# My eye and Betty Martin--origin of the phrase?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-eye-and-betty-martin-origin-of-the-phrase/92569>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 10, 2001, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-eye-and-betty-martin-origin-of-the-phrase/92569 "2001-11-10T03:06:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![carlotta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@carlotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlotta)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2001, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-eye-and-betty-martin-origin-of-the-phrase/92569/1 "2001-11-10T03:06:51Z")

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apparently there is a phrase -“my eye and Betty Martin”- that my grandmother used in situations where I would’ve said “bullshit”

Recently my mom started reading a series of British novels and the characters occasionally use the phrase as well, so now we know it isn’t unique to Grandma.

Anybody else ever heard this phrase? Does anybody know the origin? Or who Betty Martin was?

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2001, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-eye-and-betty-martin-origin-of-the-phrase/92569/2 "2001-11-10T03:11:30Z")

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Bookmark this site

[http://www.quinion.com/words/qa/qa-all3.htm](http://www.quinion.com/words/qa/qa-all3.htm)

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**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2001, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-eye-and-betty-martin-origin-of-the-phrase/92569/3 "2001-11-10T03:12:05Z")

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At [Google](http://www.google.com) I turned up [this](http://www.quinion.com/words/qa/qa-all3.htm).