As you know, the No More Jockeys trio loves to say "big if." However, sometimes they branch out and stick that "big" label on different words. I've noted down all of those.
But before listing them, I'd also like to give you some facts about the original.
I counted all the big ifs, but big ifs only; that means no tiny, small, huge, massive, normal or otherwise sized ifs. I have included modified big ifs (e.g. "a very big if", "such a big if"), but not negative big ifs (e.g., "not that big of an if"). In the case of 2 or 3 people saying big if at the same time, I counted it as one entry (but repeated ifs all get counted individually).
Also! Edited videos only - I'm not taking into account the full live streams.
So, how many big ifs have there been?
In Sets 1 to 5: 82 big ifs!
Set 2 has been the poorest one, with ONLY ONE (1) big if uttered in all 10 games.
Set 5, on the other hand, had whopping 29. I must say, there was a very dramatic development there. The above-the-liners achieved a perfect streak in this set, delivering at least one big if per game. BUT! It might not have turned out that way. In Game 11, Key asks "Have we stopped saying big if?" Were it not for his momentous question, the streak would have been broken.
Speaking of Key, he's the only player who managed to sneak in not one, but two big ifs WITHOUT there being any "if" in the preceding conversation. (Might have been a case of editing, but watching the clips, he just seems to mishear what the others say.) No one comments on it.
There have been 3 instances of two or more players saying big if at the same time. Mark and Tim in Set 4, Game 13; Alex and Mark in Live 1 and finally, a combo, all three in Set 5, Game 15.
To finish off: Set 1 had 15 big ifs, Set 3 had 11 and Set 4 had 26.
In Christmas Specials: 10 big ifs! ...or is it?
You see, there's always at least one disrupting factor in this line of work. People are not perfect and they tangle the data, however clear-cut the parameters might seem.
In this case, there's been some (legitimate) questioning regarding the size of ifs in the Christmas Special 2022, aggravated by Horne being cheeky and not letting Key finish his sentences. I went with 9 big ifs in this special, but I completely understand if other people would opt for a lower number.
In other Specials or Training Games: 0 big ifs :(
104 big ifs (maybe) in total!
Horne: 31, Key: 48, Watson: 29 (the sum is bigger than the total because each person gets a point, even if they said it at the same time)
But now onto my original question:
What other big [PHRASE]s are there?
Horne is pretty conservative as other big phrases go, using only 2 in all of the games, compared to Watson's 8 and Key's 12. That said, he arguably takes the first place for the most creative one (and the second longest): big "taking one for the team".
I've decided to allow a few phrases that had "if" in, since they were treated as one unit by the players.
Finally, here goes the list, in alphabetical order:
big taking one for the team
