What is the origin of the phrase “get medieval on your ass”?
I know it appeared in “Pulp Fiction” and also later in “The Black Knight”. Where did this expression originally come from?
Thanks,
J.
I’m pretty sure Pulp Fiction is the major vector of the phrase. I don’t recall hearing it anywhere else before that.
Moving this to Cafe Society.
Gfactor, General Questions Moderator
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Yeah, Pulp Fiction was the first time I heard it. It caught on as a catchphrase after the movie became popular.
I remember hearing it well before Pulp Fiction.
This I’d need a cite for; it’s pretty well the general consensus, as far as I’ve ever heard, that it’s from the pen of Quentin Tarantino.
The 2001 draft revision of the OED lists the earliest reference as Pulp Fiction:
Also, in the MAD TV mashup, “Gump Fiction”, the character of Forrest Gump announces that, “We’re gonna get medieval on your buttocks.”
dead
If you look you can see you were scooped 8 years ago by SkipMagic who cited Tarentino in 1994.
Also, when I tried to quote your post, all I got was DEAD in the quote box. How’d you do that?
Tarentino also got the line “Go to work on you with a pair of pliers and a blowtorch” from Charley Varrick.
The phrase might have been cemented in the language by Weird Al’s “Amish Paradise”
So don’t be vain and don’t be whiny
Or else, my brother, I might have to get medieval on your heinie
But the line right before that, when Ving Rhames says he’s going to work on Zed with a blowtorch and a pair of pliers, was lifted from"Charlie Varrick."
New York Magazine, March 24 1969.
“Brute force can get you into any apartment if you want to get medieval about it.”
They must have edited the post while you were writing your reply.
FWIW I just checked Google Books and got no hits on “get medieval on” prior to 1994, and the three hits in 1994 were all quoting Pulp Fiction.