I used to have an uncle who would occasionally say, “I shoulda’ stood in bed.” In spite of people pointing out that he wasn’t referring to *standing *in bed, he kept right on saying it. And I occasionally have heard other people say it too.
Where did this odd term originate?
A (very weakly) humorous variation of “I should have stayed in bed” - okay, I’m speculating, but it seems pretty likely.
Possibly repeated so many times that folks who use it don’t even think about where it came from.
The phrase here is attributed to fight manager Joe Jacobs in 1935.
The phrase was well enough known to be used as the title of the short-lived Broadway comedy They Should Have Stood in Bed in 1942.
Amazingly enough, we know exactly when and by whom this phrase originated.
Legendary sports reporter Shirley Povich (yes, Maury Povich’s father) quoted fight promoter Joe Jacobs (the picturesque character who also coined the phrase “we wuz robbed”) when he got out of a sickbed to attend the 1935 World Series between the Tigers and the Cubs on a wet, cold and windy October day. When Povich (or some other reporter with Povich) asked him what he thought of baseball, he replied, “I should have stood in bed.” Povich wrote that into a column and the phrase immediately became famous.
Various commentators have said that “stood” for “stayed” is Brooklynese, and Leo Rosten used it as an example of Yiddish, either one applicable to Jacobs.
Count yourself lucky. The two things I hear quite often from ostensibly native English speakers are:
[ol][li]Her and her friend are downtown.[/li][li]Him and his friend are playing pool.[/ol][/li]
The subject noun phrase is my complaint. The predicate in each sentence is only an example.
Shirley Povich certainly came before Bugs Bunny, but I’d wager most people who’ve heard the expression learned of it from Bugs Bunny cartoons.
I didn’t know where it originated, but I know I heard Daffy Duck sing it in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. I remember arguing with my brother about the lyrics.
Let’s see if I can remember the lyrics…
I know I’m really loony tuney
Touched in the head
Please pass the ketchup
I shoulda stood in bed
That’s only one verse, or maybe the chorus.
Shirley was a man’s name back then?
Or is he a “Boy Named Sue” kind of thing?
Don’t call me Shirley!
IMDb gives a Bugs verse as:
I am getting looney tuney
touched in the head
This whole thing is gooney
I should have stood in bed.
That’s from Easter Yeggs, released in 1947. By that time the phrase had been firmly established for 15 years.
Would later generations have picked it up from the cartoon or from general circulation? Impossible to say.