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Gold Standard as in:

an example against which others of the same type are compared
- http://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/gold%20standard

Any other humorous ways to refer to this?

Something like "the holy mother"...

KyleMit
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  • Why do you think that 'Gold Standard' has something humorous about it? –  Jun 17 '14 at 23:24
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    @Josh61, I don't, I'm looking for a humour replacement for it. Something that means the same thing, but is a little punchier and less like a salesperson describing their favorite product. – KyleMit Jun 17 '14 at 23:29
  • Could you add a context where you would like to use this? – dwjohnston Jun 18 '14 at 01:32
  • Oh, I think there's some bad humor. The only reason the term is used to mean this is either a bad pun or a gross misunderstanding of its original meaning. The journals I work on tend to avoid it or put it in quotation marks. – Rodney Atkins Jul 30 '20 at 16:19

1 Answers1

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Perhaps the mother of all ...

an extreme example of something - Mike's suffering from the mother of all hangovers after the party last night.

If you want something with a continental flair, consider ne plus ultra

The highest point, as of excellence or achievement; the ultimate.

If it's a personal analogy you seek, you could follow my 91 year old Dad's lead, bragging when he finished a large bowl of shellfish,

I'm the Derek Jeter of mussels!

bib
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  • In line with the last point, many people use the name of a current (or at least recent) sports star, e.g. the Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods of . Popularity of such celebrities often wanes relatively rapidly with time (or scandal), so this is more common in speech than in writing. – brichins Jan 24 '18 at 17:46