“Look, We’ve All Been There,” Confirms Man Who Hasn’t Been There

A WELL meaning local man has placed a comforting arm around a friend who is going through a difficult time before adding the phrase ‘look man, we’ve all been there’ despite the fact he has not been within a 12 mile radius of a similar problem or conundrum.

Liam Henry (28) was reassuring fellow friend Andrew Curty after he began relaying his frustration about a work problem, much to the bewilderment of Liam, who hasn’t experienced anything like what Andrew was currently divulging.

“Ah look, we’ve all been there dude,” Liam confirmed, before making a face which suggested the opposite was true and that honestly he didn’t know what it was like to be caught in the crossfire of two superiors from different departments in a large accountancy firm bickering over the smell from the office kitchen fridge.

‘We’ve all been there’ is a phrase that has proven invaluable to people seeking to lend their support to friends and loved ones during circumstances they personally have no way to identify with.

“Don’t get me wrong, the phrase is used when people genuinely do relate and that’s fantastic, but it’s indispensable when say, a friend talks about how their public hair has turned grey over night or how they’ve started having an affair with both the milkman and the postman. Sometimes you just haven’t been there, not even within the same postcode of ‘there’, whatever ‘there’ is,” confirmed experience specialist and expert Helen Shanning.

Shanning warned however, that the phrase is fertile ground for inappropriate use in the wrong hands.

“Yeah, occasionally you’ll get the more self-absorbed individuals who use the phrase as a jumping off point to talk about themselves for example ‘we’ve all been there, you’re family dying in a terror attack is exactly like when my take away took ages to arrive’. Be careful how you use it,” Shanning concluded.