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
Only brought up as a joke, usually when someone uses the word literally or the thread is about auto-antonyms.
A Studio C sketch in which Captain Literally, a superhero who takes the word literally in its strict sense, causes absurd and painful outcomes. It is a short comedy bit about the misuse of the word.
"I was literally blown away by Visual Studio Code" ^^ Wow, Microsoft should really be more cautious with their code. There seems to be an epidemic of injuries. I'm so sorry to hear about your accident. I hope your injuries were not serious! :-D [this video]
It seems like a lost battle. If a person you don't know well uses literally, you already cannot know without context if they mean figuratively if the fact being qualified is remotely plausible. It's broken beyond repair. No hope for healing. Literally is no more. It's passed on. It has ceased to be. It's expired and has gone to see its maker. It's an ex-word. Do you know Captain Literally? [this video]
I prefer to promote the term "veritable" as well as "virtually" which are good actual substitutes for what someone means when they mix up "literally". See also, nerds favorite superhero: [this video]
Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.
Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed
4 Hacker News comments
From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.