Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater uttered the most memorable quote this year when he compared his role in politics to the Fijian rugby team.

"I play politics like Fijians play rugby. My role is smashing your face into the ground," Slater said following the release of Nicky Hager's Dirty Politics book.

The quote garnered 21 per cent of the 4197 votes cast Massey University's 2014 Quote of the Year competition.

The annual competition is run by Massey University speech writing specialist Heather Kavan who said contentious quotes were often popular.


"But this year the results have been more unpredictable than usual, with quotes emerging from the election in the top four."

Dr Kavan described Slater as a "colourful and controversial New Zealander who seems to like bold declarative sentences" and said neither he nor runner up, internet Party press secretary Pam Corkery, were known for their reticence.

Corkery's tirade at media at the internet Party's campaign launch took out 17 per cent of the total vote.

"You work in news you puffed up little shit!...When will you glove puppets of Cameron Slater just piss off?" She said.

"I think the footage made the outburst memorable," Dr Kavan said.

"Corkery later speculated that if she had been a male the quote might not have received so much attention, and I think that's a good point.

"A well-dressed female swearing like a trooper takes people by surprise. Also, the glove puppets part was witty, given its spontaneity."

Unlike last year's winner, National MP Maurice William for his gay rainbow speech, this year's list had less inspirational rhetoric, Dr Kavan said.


"It's the political insults and gaffes that have stuck in people's minds."

The power the quote which took out third place, government minister Steven Joyce's "We think it's, um, pretty legal" in reference to a National Party election campaign song similar to one by Eminem, came third and was magnified by television footage, Dr Kavan said.

"Those two words 'pretty legal' might have been forgotten had they been printed in a newspaper. But we saw footage of Joyce smiling as he said the words, prefaced by United States comedian John Oliver describing the utterance as a 'brilliant legal defence'.

"This provided a moment of humour during a steady diet of negative news items and dirty politics."

The first quote not related to the 2014 election came in sixth - the Health Promotion Agency's "No more beersies for you" campaign.

Massey University's 2014 Quote of the Year:

• First place: "I play politics like Fijians play rugby. My role is smashing your face into the ground." - Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater.


• Second place: "You work in news you puffed up little shit!...When will you glove puppets of Cameron Slater just piss off?" - internet Party press secretary Pam Corkery.

• Third place: "We think it's, um, pretty legal." - Steven Joyce.

• Fourth place: "I'm sorry for being a man." -David Cunliffe's apology at Labour's domestic violence policy launch.

• Fifth place: "It was all steam and no hangi." Te Tai Tokerau MP Kelvin Davis describing internet-Mana after it failed to deliver on the hype.

• Sixth place: "No more beersies for you." Health Promotion Agency campaign

• Seventh place: "I did not have textual relations with that blogger." Spoof of John Key's initial denial that he had received texts from Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater tweeted by Lloyd Burr of RadioLive


• Eighth place: "He could probably survive shooting little kittens in his garden with a shotgun." - Kim Dotcom on how little impact Dirty Politics had on Prime Minister John Key's approval ratings.

• Ninth place: "It terrifies me how much of our economy is stuck inside a dairy cow." - Comedian Te Radar talking to farmers at Fieldays.

• Tenth place: "Get past the breath-taking PR snow job." - Former Cera communications adviser Tina Nixon describing the press conference announcing the resignation Roger Sutton