 J. Broad wrote that the phrase "have a nice day" is an apt middle ground for the "drop dead" the cashier is thinking and the "come back soon" the owner wants. Broad stated that the phrase is meaningless because it has been castrated by excessive usage and pretense. He compared the phrase to the salutation "How are you?" and the phrase "had a lovely time", which are "conversational space-fillers" that help prevent embarrassing silences. Usage of the term has been compared to inserting the phrase "you know" or the word "like" in sentences. In 1982, comedian George Carlin joked at Carnegie Hall, "That's the trouble with' Have a nice day '; it puts all the pressure on you. Now you've got to go out and somehow manage to have a good time, all because of some loose-lipped cashier. 'Have a nice day ...' Maybe I don 't feel like having a nice day. Maybe, just maybe, I've had 116 nice days in a row and I 'm ready, by God, for a crappy day."
