I hear it all the time.
Anyone know where it started?
I can’t give you an authoritative answer, but my understanding is that it’s from stand-up comedy. Specifically, awful stand-up comics in Las Vegas lounge acts. “Try the veal” means that you should go the casino’s restaurant.
Here’s a 1992 articlr which refers to it as “old.” How old, who knows, but I always thought that “Shrek” went a long way to its gaining currency.
Yeah, it’s a riff on stand-up comedians signing off at a comedy club. I’ve never heard one actually mention veal, or any other menu item, but I have heard comedians say, “I’ll be here all week — don’t forget to tip your waitresses.”
Or were you asking for the first person to use it outside of its original context in order to get a laugh?
It probably goes back to, or at least refers to, the Borscht Belt comedians of the Catskills in the 40s and 50s.
I’ve never seen the movie, but a friend told me a lot of these “cheesy night club comedian” phrases came from the 1992 Billy Crystal movie Mr Saturday Night - which presumably were inspired by reality. I’ll watch the movie soon and report back.
I knew it came from stand-up and have heard the tip waitress reference.
Also thought it could be traced to a reference.
Not having luck.
Fast. Thanks.
Datapoint: I recognized this as an old trope when I heard a patron respond to this in 1989 in a club in Michigan with “Tip her, hell. I’ll give her the whole thing.”
Checking back to confirm “did you see what I did there?” at 9:40 in Mr Saturday Night.
At 27:00 he’s playing a nightclub in the Catskills.
It goes back to the s0-called Borscht Belt resorts in the Catskills, where a Jewish-American comedy tradition was born & flourished.