# "I started that. Yeah that was me" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 8, 2006, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517 "2006-03-08T07:25:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/41 "2006-03-08T23:08:46Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > I wrote the “How many modern artists does it take to change a light bulb?” joke. So I’m hanging here. How many _does_ it take? > [@anyrose](#): > > … and I said as I left the group to go back to my room to sleep “I’m turning into a pumpkin”. Now, I hear people say that (at the very late/very early hour) all the time. I \*\*\*know \* \*\* I started that one. Err, isn’t this kind of ripped from Cinderella? I mean, Cinderella didn’t say that specifically, but at midnight her carriage turned into a pumpkin, right? So wouldn’t anyone who has seen Cinderella be able to come up with this? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/42 "2006-03-08T23:48:30Z")
> [@anyrose](#): > > Does this count? In RHPS > Janet: Besides, the owner of that castle might be a beautiful woman, and you might never come back. > Audience: You should \*\*be \*\* so lucky! > > that’s mine circa 1978 I also invented that one, although it was quite some time later. 😉 Although I think my variant was “You should _both_ be so lucky.” ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/43 "2006-03-09T00:45:40Z")
> [@anyrose](#): > > Does this count? In RHPS > Janet: Besides, the owner of that castle might be a beautiful woman, and you might never come back. > Audience: You should \*\*be \*\* so lucky! > > that’s mine circa 1978 A newspaper article about teen slang from 1950: > [@](#): > > The conversation runs like this: She–“Drop dead.” He–“what, and look like you.” “You should be so lucky.” He–“yes, that would be my kind of luck.” ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/44 "2006-03-09T00:51:14Z")
> [@Waverly](#): > > I’m willing to bet that ‘baditude’ and ‘uncle-fucker’ are mine. > > Uncle-fucker started as a result of me misquoting some of the lyrics in Alice’s Restaurant. When would that have been? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/45 "2006-03-09T03:36:08Z")
I didn’t invent the term, but once, I started a Pit thread with “asshat” in the title. After that, it seemed like everyone REALLY liked that insult and started using it frequently. I could probably find the thread, too. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/46 "2006-03-09T05:02:42Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > I didn’t invent the term, but once, I started a Pit thread with “asshat” in the title. After that, it seemed like everyone REALLY liked that insult and started using it frequently. > > I could probably find the thread, too. You started that thread on 4-15-03. You first used it in a post on 3-28-03. By that time, it had been used in over 150 posts on the board. The first use of “asshat” in a post on this board(excluding the fact that many early threads have gone away due to server problems), was on 4-17-02. Used by CRorex. He used it quite a bit. He used it again on 4-19-02. The term seems to appear in Usenet postings in 1998. ---
**Author:** ![mamboman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mamboman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamboman)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/47 "2006-03-09T09:58:04Z")
My cadre of university friends and I still argue, to this day, who amongst us first decided to use “Hitler” as a one-size-fits-all simile. Examples - “whoa! great party last night. Chris was as drunk as Hitler!” “blech! Margie, your vegetarian lasagne tatses like Hitler!” “Eddie Van Halen is a god! His guitar rocks like Hitler!” “Phew, I am tired. I worked like Hitler out there today” “Barbara is a maniac - she drives like Hitler!” “It’s my birthday! I’m as happy as Hitler!” “man this room is funky - smells like Hitler in here!” the acceptable variant was “Hitler’s Arse” - “Man, it’s as cold as Hitler’s arse out there!” All these years and we still all use it. And _I_ invented it. Anyone else who says otherwise is a liar, a Communist or both. mm ---
**Author:** ![mamboman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mamboman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamboman)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/48 "2006-03-09T10:02:22Z")
> [@mamboman](#): > > All these years and we still all use it. And _I_ invented it. Anyone else who > says otherwise is a liar, a Communist or both. > > mm Oh and, in the same university parlance, anyone who disagreed with our POV-du-jour was a “communist”. While I’m here I’ll claim credit for that too. mm ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/49 "2006-03-09T10:18:05Z")
It is possible that I began the use of UGG type slipper/boots as normal footwear. I started doing it starting around 1990 in California and then moved to Seattle in '93. I never saw any other person wearing them outdoors neither prior to nor subsequently until I returned to Seattle this last Christmas (though it appears to have become a female fashion, while as I was and still am male.) I would also note that as soon as my first set of boots wore out I got a pair of more shoe-shaped ones, one foot of which had a “no aliens” sticker and the other foot had a hole (which developed rather early) held together with safety pins. So we shall see if in about three years punked-out slippers as ordinary footwear become a fad as well. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/50 "2006-03-09T10:33:24Z")
