# Archie says his job gets "kind of butthole at times" in 1947 newspaper comic **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 23, 2012, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archie-says-his-job-gets-kind-of-butthole-at-times-in-1947-newspaper-comic/619754 "2012-04-23T22:12:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Anonymous\_Coward](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/94ad74/32.png) [@Anonymous\_Coward](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anonymous_Coward)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archie-says-his-job-gets-kind-of-butthole-at-times-in-1947-newspaper-comic/619754/21 "2012-04-24T18:21:23Z")
I had no idea they had archives of old papers on Google. There go my lunch hours. From the _New York Age_ Sept 6 1890 Anti-Courting Device [![](https://i.imgur.com/z8X55.jpg) ](https://i.imgur.com/z8X55.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archie-says-his-job-gets-kind-of-butthole-at-times-in-1947-newspaper-comic/619754/22 "2012-04-24T18:34:10Z")
The [following day](http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=q1AsAAAAIBAJ&sjid=E8sEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3431%2C183360http://) Archie gets a 30 minute break from his usher job and sets out for a \*\*\*quickie \*\*\*at the chok’lit shop, whereby he is given a prime ribbing from Reggie and the gang for his military-like uniform. Here’s my favorite headline I’ve found looking for other papers that carried Archie around the same time: The Deseret News: April 2, 1947: [Easter Party Set For Shut-ins at Jewish Center](http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FpRTAAAAIBAJ&sjid=E4gDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4682%2C242315) How very nice! ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archie-says-his-job-gets-kind-of-butthole-at-times-in-1947-newspaper-comic/619754/23 "2012-04-24T18:53:22Z")
I wonder if the interest rates on the 5, 10, 20 and 50 dollar loans in the money to lend section of the ads were as bad as the payday loan places of today. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archie-says-his-job-gets-kind-of-butthole-at-times-in-1947-newspaper-comic/619754/24 "2012-04-24T19:31:36Z")
will shakespere and i were on an airplane and he saw the sign on the restroom door that says ‘occupied.’ we shared a lot of knowing laughs over that one, but bill always like course jocosity. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archie-says-his-job-gets-kind-of-butthole-at-times-in-1947-newspaper-comic/619754/25 "2012-04-24T19:45:33Z")
Using the Google N-Gram viewer, I find that “butthole” has been used pretty much in its present sense from about 1960 on, but before that there was a blip in the early 1900s in which it does, indeed, mean cul-de-sac. “The Living Age” from 1912 (Vol. 275) A “Butthole Mining Company” is listed in Nevada in 1904 > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=butthole&year_start=1800&year_end=1920&corpus=0&smoothing=3)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer The English Place-Name Society lists a “Butthole Field” from 1800 ---
**Author:** ![LegendHasit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/legendhasit/32/8246_2.png) [@LegendHasit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LegendHasit)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archie-says-his-job-gets-kind-of-butthole-at-times-in-1947-newspaper-comic/619754/26 "2012-04-24T19:57:41Z")
butthole buttonhole oops, wrong thread ---
**Author:** ![Bumbershoot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbershoot/32/3428_2.png) [@Bumbershoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbershoot)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archie-says-his-job-gets-kind-of-butthole-at-times-in-1947-newspaper-comic/619754/27 "2012-04-24T20:25:46Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Using the Google N-Gram viewer, I find that “butthole” has been used pretty much in its present sense from about 1960 on, but before that there was a blip in the early 1900s in which it does, indeed, mean cul-de-sac. > > “The Living Age” from 1912 (Vol. 275) > > A “Butthole Mining Company” is listed in Nevada in 1904 > > [Google Ngram Viewer: butthole](http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=butthole&year_start=1800&year_end=1920&corpus=0&smoothing=3) > > The English Place-Name Society lists a “Butthole Field” from 1800 “What do you do for a living?” “I work at Butthole Mining.” “…You get paid for that?” ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archie-says-his-job-gets-kind-of-butthole-at-times-in-1947-newspaper-comic/619754/28 "2012-04-24T20:26:11Z")
I don’t know.about the rest of you, but for my own part (now that I know we have a perfectly good English alternative with an established usage,) I don’t expect to ever use the term ‘cul de sac’ again. Unless I am speaking French, I guess, and can hope to make a crude anatomical pun out of it. Huh-huh. “My own part.” I slay me. ---
**Author:** ![Bumbershoot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbershoot/32/3428_2.png) [@Bumbershoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbershoot)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archie-says-his-job-gets-kind-of-butthole-at-times-in-1947-newspaper-comic/619754/29 "2012-04-24T20:52:37Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Using the Google N-Gram viewer, I find that “butthole” has been used pretty much in its present sense from about 1960 on, but before that there was a blip in the early 1900s in which it does, indeed, mean cul-de-sac. > > “The Living Age” from 1912 (Vol. 275) > > A “Butthole Mining Company” is listed in Nevada in 1904 > > [Google Ngram Viewer: butthole](http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=butthole&year_start=1800&year_end=1920&corpus=0&smoothing=3) > > The English Place-Name Society lists a “Butthole Field” from 1800 _[I came up with a better one and it was too late to edit]_ “What do you do for a living?” “I work at Butthole Mining.” “So…you’re a proctologist?” ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archie-says-his-job-gets-kind-of-butthole-at-times-in-1947-newspaper-comic/619754/30 "2012-04-24T21:06:36Z")
> [@fiddlesticks](#): > > Here’s my favorite headline I’ve found looking for other papers that carried Archie around the same time: > The Deseret News: April 2, 1947: [Easter Party Set For Shut-ins at Jewish Center](http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FpRTAAAAIBAJ&sjid=E4gDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4682%2C242315) > > How very nice! You have to consider where it’s from: Salt Lake City is the one place in the world where a Jew can be a Gentile! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archie-says-his-job-gets-kind-of-butthole-at-times-in-1947-newspaper-comic/619754/31 "2012-04-24T21:10:30Z")
> [@Bumbershoot](#): > > _[I came up with a better one and it was too late to edit]_ > > “What do you do for a living?” > > “I work at Butthole Mining.” > > “So…you’re a proctologist?” “Find many nuggets?” ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archie-says-his-job-gets-kind-of-butthole-at-times-in-1947-newspaper-comic/619754/32 "2012-04-24T22:37:54Z")
Preliminary report back from the American Dialect Mailing List. 1. Suggestion that it might have been altered in the newspaper on Google. Checked against another newspaper same strip and it’s a match. 2. The cul-de-sac theory. But not much to suggest it was teen slang in the 1940s. 3. A suggestion from Jon Lighter that you shouldn’t rule out just yet a person/persons changing it before it went to press. Montana would not likely have used that term in that situation as it was NOT teen slang. “Prime” was teen slang. Prof. Lighter never found an incidence of it being used in that time frame. Stay tuned. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archie-says-his-job-gets-kind-of-butthole-at-times-in-1947-newspaper-comic/619754/33 "2012-04-24T23:11:28Z")
> [@Bumbershoot](#): > > “What do you do for a living?” > > “I work at Butthole Mining.” > > “…You get paid for that?” Wrecked 'em!? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archie-says-his-job-gets-kind-of-butthole-at-times-in-1947-newspaper-comic/619754/34 "2012-04-25T00:43:24Z")
[The Bunghole theory of child-rearing](http://everything2.com/title/In+praise+of+little+kids) > [@](#): > > at about the age of thirteen, a child should be placed inside a large wine barrel with a bunghole on the side. The lid should then be nailed onto the barrel and the child fed through the bunghole until s/he reaches the age of eighteen. Then the bung should be pounded in. I’m quoting this page just because it’s more convenient than typing it out. This has been around since I’ve been a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archie-says-his-job-gets-kind-of-butthole-at-times-in-1947-newspaper-comic/619754/35 "2012-04-25T01:42:01Z")
While we’re on the subject, who signed off on this [ad campaign](http://tvrefill.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/vasiline-ad.jpg)? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archie-says-his-job-gets-kind-of-butthole-at-times-in-1947-newspaper-comic/619754/36 "2012-04-25T01:59:07Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > [The Bunghole theory of child-rearing](http://everything2.com/title/In+praise+of+little+kids) > > I’m quoting this page just because it’s more convenient than typing it out. This has been around since I’ve been a kid. “Bunghole” is actually a perfectly good word for the hole in a wine cask. They continue to use it at wineries, where they still have wine casks, and they still have holes in them. It’s acquired its shady associations from its similarity, I suspect, to “butthole”, not to mention “bung” being similar to “bum” and “butt”, aided by a healthy dose of ignorance and assumed wit. Nevertheless, “bunghole” continues to be, at worst, a euphemism. There’s a liquor store in Salem, MA called _the Bunghole_. If nothing else, people remember the name. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archie-says-his-job-gets-kind-of-butthole-at-times-in-1947-newspaper-comic/619754/37 "2012-04-25T02:49:26Z")
> [@Bumbershoot](#): > > _[I came up with a better one and it was too late to edit]_ > > “What do you do for a living?” > > “I work at Butthole Mining.” > > “So…you’re a proctologist?” “Or a gastroenterologist?” ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archie-says-his-job-gets-kind-of-butthole-at-times-in-1947-newspaper-comic/619754/38 "2012-04-25T04:02:10Z")
> [@fiddlesticks](#): > > The [following day](http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=q1AsAAAAIBAJ&sjid=E8sEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3431%2C183360http://) Archie gets a 30 minute break from his usher job and sets out for a \*\*\*quickie \*\*\*at the chok’lit shop, whereby he is given a prime ribbing from Reggie and the gang for his military-like uniform. I like that in 1947 they had the Marine Corps Hymn in jukeboxes! ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archie-says-his-job-gets-kind-of-butthole-at-times-in-1947-newspaper-comic/619754/39 "2012-04-25T15:11:00Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > I like that in 1947 they had the Marine Corps Hymn in jukeboxes! Maybe it was a war surplus jukebox. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archie-says-his-job-gets-kind-of-butthole-at-times-in-1947-newspaper-comic/619754/40 "2012-04-25T15:38:40Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > will shakespere and i were on an airplane and he saw the sign on the restroom door that says ‘occupied.’ we shared a lot of knowing laughs over that one, but bill always like course jocosity. coarse jocosity catches the crowd ellipsis hi there archy how you doing question mark [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archie-says-his-job-gets-kind-of-butthole-at-times-in-1947-newspaper-comic/619754.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archie-says-his-job-gets-kind-of-butthole-at-times-in-1947-newspaper-comic/619754.md?page=3)