# "It's just a flesh wound!" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 1, 2012, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-just-a-flesh-wound/620502 "2012-05-01T12:46:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-just-a-flesh-wound/620502/1 "2012-05-01T12:46:51Z")
This phrase has been used to lampoon movie heroes for a long time, most notably in [Monty Python and the Holy Grail](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKhEw7nD9C4). Was it ever used in a serious way in some movie? I figured this all must have started somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-just-a-flesh-wound/620502/2 "2012-05-01T13:43:12Z")
Don’t know about movies. I heard it in everyday life and I think in books well before MP&tHG ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-just-a-flesh-wound/620502/3 "2012-05-01T13:45:45Z")
Heck, I’m sure there are innumerable war movies, westerns, and even cop shows that used the phrase sincerely before and after 1975. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-just-a-flesh-wound/620502/4 "2012-05-01T15:05:20Z")
I am pretty sure Monty Python is the source of the quote. I am sure someone somewhere else said it before them but when people make the reference, they are referencing MP. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-just-a-flesh-wound/620502/5 "2012-05-01T15:15:03Z")
I like the way it was put in _The Magnificent Seven_ best: “You elected?” “No. Got nominated real good.” ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-just-a-flesh-wound/620502/6 "2012-05-01T15:26:19Z")
I don’t know if any of the Three Musketeers actually used the pharse, but they resumed action after getting wounded enough times to justify the line. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-just-a-flesh-wound/620502/7 "2012-05-01T16:01:07Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Don’t know about movies. I heard it in everyday life and I think in books well before MP&tHG Oh yeah. Books. 🙂 Well, I doubt the clip I linked was the first time this was used as satire. I was just wondering if there was a single movie (or book) that used this phrase in such a way as to inspire satire. OTOH maybe it was such a common phrase that it was satirized because of its overuse. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-just-a-flesh-wound/620502/8 "2012-05-01T16:04:13Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > I am pretty sure Monty Python is the source of the quote. I am sure someone somewhere else said it before them but when people make the reference, they are referencing MP. Not at all. One heard this often in TV and movie westerns in the 50’s and 60’s. Monty Python is quoting THEM. Seriously. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-just-a-flesh-wound/620502/9 "2012-05-02T14:30:17Z")
Booth Tarkington uses it, or rather, Penrod does when he writes his detective novel in 1914: “It was just a fletch woond and would heel soon.” 🙂 Which would imply that Penrod heard it rather than read it I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-just-a-flesh-wound/620502/10 "2012-05-02T15:37:18Z")
Fearless Fosdick would often suffer major injuries that he would shrug off as only a flesh wound. He existed in the _L’il Abner_ strip, that ran from 1934 to 1977. ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-just-a-flesh-wound/620502/11 "2012-05-02T15:46:10Z")
Not what the OP was asking, but the line is used by Jeff Dunham’s Achmed the Dead Terrorist [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uwOL4rB-go)