I validated the meme [“Batman, if he’s prepared.”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=3336157#post3336157) I’ll lay claim to using “son” disparagingly on the SDMB as me. Yeah. I started that. It’s been around for decades, but I introduced it _here._ Spotting the [“The Sacrificial Negro”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=289371&highlight=Sacrificial+Negro) is also me. I’ll also lay claim to naming the lame movie villain conventions of falling to death from a high place, “Death… By Gravity!” (ellipses and exclamation points included.) I contributed to changing Cafe Society’s Forum description to: “Our salon for art, drama, literature, movies, music, comics, cuisine – all the artistic disciplines – if it’s about creativity, entertainment, or leisure, it goes here.” “IANAL” isn’t me, but “IMHYUCO” is. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/51 "2006-03-09T11:24:21Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > “IANAL” isn’t me, but “IMHYUCO” is. I guess it is, because I can’t find it anywhere. In My Humble Yet UnConsidered Opinion? ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/52 "2006-03-09T11:34:11Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > I’m positive I started “whatever” in the mid 80’s. I’m not even kidding about that. I had never heard anyone say it before me. I used it as the most dismissive, snide word I could think of. After a while my friends started saying it too and then a few years later it was everywhere. I know it’s an idiotic thing to try to take credit for but there it is. I’m probably wrong anyway. :rolleyes: Whatever. 😛 Seen that scientific proof that there is no Santa Claus? 'Cos of the mass of the sleigh and the distance and the reindeers bursting into flame in atmosphere? My scientific rebuttal to that was to argue that Santa is a quantum entity and so exists simultaneously in numerous places at once. I circulated the “Quantum Santa” theory via company email (slap my wrists!) and about a year later it popped up in _New Scientist_. So I claim to have invented the “Quantum Santa” theory c. 1997. ---
**Author:** ![Greywolf73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d9b06d/32.png) [@Greywolf73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greywolf73)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/53 "2006-03-09T13:59:28Z")
I’d like to lay claim to “Happy Zombie Jesus Day! (Easter)” because I never saw it anywhere before I posted it on my blog last year, but most likely someone else came up with it before me because it’s pretty obvious. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/54 "2006-03-09T14:13:05Z")
Remember the retro-sixties bachelor pad look from the 1990’s? And lounge music from Capitol and Rhino records? Well, I had my apartment in Burbank decorated with that furniture and I had many lounge music records for my listening pleasure way back in 1984. I would invite friends over and wear my plaid dinner jacket and serve highballs. After a few years I got bored and gave most of it away. Then it seemed that everybody was getting into the lounge appreciation society. I know that the 1982 film _Eating Raoul_ had a charactor who collected 'fabulous fifties furniture". That might have been some inspiration for me. ---
**Author:** ![anyrose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/54ee81/32.png) [@anyrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anyrose)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/55 "2006-03-09T14:27:28Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > A newspaper article about teen slang from 1950: I meant I started it as far as RHPS counts and I’ll concede the pumpkin issue ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/56 "2006-03-09T14:33:24Z")
You know how in a couple of years, whenever somebody prints the ‘th’ combination, they’ll make the vertical stroke in the ‘t’ double as the left vertical stroke of the ‘h’? That’ll’ve been me. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/57 "2006-03-09T15:09:19Z")
> [@bup](#): > > You know how in a couple of years, whenever somebody prints the ‘th’ combination, they’ll make the vertical stroke in the ‘t’ double as the left vertical stroke of the ‘h’? > > That’ll’ve been me. I’ve been doing that by mistake since the 70’s. I consider it my own personal rune. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/58 "2006-03-09T15:32:17Z")
> [@anyrose](#): > > I’ll concede the pumpkin issue Since I was talking to my Mom while scanning this thread, I asked her how long she’s been using the same pumkin expression. I remember her saying it from my childhood in the 60s. She said she remembers it from her childhoon in the 30s. You don’t have to concede. Just show how it got to Idaho in the 30s. ---
**Author:** ![MartinL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@MartinL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MartinL)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/59 "2006-03-09T15:35:14Z")
I made up a joke once and got somebody else tell me the joke back months later. I could positively track the joke back to the date whom I originally told it to. She was playing the cello in a string quartet and was depressed because the violinist was so priggish about playing the most important instrument and would mock her all the time. I tried to cheer her up: “How long do violinists live?” - “Until they try to play the cello.” (implied: They will sting the endpin through their throat.) I cannot completely rule out that I might have heard that one before and forgotten about it. The joke is not so great, after all, though not bad for a quickfire joke considering my dating skills. Anyway, it worked, she forgot about her hard feelings and we had … Back to topic: I have been told this joke several times since, and at least in two instances I could trace it back to my date. It was a bit weird to call complete strangers and ask: “I heard you told this joke to X. Do you remember where you have it from?” I definitely started that one in a certain, local group of people. I’d really like to know whether it has been around longer. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517/60 "2006-03-09T15:39:18Z")
> [@Least Original User Name Ever](#): > > “barking spiders” as a euphemism for farting. i did that one, too. i never even thought it was very funny, but apparently some people did. i’m sure this one predates me, but the first time i ever heard it, i said it, and then people around me started saying it. OK, so when are you saying that you came up with this one? I’ve heard that from a looooong time ago. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-started-that-yeah-that-was-me/347517.md?page=4)