# 'Good evening ladies & germs' - WTH?!?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-evening-ladies-germs-wth/170986>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 25, 2003, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-evening-ladies-germs-wth/170986 "2003-04-25T00:21:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [April 25, 2003, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-evening-ladies-germs-wth/170986/1 "2003-04-25T00:21:19Z")

</div>

Does this ancient, cliched, Catskill comic opening line actually _mean_ anything? Is there any double entendré implied with the word ‘germs’? Or is it just a simple (and dumb) substitution for gentlemen?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-evening-ladies-germs-wth/170986/2 "2003-04-25T00:24:27Z")

</div>

I’ve heard other variants of it (always substituting another word with a soft ‘g’); I think it is just a catch-the-audience-by-surprise-warm-up thing.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-evening-ladies-germs-wth/170986/3 "2003-04-25T03:03:18Z")

</div>

Far as I know, it’s just something silly along the lines of

**Good evening ladles and jellyspoons!**

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![aahala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@aahala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aahala)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-evening-ladies-germs-wth/170986/4 "2003-04-25T03:51:24Z")

</div>

IIRC, back in the 60’s there was a popular insult comic by the name of Jack E. Leonard who used the line quite a bit on TV.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-evening-ladies-germs-wth/170986/5 "2003-04-25T04:06:24Z")

</div>

Actually, it was [Milton Berle](http://www.aftra.org/resources/pr/0302/berle.html), though others may have stolen his material:

> [@](#):
>
> \*\*“Good evening, ladies and germs,” Berle would say to the audience. “I mean ladies and gentlemen. I call you ladies and gentlemen, but you know what you really are.” \*\*

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-evening-ladies-germs-wth/170986/6 "2003-04-25T04:08:39Z")

</div>

Ladles and Jellyspoons;

I come before you to stand behind you, to tell you something I know nothing about. Next Thursday, which is Good Friday, there will be a mother’s meeting for fathers only. Admission is free, you can pay at the door; pull up a chair and sit on the floor. Now gather around and I’ll tell you the fable of the four square corners on the round table.

A speech I had learned in Cub Scouts mumbledy-mumble years ago, typed completely from memory. Now if I could just remember where I left my spare glasses.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-evening-ladies-germs-wth/170986/7 "2003-04-25T04:59:25Z")

</div>

Could _Ladles and Jellyspoons_ have come [from 1948?](http://www.logan.com/loganberry/solved-qr.html) According to that site, the “poem” was sighted in:

> [@](#):
>
> _A Rocket In My Pocket: The Rhymes & Chants of Young Americans_ (edited by Carl Withers and illustrated by Sussanne Suba). The first edition was published by Henry Holt in 1948, but it was subsequently published in shortened form titled _Favorite Rhymes from A Rocket in My Pocket_ by Scholastic in 1967 and 1990.