fork stuck in the road

a song line that seems to indicate ignorance, sloppiness, or lack of education on the part of the songwriter.

according to urban legend, the line in green day’s “good riddance (the time of your life)” “a fork stuck in the road” says that the fork is “stuck” rather than just “in the road” because of the mistaken idea that people somewhere back in “olden days” used to stick dinner forks into the road when they changed directions; the claim is often made that one or another member of green day told such a story during an interview, but if so there doesn’t seem to be any such interview online. it really doesn’t sound like them; they’re a pretty bright bunch of people.
alanis morisette’s “ironic” is a fork stuck in the road; nothing she describes in the song is ironic.

“hey, that doesn’t mean what he thinks it means!”
“relax, dude, at least it rhymes, and it’s just a fork stuck in the road!”

every time you hear the rolling thunder, you don’t need to run, because the lightning already struck and you’re still here to hear it.
any exceptionally stupid or illiterate phrase found in a pop song. particularly if it’s then defended or expounded upon in various “meanings of lyrics” sites or in fan writing. a lot of pop stars were so totally created by parents/managers/agents/etc. that they went straight from a suburban bedroom to the celeb suites without having read a book or talked to a real person on the way, getting all their alleged education from other pop songs and tv.

the words “fork stuck in the road” originally occurred in a green day song, and in a later interview (urban legend has it) the songwriter came up with a long story about how people on journeys would stick a dinner fork into the road to show they’d been there or some such — apparently being unaware that a dinner fork was originally a “forked spoon”, i.e. one that split, the way a forked stick or a forked road splits, and that a “fork in the road” is a place where you make a decision, not a milestone or boundary marker. (i can find no evidence that any such interview occurred, but it seems to be widely believed in).
“hey, somebody should tell alanis that every time you hear the rolling thunder, it means the lightning already missed you. and read her a definition of ironic.”

“that’s like so unfair! she was saying that like, he runs away when there’s no reason to! and she was making fun of the way people use the word ironic wrong!”

“naw, it was just another fork stuck in the road. she’s the fork stuck in the road goddess.”