The moral structure they produced has been vastly loosened and replaced with a soft, untheorised tendency towards niceness -
smarminess, really, as journalist Tom Scocca put it in 2013.
They tar- geted typical moments such as Mother's Day on social media with typical Deadpool
smarminess.
Even as he conducts the seduction of Paula with subtle but oily
smarminess, he still manages to win a measure of sympathy.
Hasn't he put up with enough
smarminess for one lifetime?
WHAT WOULD AMERICAN POLITICAL culture look like without its pervasive moral dramas of sin and redemption, sometimes expressed in forms lofty and noble, but at other times resembling nothing so much as the
smarminess and vulgarity of soap opera?
He's a refreshing change after the
smarminess of Jeff Stelling, though.
Despite edging on
smarminess at times, you couldn't fault the four-piece who appeared to be loving their first headline tour as much as the audience.
You only have to remember the excruciating Parkinson, with his long-winded questions that even he looked bored by, and Wogan, with his unfunny
smarminess, to realise that Ross was a breath of fresh air - a quick-witted performer who established a real rapport with most of his guests and members of the public.
That kind of
smarminess of bureaucratic-speak--'we're doing this for your own good'--is very much in evidence these days.
Ribbing between patrons at the bar and coffee house/erotic boutique is funny as is the smart-mouthed affection toward the student workers at the shop (each of their names is preceded with "Little Bastard") and the
smarminess of the preposterous Mayor.
Third, a
smarminess about matters of fact, as in her recent utterance that Barack Obama is not a Muslim "as far as I know".
And she did it all without an agent or an iota of Hollywood's infamous "let's do lunch"
smarminess, relying on help from the short's director, Lee Friedlander, and producer, Abbie Ludgwig, and a whole lot of buzz.
smarminess - smug self-serving earnestness