The owner of East Village dive bar Continental seems to have had enough: A prominent notice now hangs outside warning what will happen if customers let that word slip once inside: “You must leave.” 
 
 The sign’s been making the rounds since EV Grieve noticed it this morning: 
 
 East Village bar the Continental expounds on their (tongue-in-cheek) ban on the word literally. Their stated goal now is to stop “Kardashianism.” cc: @edenbrower pic.twitter.com/iI0N41qCgt — evgrieve (@evgrieve) January 24, 2018 
 
 As you can see from the sign above, patrons who are heard to utter the dreaded L-word will be given “5 minutes to finish” their drinks. The dive bar’s owner Trigger Smith put up a sign last week stating that anyone in the establishment who utters the phrase “literally” will have five minutes to finish their drink before being required to leave, and those who begin a sentence with “I literally” must immediately exit the building. Smith, however, claims that the whole thing is a joke and that his staff has not actually kicked anyone out for saying “literally.” 
 
 “My bar would be empty if I enforced the sign,” he said over the phone. (For that matter, he’s also no fan of phrases like “It’s all good,” “You know what I’m saying?” and “My bad”), but literally gets special loathing because of its ubiquity. “I had a woman from Miami the other night tell me it’s happening down there,” he says. Until then, New Yorkers can expect the bar to continue to stir up shit, just as it’s done since it opened in 1991. You even hear newscasters on CNN saying it.” 
 
 The widespread use of the word literally to mean figuratively is nothing new. If you’re lucky enough to get past the bouncers and through the doors of a place that’s made headlines for banning people with saggy pants and has a whole page on its official website dedicated to its “DISCRIMINATORY DOOR POLICY?”, you better watch your dumb mouth and not get too loose with the word “literally.” 
 
 A sign posted on the bar’s facade, EV Grieve reported last Wednesday after a reader alerted the publication to it the day prior, warned patrons against using the word “literally” for any reason once they’re inside the bar.
– A Manhattan bar that previously made waves for banning people in saggy pants will now figuratively kick you out for saying the word "literally." A sign posted this week at The Continental tells patrons that "literally" is "the most overused, annoying word in the English language and we will not tolerate it," adding that scofflaws will have five minutes to finish their drink and vamoose, per Munchies. This might have gone unnoticed, had the sign not caused a bit of a stir on social media, angering some who detected sexism. But owner Trigger Smith revealed to Grub Street that while he does indeed hate the word "literally," patrons won't really be kicked out. "I literally feel sorry for anybody who would take this seriously," says Smith, whose bar will close this summer after 27 years in business, per Time Out.