Whatever? Not even close

Over at the Visual Theasurus, Benjamin Zimmer glances behind that "annoying words poll". Shorter Zimmer (this from his Language Log postlet)

As was widely reported, whatever won with 47%, followed by you know (25%), it is what it is (11%), anyway (7%), and at the end of the day (2%). As was not so widely reported, those were the only options that respondents to the poll were given, so it's not like half of Americans are really tearing their hair out about whatever.

What is the point of doing something like that and pretending it means something?