The paper discusses stereotypic formulas, which represent a commentary on someone else’s use of language. The mentioned formulas are constructed according to the model that places a quote from someone else’s speech in a context that seems to be more suitable for it and, thus, signaling the irrelevance of the words chosen by an interlocutor. Usually these contexts are profane, and sometimes imply the use of obscene vocabulary. Such formulas are reproduced as a reaction to violation, firstly, of general speech norms, as a speaker understands them, and secondly, of group (professional) speech conventions. They are used particularly in such hierarchical communities, as family, school and other educational institutions, army and professional groups. The author suggests a classification of the ways of constructing these metalinguistic formulas, which are often based on wordplay with ambiguity (homonymy, polysemy, homography, synonymy and homoformy are involved) and classifies types of lexical units which are reflected (action designation, object designation, group designation and stereotype formulas). In particular, such functions of the considered formulas as the building of hierarchical relations between the speaker and the interlocutor, socializing, “dueling” and mnemonic are highlighted. The paper also demonstrates influence on the mentioned speech practice of the culture of speech, as well as certain mechanisms of naive metalinguistic consciousness.