I know the punchline, what's the joke?

[happyheathen]

Surprise! no politics here! (at least not current politics)

Circa 1940, the punchline to a rather risque (apparently) joke was:

"Hold on to your hats, folks, here we go again!"

Q: what was the set-up?

[samclem]

Any context? How did you hear about this? How do you know the punchline went to a risque joke?

[happyheathen]

As always, the explanation of the question comes after it is answered.

IOW: Trust me

:)

[racinchikki]

Reference from a Tex Avery cartoon? ([ur]http://members.aol.com/EOCostello/a.html[/url], scroll down to the entry for Avery, Frederick Bean (Tex).)

I'm rather interested in knowing the joke to this punchline, myself.

[racinchikki]

Err. http://members.aol.com/EOCostello/a.html, rather.

[silverfish]

I've googled this, and found 3 websites, all of which refer to a Bugs bunny cartoon. At the end of the episode bugs and Willoughby dog fall off a cliff, but then after falling and falling, land safely, then bugs goes 'fooled ya didn't we?, then proceeds to fall off another cliff. Apparently in one version, bugs then said:
"Hold on to your hats, folks, here we go again!", and then the cartoon ends (with 'that's all folks', etc)

However, this apparently wasn't broadcast, possibly because someone thought it would be too topical, so would date badly.

The cartoon was called 'The Heckling Hare', and was apparently made in 1941.

The references are these three sites:
http://lavender.fortunecity.com/fullmonty/22/avery.htm
http://members.aol.com/EOCostello/a.html
http://www.burbankhighanimation.com/texavery.html

[samclem]

Thanks for the reference, racinchikki. While it didn't help, I appreciate the courtesy.

[happyheathen]

Very Good!

You have learned how to use a search engine (pls teach Jinx :D )

Now, what was the set-up?

[racinchikki]

All I can find through any avenues thus far is that nobody knows the joke. Most people, with the exception of the initial link I provided and several folks who've ripped off that person's content for their own sites, don't even say that it's from a risque joke. The strongest terminology most people venture is that it was supposedly or reportedly from "a then-current joke of an off-colour nature." Others don't even mention the joke when discussing the cartoon's ending change (if, as I'm assuming, that's why and how you were bitten by the curiosity bug). I'll try asking an elderly gentleman of my acquaintance if he knows any jokes with that punchline, if no one else finds results.

[happyheathen]

Yes, I've searched - the only references I can find are to the punchline - hence my Q.

For those too lazy to click the link(s) - this line was the central point in Tex Avery's departure from WB (to MGM) - Leon was as adamant about removing it as Tex was about keeping it.

[samclem]

After searching Google Groups for an hour, including this same discussion from the last 5 years or more, it would appear that there probably isn't any old joke. If there were, and if it was well-enough know that Avery would have Bugs use it, then someone, somewhere could have come up with the joke.


They haven't, so the best explanation is the Leon/Tex feud.

[hajario]

I found something. It's a line from the 1935 Astaire/Rogers movie, Top Hat.

Link (http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/26/flying.html#ref2)

Haj

[hajario]

I misread the link. The line is actually from the 1933 Astaire/Rogers movie, Flying Down to Rio.

Haj

[racinchikki]

Might be a false lead, hajario, but good work in finding it. In that context it's described as "Herkimer Jerkimer" dialogue - an example of the inane lines given to Fred Astaire in the movie - and probably not anything having to do with a joke that'd stick around long enough to end up in a Bugs Bunny cartoon eight years later. You never know, though.

[hajario]

Yes, racinchikki, but in this (http://lavender.fortunecity.com/fullmonty/22/avery.htm) link which you also cited, the explanation given for cutting the line was that it was "too topical." A tag link from an eight year old movie might be right on the edge of something that people would remember at the time. Perhaps it was also a slightly suggestive joke in the movie. I can't find a script online anywhere to verify this.

Haj

[hajario]

Arghh! Actually it was silverfish who posted that link.

Also, the line in the movie was "Hold on to your hats, boys, here we go again."

Haj

[happyheathen]

Thanks, Haj -

Just watched the movie (at least enough to set up the line): short answer - nothing for Leon to get his panties in a bunch over.

The setup:

Astair is second-banana to a band leader (two wild and crazy guys!) playing a gig in a swank hotel in Rio - the new "Swiss" manager (read: prick) is ready to fire the goof-offs, etc.
Anyway, shortly after the band starts playing, the band leader notices, and is noticed by, by Hot Latin ChickTM. When, in the course of the following banter, it becomes obvious that the band leader is going to pursue HLC, Astair utters the line.
In context: A romantic liason is about to commence.

(the flick also has a visual of a hotel maid whose heels are well rounded, for those old enough to get the joke)

So, unless the line pre-dates the movie, it makes no sense for Tex and Leon to fight over it.

The mystery remains: was it a pointless clash of egos or a pointed clash of egos?

[hajario]

So there you go. It's a line that signifies in the movie that a romantic liason is about to commence. Maybe it became a catch phrase after that for the next few years but was dying out. The sources say that it was mildly risque and/or too topical. This would fit both criteria.

Haj

[Kamino Neko]

Originally posted by happyheathen
(the flick also has a visual of a hotel maid whose heels are well rounded, for those old enough to get the joke)

I'm not old enough. Would an explaination be short and simple enough not to require a hijack?

[happyheathen]

Kids! A woman of 'easy virtue' was said to have "round heels". The nickname "Susie Roundheels" was common for "loose" women.

[racinchikki]

The implication being, said the kid, that a girl who had round heels would be easier to tip over into a prone position, the better for.... you know, enjoying her womanly charms.

[flug]

Circa 1940, the punchline to a rather risque (apparently) joke was:

"Hold on to your hats, folks, here we go again!"

Q: what was the set-up?

OK, 10 years late, but here's the answer:

The joke is recorded in Gershon Legman's Rationale of the Dirty Joke, p. 59 (http://books.google.com/books?id=vsZYihpCoHMC&lpg=PA59&vq=the%20mountaineer%20and%20his%20wife&pg=PA59#v=snippet&q=%22the%20mountaineer%20and%20his%20wife%22&f=false), which quotes sources from 1907, 1933, and 1934.

Apparently the joke was current in the 30s and 40s and was even the reason for the ban on the phrases "Hold your hat" and "Hold your hats" from movies during the period by the Motion Picture Production Code (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Production_Code).

The mountaineer and his wife and their three little boys all sleep in the same bed together, the boys wearing their coon-skin hats to keep warm. During the parents' intercourse, the bed collapses several times, the boys' hats flying in all directions. The parents wait till the children are asleep and try again. Just as their orgasm is approaching a tiny voice shouts, "Hold onto your hats, boys! Here we go again!"

[typoink]

The mountaineer and his wife and their three little boys all sleep in the same bed together, the boys wearing their coon-skin hats to keep warm. During the parents' intercourse, the bed collapses several times, the boys' hats flying in all directions. The parents wait till the children are asleep and try again. Just as their orgasm is approaching a tiny voice shouts, "Hold onto your hats, boys! Here we go again!"

Amazing detective work...and a surprisingly terrible joke.

[Leaffan]

Twenty bucks. Same as uptown.

[Smapti]

No soap, radio!

[J Cubed]

The Aristocrats!

[Ethilrist]

At these prices, I'm not surprised.

[Loach]

Thank god you have researched this for the last 10 years. Unfortunately the OP has been banned. The inability to find and answer to this question drove him first to madness then to death as a broken lonely man. But hey, at least we know now.

[flano1]

Yowzah!