Definitely Milton Berle, but I think it was used a lot by Carol Burnett, too.
It was from Uncle Miltie. It was one of my father’s favorite gag lines long before the Muppets or the Brady Bunch.
Like here(about 1:45 in.)
THAT’S IT!!! THAT’S IT!!!
Thank you, Skammer. big messy smooches
And that would be Arnold Stang, applying the powder puff. Watched that one live in and about 1949-54.
My question is, would the Daffy Duck usage predate Milton Bearle? Maybe like so many other entertainment cliches it started back in Vaudeville days.
As did Milton Berle.
I don’t think the Daffy usage predates Berle’s show. Berle was using the gag on his show as early as 1950, while the cartoon usage (I think) is from the 1953 animated short “Duck Amuck” or the 1957 short “Show Biz Bugs” (sorry I can’t remember which atm).
The punchline is a definite allusion even though the circumstances differ. In the Berle/burlesque/vaudeville routine, the joke involves someone being constantly thwacked with an oversize powder puff by an overzealous make-up person. In the cartoon, the joke is that Daffy thinks a little powder and foundation can cover up whatever burns and injuries he suffered in the stunt.
Definitely Uncle Miltie. Besides the Muppet Show reference, I recall an awards show (the Emmys, perhaps) which did a memorial to him ending with a line to the effect of that his loss creates a big hole in TV history that we can never make up, with the expected punchline afterwards.
This has absolutely nothing to do with the OP but I just had to post it:
“Make Up!!!”
It took me a while, but the Daffy Duck cartoon I was thinking of was:
“A Star Is Bored,” from 1956.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049792/
Milton Berle was already a huge TV star long before 1956, so there’s little question that Daffy was making an allusion to Uncle Miltie.
It just so happens that Uncle Miiltie’s old shows are very rarely seen in reruns, whereas I’ve seen that Daffy cartoon many times. People my age (49) or younger often don’t know where the jokes in old Warner Brothers cartoons came from, or what was originally being parodied.
Aww, shucks. blush
And it wouldn’t surprise me if it was older still. In addition to Berle’s other legendary attribute, he was also prided himself on being a big joke/gag stealer.