# "I was young and I needed the money"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-young-and-i-needed-the-money/458358
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 31, 2008, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-young-and-i-needed-the-money/458358 "2008-07-31T14:52:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2008, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-young-and-i-needed-the-money/458358/1 "2008-07-31T14:52:29Z")
Where does this catchphrase come from? A google search revealed that there’s a 1998 song of that title by Clifford Gilberto, but the phrase is definitely older. The implication that it might have originated in the porn industry is obvious, but can it be traced back to a single incident, such as a film, a song or a novel where it came up first?
My intuitive guess would have been that Marilyn Monroe uses this phrase in the “Some Like It Hot” scene in the train restroom in which she tells Tony Curtis, disguised as Daphne, about her biography. A quick check, however, seems to show that I’m wrong.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2008, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-young-and-i-needed-the-money/458358/2 "2008-07-31T15:15:12Z")
I remember it from Naked Gun (1988), a police-drama spoof. The detective says to Priscilla Presley’s character (Jane?), “I saw the pictures,” referring to something police-related, and she replies, “I was young. I needed the money.”
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### Author:  [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2008, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-young-and-i-needed-the-money/458358/3 "2008-07-31T15:27:33Z")
It was a cliche even then.
I recall it referring very obliquely to prostitution, though I can’t remember specific works.
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### Author:  [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2008, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-young-and-i-needed-the-money/458358/4 "2008-07-31T17:49:30Z")
Didn’t it originate as Marilyn Monroe’s explanation for her nude Playboy centerfold?
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### Author:  [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2008, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-young-and-i-needed-the-money/458358/5 "2008-07-31T18:01:15Z")
I thought it was MM needing to make the payment on her car, or something.
Regards,
Shodan
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### Author:  [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2008, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-young-and-i-needed-the-money/458358/6 "2008-07-31T18:08:08Z")
I suspect that it’s a conglomeration of a few different phrases that come up decently often.
I was young and stupid so…
…but I needed the money.
Possibly they’ve appeared in conjunction as a single phrase, but most likely that’s not why it seems so familiar.
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### Author:  [@MrBelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrBelding)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2008, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-young-and-i-needed-the-money/458358/7 "2008-07-31T18:39:31Z")
It’s just proliferation of the phrase that’s made it so common and cliche. Not to mention the flaw in the logic of the statement just make it a totally weird thing to say.
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2008, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-young-and-i-needed-the-money/458358/8 "2008-07-31T18:43:19Z")
[QUOTE=MrBelding]
It’s just **proliferation** of the phrase that’s made it so **common** and cliche.
[/QUOTE]
(emphasis mine)
Do I understand correctly that you’re saying that this phrased gets used a lot because this phrase gets used a lot?
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### Author:  [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2008, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-young-and-i-needed-the-money/458358/9 "2008-07-31T19:34:19Z")
Wasn’t that what Richard Nixon said to David Frost?
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### Author:  [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2008, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-young-and-i-needed-the-money/458358/10 "2008-07-31T19:57:52Z")
Nixon was never young.
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### Author:  [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2008, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-young-and-i-needed-the-money/458358/11 "2008-07-31T21:43:17Z")
Here’s something from a Monroe quote site ([http://womenshistory.about.com/cs/quotes/a/marilyn\_monroe\_2.htm](http://womenshistory.about.com/cs/quotes/a/marilyn_monroe_2.htm))
> [@](#):
>
> _Of the nude pictures:_ Sure I posed. I needed the money.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2008, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-young-and-i-needed-the-money/458358/12 "2008-08-01T04:21:01Z")
[QUOTE=Rocketeer]
Didn’t it originate as Marilyn Monroe’s explanation for her nude Playboy centerfold?
[/QUOTE]
That’s my guess. Probably not a verbatim quote, but close. She was referring to the nude photos taken in 1949, when she really was young and broke. The Playboy centerfold was one of those photos, but published in '53.
\*“It’s not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on.”
\*
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### Author:  [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2008, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-young-and-i-needed-the-money/458358/13 "2008-08-02T00:38:23Z")
[QUOTE=KneadToKnow]
Do I understand correctly that you’re saying that this phrased gets used a lot because this phrase gets used a lot?
[/QUOTE]
That’s how cliches become cliches.