# "Just for \ and giggles" -- origin? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 17, 2003, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-for-feces-and-giggles-origin/208049 "2003-10-17T16:48:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mouthbreather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@mouthbreather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mouthbreather)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2003, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-for-feces-and-giggles-origin/208049/1 "2003-10-17T16:48:14Z")
The phrase “just for shits and giggles”, which I have also seen sometimes as “Just for shits and grins” doesn’t make much sense to me. I know that it’s generally used to mean “Let’s try this for fun”, or “this may be pointless, but let’s try it anyway”…but I don’t get how “shits and giggles” came to mean this. Does anyone know where this phrase originated or have any history about it? Thanks in advance. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2003, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-for-feces-and-giggles-origin/208049/2 "2003-10-17T18:21:36Z")
Morons. ---
**Author:** ![mouthbreather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@mouthbreather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mouthbreather)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2003, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-for-feces-and-giggles-origin/208049/3 "2003-10-17T18:42:16Z")
That helps, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambi_Hassenpfeffer)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2003, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-for-feces-and-giggles-origin/208049/4 "2003-10-17T18:55:01Z")
AFAIK, it came from Austin Powers. That’s where I first remember hearing it. Here’s a .wav thereof: [http://www.jahozafat.com/cgi-bin/wavs.cgi?Austin\_Powers=rise.wav](http://www.jahozafat.com/cgi-bin/wavs.cgi?Austin_Powers=rise.wav) ---
**Author:** ![1000monkeys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/7cd45c/32.png) [@1000monkeys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/1000monkeys)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2003, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-for-feces-and-giggles-origin/208049/5 "2003-10-17T19:07:37Z")
Absolutely not From Austin Powers. At least not as far as first usage, maybe for popularization (if it is in fact popular now). I first heard it in 1989-90 from a good friend of mine in Colorado. He used it all the time, I remember this distinctly because it always annoyed me, but he was otherwise a really good friend. Don’t know if this helps at all, but he was born and raised in Southern Colorado (Canyon City & Colo. Springs) , I doubt if that’s the original source but it might be, his family had some farming/ranching background, it might have been a rural term. Frankly though, I came in here looking for the answer, so I’m just speculating. I guess I could try asking him. ---
**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2003, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-for-feces-and-giggles-origin/208049/6 "2003-10-17T19:26:17Z")
I wonder if it has any connection to the “beer and skittles” line (as in life isn’t always just beer and skittles - paraphrased). It has quite a similar sound? This would be my WAG. ---
**Author:** ![mouthbreather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@mouthbreather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mouthbreather)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2003, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-for-feces-and-giggles-origin/208049/7 "2003-10-17T19:59:27Z")
? I’ve never heard the beer and skittles thing before. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2003, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-for-feces-and-giggles-origin/208049/8 "2003-10-17T20:01:36Z")
Austin Powers?! Skittles?! Good-a-LAWD. I can’t help with the actual origin, but I am certain it is neither of the above. This (the “grins” variety) was one of my **grandmother’s** favorite expressions. (Good-a-LAWD was another). She was born in 1907 and spent her entire life in Southern Illinois, if that helps. She had several expressions of which I’ve often wondered the origin. Good luck with this one, as these boards could not help me when I asked about “die the death of a rag baby.” ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2003, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-for-feces-and-giggles-origin/208049/9 "2003-10-17T21:50:51Z")
I first heard it in Southern California in the early 80’s. It was the “grins” version. Haj ---
**Author:** ![JRR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecccb3/32.png) [@JRR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRR)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2003, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-for-feces-and-giggles-origin/208049/10 "2003-10-17T21:51:56Z")
“Beer and skittles” comes from a Simpsons episode where Homer imagines the perfect drink - Skittlebrau. Ss & Gs has been around since the late 70’s, at least. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2003, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-for-feces-and-giggles-origin/208049/11 "2003-10-17T22:42:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JRR \* > **"Beer and skittles" comes from a Simpsons episode where Homer imagines the perfect drink - Skittlebrau.** Sorry, but very wrong. > [@](#): > > E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898. > > Beer and Skittles. > > Life is not all beer and skittles, i.e. not all eating, drinking, and play; not all pleasure; not all harmony and love. 1 > “Sport like life, and life like sport, > Isn’t all skittles and beer.” [http://www.bartleby.com/81/1600.html](http://www.bartleby.com/81/1600.html) ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2003, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-for-feces-and-giggles-origin/208049/12 "2003-10-17T22:45:19Z")
Skittles, IIRC, is a game using toy tops and a wooden maze. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2003, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-for-feces-and-giggles-origin/208049/13 "2003-10-18T02:09:21Z")
I don’t think it’s very mysterious. The expression “just for giggles” would make perfect sense, right? But there is a problem with it - it doesn’t contain a swear word. Swearing is fun. Any good expression is improved by adding an obscenity to it. So: “just for shits and giggles”. You see the same phenomenon at work in expressions like “going apeshit” and in the use of the “cunt hair” as a unit of measurement when for practical purposes a plain undifferentiated “hair” would do.