mediocrity

Sample some new snacks: Summer barbecues are rife with potato-chip mediocrity.

From Slate ● Sep. 4, 2026

“Enough” is a good retort, though, for “Super Troopers 3” overall, except for the dispiriting promise before the closing credits that more mediocrity might be coming.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026

Was he merely a brilliant mediocrity, the essential staff man who made things tick for the great figures of history without ever being one himself?

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026

The answer to that question is in the mediocrity that most of these people are trying to hide, often even from themselves.

From Salon ● Apr. 3, 2026

You were not expected to aspire to excellence: you were expected to make peace with mediocrity.

From "The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin

Up to this point, Judge’s filmography was exceedingly kind, willing to dig deeper and find humanity in an entire universe of schmucks and mediocrities.

From Salon ● Sep. 6, 2026

But they were also politicians, self-serving and ambitious, often well-born mediocrities flying high above their general level of talent.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 30, 2022

Never before have so many mediocrities received such a long standing ovation.

From The Guardian ● Oct. 2, 2019

And Vargas Llosa has published so many novels — 18 in all — that the tours de force can get lost among the mediocrities.

From New York Times ● Feb. 20, 2018

It’s why picking the right candidate for a job is so difficult and why, on more occasions than we may care to admit, utter mediocrities sometimes end up in positions of enormous responsibility.

From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell