Why do I hear people say “color me skeptical” or “color me stupid” or whatever? Usually columnists or posters trying to be witty. Was this some vaudeville schtick that has been passed down unknowingly through the generations?
Looked through Cecil’s archive, didn’t see anything on this topic.
Well…I don’t know that this is the right answer, but…
When I was a little kid I had learn-to-read coloring books where every picture had a caption along the lines of “I’m a fire engine. Color me red” or “I’m a frog. Color me green.”
I suspect that many kids had books like this and the joke is to tap into this vague childhood memory which so many of us share.
In fact, this memory is so vague that I can’t actually swear that I really had such books. But I’m pretty sure that I’ve at least seen such books.
Sometime probably in the 1960’s Barbra Streisand took that idea one step further with a song called “My Coloring Book.” http://www.brendalee.co.uk/words/my_coloring_book.htm The song was a hit and the expression “color me _______” came into use other than just in coloring books.
Color Me Badd
I always thought it was an extension of the popular phrases associated with colors. For example, green with envy. Instead of saying I am envious, or even green with envy, I could say color me green with envy, and then color me green, and the audience could be expected to know what it meant. From there, you could just drop out the color entirely and say color me envious.