Re: what's "regular joes"
uselessness, on host 207.203.212.2
Monday, February 9, 2004, at 09:59:49
Re: what's "regular joes" posted by Howard on Monday, February 9, 2004, at 07:21:52:
Usage would be something like "Fred was a burger flipper at McDonald's, a regular Joe who thought he had nothing to offer the world" or "Bill Gates was just a regular Joe until he launched Microsoft, a move that would change his life forever." Usually the term "average Joe" is used in reference to one person in particular, to explain that he is nothing special -- but you wouldn't often hear of an anonymous person described as an average Joe. For example, I've never heard "I bumped into an average Joe while walking down the sidewalk." There's usually a specific person in mind when using the phrase.
Also, the term is always male. I don't think women can be average Joes, but the name Jane may be substituted for similar effect (though less common).
> Used this way, joe and guy are not proper nouns.
At first I was going to disagree and say that Joe is a person's name and thus should be capitalized regardless of this usage. However, I then remembered that Guy is also a person's name, but the word "guys" is so common now as an improper noun that I suppose "joe" could be also used in the same way. I just capitalize it out of habit, and because this usage is not yet as common as the word "guy," which has been around for pretty much forever. Case in point, Joe is still a very common first name, but one does not encounter people named Guy very often anymore. The lowercased term "guy," casually meaning "man," has made its way into the vernacular, as I think "Joe" is in the process of doing -- but it's not completely there, yet.
Additionally, I have heard the reciprocal "Joe Average" used as a random full name when describing nonexistant people. Sort of like "John Doe" or "Joe Schmo." This would commonly be used when creating a theoretical situation with which to make general assumptions. For example, in my microeconomics class, my professor said something like "Suppose Joe Average goes to Wal-Mart and buys a dozen boxes of cereal." We know that Joe Average is not a real person, but he is used to put a name on a fictional everyman character for the sake of constructing an example. Very colloquial, I should add.
-useless"just two cents from the man on the street"ness
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