I first heard this presumably American phrase in the film “Groundhog Day” but I guessed that it was already in existence before that.
I have now just heard it on an episode of “Top Cat” called “All That Jazz”, which dates from late 1961.
Surely someone must have coined it before that?
I am pretty sure it appeared in the old Warner Brother’s Bugs Bunny cartoons before that. Can’t find a cite.
Second you memory. Off to Google.
Doozy was a word starting in 1903, though one source says 1890’s
So that makes the quote at least starting from there.
I am finding a lot more of this quote then the quote you are looking for
“Watch that first step, it’s a doozy”
Bupkus so far. But I know there are folks here with photographic memories of old cartoons, so someone will probbably come along with the name of the Bugs Bunny episode and a synopsis of same.
The only Bugs Bunny quote I can remember is when B.B. is battling a construction worker who wants to pave over his rabbit hole with a superhighway, and it ends “…it’s a lulu!”
Oh! You know … I think Bugs’s line was indeed “… it’s a lulu!”.
Damn memory <grumble>
IIRC, although apparently the word “doozy” pre-dates the auto, the use of “It’s a Doozy” comes from the Duesenberg automobile in the 1920’s. Either an ad campaign used that phrase or it was coined in the vernacular as meaning “extreme” or “excessive”.
To the best of MY recollection, yes I am that old, “doozy” was a common usage in the 20’s and was generally attributed to the Duesenberg automobile ,which really was a doozy.
The joke,then, was about the about the drunk who stepped off of the side of the stoop and commented,“watch that first step–etc.”
In actual fact ,“Doozy”, might be older than the 20’s--------but in that period it sure ly was appropos !
EZ
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You mean Ned Ryerson didn’t think up that line all by himself? Damn him! Damn him all to hell!
Thanks, chaps and chapesses.
I may consider asking about the doom-laden “Don’t you belieeeeve it” from the Tom & Jerry cartoons next …
I can find US newspaper cites as early as 1939 that say “Watch out for that first step, xxx xxxx xxx xxx.” None that use the doosie/doozie/doozy, at least not the early ones.
I’m wondering whether it might have had its origin in radio. Just the sort of joke that could be conveyed by sound effects of someone crashing down the stairs as some says the phrase.
It was in this old Bugs Bunny cartoon “Jack Wabbit and The Beanstalk” http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4076155557215375666#
That was 1943, for what it’s worth.