# "Good day, sir. . ." **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 9, 2009, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-day-sir/502448 "2009-07-09T13:46:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-day-sir/502448/1 "2009-07-09T13:46:51Z")
I said good day." This line, usually said by an indignant character who has just told someone off, seems to pop up every now and then in comedies. Does anyone know it’s origins? The first time I can recall hearing it is Dustin Hoffman’s character saying it in Tootsie. Was it taken from some previous, famous work?I mean, I love the movie but I find it hard to believe that anyone would be riffing on a line from Tootsie today. Anybody got a clue (or even know what I’m talking about?)? ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-day-sir/502448/2 "2009-07-09T13:51:25Z")
That’s the only place I’ve seen it. Can you give some other examples? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-day-sir/502448/3 "2009-07-09T14:04:29Z")
> [@Scarlett67](#): > > That’s the only place I’ve seen it. Can you give some other examples? I’ve seen it elsewhere, but I can’t think of anyplace specific. I assume it’s a class thing. That is, the person saying ‘Good day!’ is showing his class superiority by A) dismissing the other person, and B) doing it in a way that allows him to claim that he was not vulgar. ---
**Author:** ![Kingspades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecae2f/32.png) [@Kingspades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kingspades)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-day-sir/502448/4 "2009-07-09T14:09:42Z")
The two places I know it from are “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” (“You lose! You get nothing! Good day, sir!”) and, more prominently, Fez from “That 70s Show.” ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-day-sir/502448/5 "2009-07-09T14:10:06Z")
Well, Helen Slater sort of does it to Michael J. Fox in _Secret of My Success_, but she just says, “Good morning” (in dismissal, which always strikes me as a bit odd). Was the OP thinking of the exact line he quoted, or just similar ones like this? ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-day-sir/502448/6 "2009-07-09T14:13:16Z")
> [@Scarlett67](#): > > That’s the only place I’ve seen it. Can you give some other examples? Jon Stewart uses it all the time on The Daily Show… ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-day-sir/502448/7 "2009-07-09T14:16:39Z")
I’ve always thought that the classic was Willy Wonka and the others are all references to that. Here’s an example from Myster Men: > [@](#): > > The Shoveller: Watch it, Spleen, you’re going to kill someone with that thing! > Dr. Heller: Oh, no, no, no. All these weapons are completely non-lethal. > The Bowler: Wow. How wonderfully eccentric while simultaneously being a complete waste of our time. Good day, sir. I say good day. [Mystery Men (1999) - Quotes - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0132347/quotes) And here’s the Willy Wonka: > [@](#): > > Grandpa Joe: Mr. Wonka? > Willy Wonka: [pointedly ignoring them] I am extraordinarily busy, sir. > Grandpa Joe: [tentatively] I just wanted to ask about the chocolate - The-the lifetime supply of chocolate, for Charlie. Wh-When does he get it? > Willy Wonka: He doesn’t. > Grandpa Joe: Why not? > Willy Wonka: Because he broke the rules. > Grandpa Joe: What rules? We didn’t see any rules, did we, Charlie? > [Charlie shakes his head briefly] > Willy Wonka: [springs up from his chair, angrily] Wrong, sir! Wrong! Under section 37B of the contract signed by him, it states quite clearly that all offers shall become null and void if - and you can read it for yourself in this photostatic copy: > [grabs a magnifying glass and reads] > Willy Wonka: “I, the undersigned, shall forfeit all rights, privileges, and licenses herein and herein contained,” et cetera, et cetera…“Fax mentis incendium gloria cultum,” et cetera, et cetera…“Memo bis punitor delicatum!” > [slams the contract copy and the magnifying glass down, continues shouting] > Willy Wonka: It’s all there, black and white, clear as crystal! You stole fizzy lifting drinks! You bumped into the ceiling which now has to be washed and sterilized, so you get _NOTHING_! You lose! Good day, sir! > Grandpa Joe: [shocked] You’re a crook. You’re a cheat and a swindler! That’s what you are! > [angrily] > Grandpa Joe: How could you something like this, build up a little boy’s hopes and then smash all his dreams to pieces? You’re an inhuman monster! > Willy Wonka: [shouts even louder] I said, “Good day!” > Grandpa Joe: Come on, Charlie, Let’s get out of here. I’ll get even with him if its the last thing I’ll ever do. If Slugworth wants a gobstopper, he’ll get one. [Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) - Quotes - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067992/quotes) ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-day-sir/502448/8 "2009-07-09T14:16:50Z")
It’s from _Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory_. That’s the origin. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-day-sir/502448/9 "2009-07-09T14:24:16Z")
> [@Scarlett67](#): > > That’s the only place I’ve seen it. Can you give some other examples? Fez used it as a catch phrase in _That 70s Show_. It was never that funny, but after he used it incessantly it was annoying. I see it pretty often in sitcoms now and view it as lazy writing. When the writers need a cheap and easy gag they fall back on this. Two times I have seen it made me smile. Once in _How I Met Your Mother_ Barney says it and no one responds, so he says it a few more times and then Ted says something like: Barney, you are only going to… and Barney interrupts with _I Said Good Day._ On _The Big Bang Theory_ Sheldon does it and Leonard mumbles to himself: Who says good day? ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-day-sir/502448/10 "2009-07-09T14:25:43Z")
> [@Scarlett67](#): > > . . .Was the OP thinking of the exact line he quoted, or just similar ones like this? I’m thinking of that exact quote said in a specific way which to me indicates it’s an intentional imitation of something else. **Diogenes** probably nailed it, though I didn’t recall it from Willy Wonka until he mentioned it. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-day-sir/502448/11 "2009-07-09T15:25:58Z")
The real question is…why is this said in our heads (and on The Daily Show) in a crotchety old English accent, when Willy Wonka was played by Gene Wilder with an American accent? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-day-sir/502448/12 "2009-07-09T15:28:10Z")
