Surprise! no politics here! (at least not current politics)
Circa 1940, the punchline to a rather risque (apparently) joke was:
“Hold on to your hats, folks, here we go again!”
Q: what was the set-up?
Any context? How did you hear about this? How do you know the punchline went to a risque joke?
As always, the explanation of the question comes after it is answered.
IOW: Trust me
Reference from a Tex Avery cartoon? ([ur]http://members.aol.com/EOCostello/a.html, scroll down to the entry for Avery, Frederick Bean (Tex).)
I’m rather interested in knowing the joke to this punchline, myself.
Err. http://members.aol.com/EOCostello/a.html, rather.
I’ve googled this, and found 3 websites, all of which refer to a Bugs bunny cartoon. At the end of the episode bugs and Willoughby dog fall off a cliff, but then after falling and falling, land safely, then bugs goes 'fooled ya didn’t we?, then proceeds to fall off another cliff. Apparently in one version, bugs then said:
“Hold on to your hats, folks, here we go again!”, and then the cartoon ends (with ‘that’s all folks’, etc)
However, this apparently wasn’t broadcast, possibly because someone thought it would be too topical, so would date badly.
The cartoon was called ‘The Heckling Hare’, and was apparently made in 1941.
The references are these three sites:
http://lavender.fortunecity.com/fullmonty/22/avery.htm
http://members.aol.com/EOCostello/a.html
http://www.burbankhighanimation.com/texavery.html
Thanks for the reference, racinchikki. While it didn’t help, I appreciate the courtesy.
Very Good!
You have learned how to use a search engine (pls teach Jinx 
)
Now, what was the set-up?
All I can find through any avenues thus far is that nobody knows the joke. Most people, with the exception of the initial link I provided and several folks who’ve ripped off that person’s content for their own sites, don’t even say that it’s from a risque joke. The strongest terminology most people venture is that it was supposedly or reportedly from “a then-current joke of an off-colour nature.” Others don’t even mention the joke when discussing the cartoon’s ending change (if, as I’m assuming, that’s why and how you were bitten by the curiosity bug). I’ll try asking an elderly gentleman of my acquaintance if he knows any jokes with that punchline, if no one else finds results.
Yes, I’ve searched - the only references I can find are to the punchline - hence my Q.
For those too lazy to click the link(s) - this line was the central point in Tex Avery’s departure from WB (to MGM) - Leon was as adamant about removing it as Tex was about keeping it.
After searching Google Groups for an hour, including this same discussion from the last 5 years or more, it would appear that there probably isn’t any old joke. If there were, and if it was well-enough know that Avery would have Bugs use it, then someone, somewhere could have come up with the joke.
They haven’t, so the best explanation is the Leon/Tex feud.
I misread the link. The line is actually from the 1933 Astaire/Rogers movie, Flying Down to Rio.
Haj
Might be a false lead, hajario, but good work in finding it. In that context it’s described as “Herkimer Jerkimer” dialogue - an example of the inane lines given to Fred Astaire in the movie - and probably not anything having to do with a joke that’d stick around long enough to end up in a Bugs Bunny cartoon eight years later. You never know, though.
Yes, racinchikki, but in this link which you also cited, the explanation given for cutting the line was that it was “too topical.” A tag link from an eight year old movie might be right on the edge of something that people would remember at the time. Perhaps it was also a slightly suggestive joke in the movie. I can’t find a script online anywhere to verify this.
Haj
Arghh! Actually it was silverfish who posted that link.
Also, the line in the movie was “Hold on to your hats, boys, here we go again.”
Haj
Thanks, Haj -
Just watched the movie (at least enough to set up the line): short answer - nothing for Leon to get his panties in a bunch over.
The setup:
Astair is second-banana to a band leader (two wild and crazy guys!) playing a gig in a swank hotel in Rio - the new “Swiss” manager (read: prick) is ready to fire the goof-offs, etc.
Anyway, shortly after the band starts playing, the band leader notices, and is noticed by, by Hot Latin Chick[sup]TM[/sup]. When, in the course of the following banter, it becomes obvious that the band leader is going to pursue HLC, Astair utters the line.
In context: A romantic liason is about to commence.
(the flick also has a visual of a hotel maid whose heels are well rounded, for those old enough to get the joke)
So, unless the line pre-dates the movie, it makes no sense for Tex and Leon to fight over it.
The mystery remains: was it a pointless clash of egos or a pointed clash of egos?
So there you go. It’s a line that signifies in the movie that a romantic liason is about to commence. Maybe it became a catch phrase after that for the next few years but was dying out. The sources say that it was mildly risque and/or too topical. This would fit both criteria.
Haj
I’m not old enough. Would an explaination be short and simple enough not to require a hijack?
Kids! A woman of ‘easy virtue’ was said to have “round heels”. The nickname “Susie Roundheels” was common for “loose” women.