# Origin of "I'm only three and a half years old"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 31, 2003, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-im-only-three-and-a-half-years-old/192158 "2003-07-31T16:09:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [August 16, 2017, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-im-only-three-and-a-half-years-old/192158/21 "2017-08-16T12:59:46Z")
Okay, here’s proof – an Abbott and Costello radio show script with “gray” written in playing Matilda, saying the infamous line “I’M ONLY THREE AND A HALF YEARS OLD!” on Page 9: > **[Abbott\_And\_Costello\_43-03-04.pdf](https://www.otrr.org/FILES/Scripts_pdf/Abbott_And_Costello/Abbott_And_Costello_43-03-04.pdf)** > > 1046.67 KB ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2017, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-im-only-three-and-a-half-years-old/192158/22 "2017-08-16T13:45:51Z")
> [@NubgummerySnr](#): > > 16 years later and I’ve just come across this thread. :setup: Dude, it’s not been 16 years yet. What is your excuse for not being able to do math? :waits: ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2017, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-im-only-three-and-a-half-years-old/192158/23 "2017-08-16T15:27:24Z")
**Mahaloth** , while I see what you’re trying to do there, it could easily be mistaken as being hostile. I’m sure you didn’t intend that. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2017, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-im-only-three-and-a-half-years-old/192158/24 "2017-08-17T00:47:37Z")
I’m almost positive that the phrase originated with Fanny Brice. Fanny Brice played a character named Baby Snooks. The radio show of the same name began in 1933. In addition to the 3 1/2 year old line she also invented “I’ve been a bad little girl.” Of course Milton Berle always claimed that all the best comedy material was stolen from burlesque and vaudeville. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2017, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-im-only-three-and-a-half-years-old/192158/25 "2017-08-17T02:36:25Z")
The Baby Snooks show didn’t air until [1944](http://www.jimramsburg.com/baby-snooks-audio.html). Brice first did the character on radio in 1936, and continued it on a bewildering succession of shows before 1942, true, but there’s no indication she ever gave three-and-a-half as the character’s age. Since we have a definite cite for the use of the phrase on Abbott and Costello in 1943 you need more than a bare assertion at this point. As for the level of jokes in burlesque, read Arnold Auerbach’s memoir _Funny Men Don’t Laugh_. For his apprenticeship in David Freedman’s radio comedy factory he researched old jokes and got a burlesque comedian to tell him every story he knew. Most of them were unusably awful and that was in the early 1930s. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-im-only-three-and-a-half-years-old/192158.md?page=1)