We’ve all heard the comedic parodies of afternoon talk shows like Jerry Springer’s, where the tagline to an episode goes something like:
“On the next Springer–one-legged Lesbian midgets and the men who love them!”
Who started this? And did any such program ever have a tag that actually said “and the men (or women) who love them?”
Sir Rhosis
Steve Goodman had a song, way back when (60s?) about “men who love women who love men” …
I think it’s a play on the title of the '80s self-help book Men Who Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them.
No, I’m sure the phrase pre-dates that self help book by many years. It seems to me that the phrase originally had no ironic content. I think it was a common phrase in movie trailers – “the story of daredevil pilots and the women who love them” etc. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find any online support for this memory.