referring to the question of why people say Jesus H Christ goes back to a 60s joke.
Something happens and a guy says Jesus H Christ and someone asks why. He says it stands for Hallmark because GOD only sent the very best. An old commercial that said when you only want to send the very best.
Well, except that this site dates “Jesus H. Christ” to 1924.
Do you have a cite for the existance of the joke, and linking it to the creation of the phrase, rather than merely using an already existing phrase?
I’ve always thought it was a mickey-take of Harry S. Truman…
well, unfounded rumours have to start somewhere…
When I first joined the board, it would never have occurred to me to search the threads on the Message Board to see if someone had already asked a question or proposed an answer to one of Cecil’s columns or a Staff report. These days I do it automatically(except when I forget).
If you search the SDMB for follow-up threads for that colunm(done by typing in <Jesus Christ>, the H being unsearchable), you get http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/search.php?s=&action=showresults&searchid=594063&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending , 43 threads on the subject. The answers are usually there.
PS. The answer is, it first appears in print in 1892.
Additionally, Mark Twain, wrinting in 1910 in his autobiography, says that it was common in the 1850’s.
samclem, do you mean the joke or the phrase?
What year was Hallmark founded?
Here ya go.
The phrase.
The mission on Earth would be: Ubiquitous Befuddlement?
The “H” IS searcheable. When you type in the search window “Jesus H Christ” you get hits on the H, Jesus, Christ, Jesus Christ, and Jesus H Christ. Try it.
For instance, in your post the “H” is highlighted in red.
The red highlighting is done separately from the search itself. Any word can be highlighted, but the search will automatically reject anything with three letters or less (as well as some longer, very common terms: You can’t search for “thing”, for instance).
Right, but-
What I found was that posts that included JUST the H had the H highlighted. That must mean that the search function was looking for the H in Jesus H Christ.
Or not? Feel free to explain in greater detail.
Maybe if its part of a "phrase" the search includes it, but only in the posts that would contain the rest of the "phrase". I think Ive got it now.
The best remark I’d heard regarding the “H” in Jesus H. Christ was that it stood for Haploid, considering the virgin birth. 
kjcole welcome aboard!!