# Expression - 'This is why I can't have nice things' - origin?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-this-is-why-i-cant-have-nice-things-origin/210576>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 31, 2003, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-this-is-why-i-cant-have-nice-things-origin/210576 "2003-10-31T02:32:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-this-is-why-i-cant-have-nice-things-origin/210576/1 "2003-10-31T02:32:59Z")

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It sounds like its from a movie, is it? I always use it sarcastically when someone is messing things up etc.

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**Author:** ![Booker57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Booker57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Booker57)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-this-is-why-i-cant-have-nice-things-origin/210576/2 "2003-10-31T03:50:08Z")

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Sounds like a Mother talking to a child after child has destroyed something of value.

Goes back to time immemorial.

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**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-this-is-why-i-cant-have-nice-things-origin/210576/3 "2003-10-31T06:15:11Z")

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Lisa said it to Homer

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-this-is-why-i-cant-have-nice-things-origin/210576/4 "2003-10-31T08:04:48Z")

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When little Memkut accidently damaged his mother’s Isis statue while chasing a lizard around the hut.

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**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-this-is-why-i-cant-have-nice-things-origin/210576/5 "2003-10-31T08:40:18Z")

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One of the funnier uses, though definitely not the first, was in _Jane Austen’s Mafia!_ (1998). Tony (Jay Mohr) is having an argument with Pepper (Pamila Gidley). She hurls a crystal bowl or something at him, it shatters, the argument continues, she hurls her poodle at him, it shatters, and Mohr says “This is why we can’t have nice things, Pepper!”