# Here comes da judge **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 19, 2005, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-da-judge/326981 "2005-10-19T21:55:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2005, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-da-judge/326981/1 "2005-10-19T21:55:14Z")
Here comes da judge, here comes da judge, sock it to me baby 'cause here comes da judge. I was pretty young when Laugh-in was popular. Was there a hidden or “street” meaning to “Here comes da judge” that made this funny. Is there a nuance that I’m not seeing? I know that this is about a phrase popular on a TV station, but the question has a factual answer. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2005, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-da-judge/326981/2 "2005-10-19T22:20:34Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > Here comes da judge, here comes da judge, sock it to me baby 'cause here comes da judge. > > I was pretty young when Laugh-in was popular. Was there a hidden or “street” meaning to “Here comes da judge” that made this funny. Is there a nuance that I’m not seeing? None that I heard at the time. It was Laugh-In’s intro to a regular courtroom skit. I don’t recall hearing the phrase before seeing that show. As you probably know, “sock it to me” came from a popular song by Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, which preceded Laugh-In. I don’t recall hearing that phrase before hearing the song. ---
**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:** [October 19, 2005, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-da-judge/326981/3 "2005-10-19T22:29:27Z")
The phrase came from an old comedy routine by Pigmeat Markham. Markham had a minor hit with a record of it about the time Laugh-In was starting out (I believe he was doing it on stage long before that). They stole the catchline, but later made it up to Markham by hiring him as part of the regular cast. It was pretty much what it sounded like. Markham played a judge in the sketch, and would do a sort of proto-rap saying “Here come da judge.” I doubt it had any other connotations; it was the repetition and the rapping that made it funny. ---
**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:** [October 19, 2005, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-da-judge/326981/4 "2005-10-19T22:38:01Z")
> [@Gary T](#): > > I don’t recall hearing the phrase before seeing that show. If my memory works correctly, “Here come de judge, here come de judge” is originally from the 1930 play (and 1936 [film](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027700/)) _The Green Pastures_. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2005, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-da-judge/326981/5 "2005-10-19T23:39:05Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > If my memory works correctly, “Here come de judge, here come de judge” is originally from the 1930 play (and 1936 [film](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027700/)) _The Green Pastures_. _Veeerrrry interesting…_ ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2005, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-da-judge/326981/6 "2005-10-19T23:43:35Z")
Wanna Walnetto? ---
**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:** [October 19, 2005, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-da-judge/326981/7 "2005-10-19T23:49:53Z")
> [@Gary T](#): > > As you probably know, “sock it to me” came from a popular song by Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, which preceded Laugh-In. I don’t recall hearing that phrase before hearing the song. Technically true, except for the “as you probably know” part. Almost everybody in the country associated the phrase with Aretha Franklin’s version of “Respect,” which came out just a few months later and was several orders of magnitude more popular. And the phrase can be found earlier than either: [http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node\_id=1379574](http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1379574) > [@](#): > > An issue of a 1968 copy of the Saturday Review mentions that the expression “Sock it to 'em” was used in The Grapes of Wrath written by John Steinbeck in 1939. In the novel of one the characters, a used car salesman uses the phrase “sock it to 'em” to unmistakably mean equally in context both, “to apply ultimate sales pressure” and “to screw.”