Ebenezer Scrooge says it to his nephew in _A Christmas Carol_, although, to be sure, he says “Good morning!” ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-day-sir/502448/13 "2009-07-09T15:29:08Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > The real question is…why is this said in our heads (and on The Daily Show) in a crotchety old English accent, when Willy Wonka was played by Gene Wilder with an American accent? 😕 Maybe Stewart just found that a fake Brit accent worked for his delivery - a stereotypical British formality and condescension suits the phrase… ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-day-sir/502448/14 "2009-07-09T15:32:19Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > It’s from _Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory_. That’s the origin. Wow - I’ma gonna need to do me some searching, 'cause it would really surprise me if this were so recent. I had always assumed it dated back at least to 19th century England. Well, that was quick. [This guy](http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/71234.html) at least says it was from Foghorn Leghorn, aping someone earlier. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-day-sir/502448/15 "2009-07-09T16:08:59Z")
I’ve got a little bit of a problem with that. The responder is apparently conflating two similar, but distinct remarks. The remark asked about in the OP has the speaker saying “Good day, sir” as a dismissal, followed by his interlocutor attempting to advance the conversation with yet another point. The speaker then emphasizes that the audience is at an end, by saying: “I said ‘Good DAY’!” The Foghorn Leghorn version is more of a verbal puntcuator in a monologue that the speaker is giving. And it doesn’t have to be “Good day” that is being punctuated. You will just as likely hear Foghorn Leghorn saying “That boy is, Isay that boy is about as sharp as a bowlin’ ball.” Or “That dog, Isay that dog is about as stupid as a sack of cement at the bottom of a well.” I’m going with Dickens. I make no claims as to the first time the peremptory dismissal was given as “Good day” as opposed to “Good morning.” ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-day-sir/502448/16 "2009-07-09T16:15:56Z")
The Willie Wonka scene was not a quote or allusion to Foghorn Leghorn. It had no irony in it. It was not a movie that made pop culture references like that at all. It was just the character being the character. Anyway, Foghorn said “I say…” not “I said,” and the pattern in question involves a dismissive “good day,” followed by a more emphatic, “I said good day, sir,” after the other person starts to speak. That’s Willie Wonka, man. ETA I acknowledge it could be a subtle reference to Dickens. What is the exact quote from Scrooge? ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-day-sir/502448/17 "2009-07-09T16:25:42Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I’m going with Dickens. I make no claims as to the first time the peremptory dismissal was given as “Good day” as opposed to “Good morning.” I’m going to bet a lot of money it was not the Willy Wonka movie. As suggested upthread, this is pretty much how you would say “goodbye” to someone in formal English of the Victorian period – and saying “goodbye” with a particularly dismissive tone that makes it far from a pleasantry is hardly an idea that first sprung to mind in 1974 or whenever. Was it in the book? If not, I would imagine some searching of Conan Doyle or Wodehouse would turn up examples of haughty dismissals phrased thusly. ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-day-sir/502448/18 "2009-07-09T16:30:23Z")
I agree that whenever I hear the quote, I think of _Tootsie_, although _Willy Wonka…_ and even _Christmas Carol_ (or other Dickens) wouldn’t surprise me. Another TV show that used it often was _NewsRadio_, courtesy of Bill McNeal at least twice – and possibly Matthew Brock and one of Jon Lovitz’s characters too. Bill was wont to use hifalutin’ or graceful language; I mean, the guy said “unhand me, good sir!” when enraged and it sounded perfectly natural for him! (Then again, he also used ‘booty call’ and it worked just as well. Oh Phil.) ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-day-sir/502448/19 "2009-07-09T16:36:58Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > The Willie Wonka scene was not a quote or allusion to Foghorn Leghorn. It had no irony in it. It was not a movie that made pop culture references like that at all. It was just the character being the character. > > Anyway, Foghorn said “I say…” not “I said,” and the pattern in question involves a dismissive “good day,” followed by a more emphatic, “I said good day, sir,” after the other person starts to speak. That’s Willie Wonka, man. > > ETA I acknowledge it could be a subtle reference to Dickens. What is the exact quote from Scrooge? My bad. It was afternoon, not morning. [From an online e-book (bottom of page 11):](http://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Dickens/Carol/Dickens_Carol.htm#p11) > [@](#): > > “I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute. We have never had any quarrel, to which I have been a party. But I have made the trial in homage to Christmas, and I’ll keep my Christmas humour to the last. So A Merry Christmas, uncle!” > > “Good afternoon!” said Scrooge. > > “And A Happy New Year!” > > “Good afternoon!” said Scrooge. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2009, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-day-sir/502448/20 "2009-07-09T16:37:39Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > I’m going to bet a lot of money it was not the Willy Wonka movie. As suggested upthread, this is pretty much how you would say “goodbye” to someone in formal English of the Victorian period – and saying “goodbye” with a particularly dismissive tone that makes it far from a pleasantry is hardly an idea that first sprung to mind in 1974 or whenever. It’s more specific than just “good day,” though, since it’s a full two to three lines of dialogue. It fits the movie version of the Wonka character, and it also makes sense that Stewart and the other TV writers would make a reference to something they saw in their childhoods. (Stewart would have been about 12 when Willy Wonka was released.) > [@](#): > > Was it in the book? I’m pretty sure it isn’t. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-day-sir/502448.md?page=2)