I'm a laydee!

What do the next four sentences have in common?

"Yeah, but no, but yeah, but..."

"I'm a laydee."

"I'm the only gay in the village."

"I wan' that wun." (I want that one.)

Do you know? They're all catchphrases from the hugely popular comedy sketch show Little Britain. And "Yeah, but no, but yeah, but...", has just been voted Britain's favourite television catchphrase in a poll carried out by Web-based research site Onepoll.com (The other three also came among the top 20.)

If you're anything like me, you probably like to be in on the joke. It would be a bit sad if, after sooo many years of living in Germany, I didn't know why people here say "Same procedure as every year" so often. Although it's English, this is not an English catchphrase. We don't have Dinner for One in Britain.

So I know one German catchphrase. And it's in English. I feel so proud.

Catchphrases — especially from comedy shows — are extremely popular in English-speaking countries. Groups of friends or colleagues often have a few favourites which they repeat again and again, never failing to get a laugh — at least within their group. There are TV shows dedicated to ranking the most popular. There are even dictionaries of catchphrases.

In this month's magazine, Spotlight author Vanessa Clark takes a look at some of the best-known catchphrases from TV, film, politics and advertising, and explains why we love them so much.

Here's the catchphrase I love the most: