# Origin of phrase "Let's blow this popsicle stand!" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 10, 2003, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-phrase-lets-blow-this-popsicle-stand/167842 "2003-04-10T18:36:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![threephi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/85f322/32.png) [@threephi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threephi)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-phrase-lets-blow-this-popsicle-stand/167842/1 "2003-04-10T18:36:07Z")
This one’s been nagging me and a friend for the last few days… Does anyone have definitive info on the origin of the phrase: “Let’s blow this popsicle stand!” A little googlage brought up tentative references to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and a Richard Dreyfus movie, both @1987 or '88, but I’d like a more reliable attribution, if anyone knows. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-phrase-lets-blow-this-popsicle-stand/167842/2 "2003-04-10T18:53:12Z")
[Much earlier than TMNT!](http://www.clevelandseniors.com/people/slang.htm) And I’ve always heard it as “pop” stand but it could go either way. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-phrase-lets-blow-this-popsicle-stand/167842/3 "2003-04-10T20:06:00Z")
I’ve also heard Pop Stand. It goes at least as far back as my childhood in the 60s. I’m sure it’s older than that. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-phrase-lets-blow-this-popsicle-stand/167842/4 "2003-04-11T00:49:11Z")
The origin goes back to using “blow” to mean to “leave a place” in 1898, at least in print. In that instance it was “I blew the bunch,…” In 1902 it appeared as “…blew the joint.” So there we have someone definitively using the sameold/sameold, just not using “pop” or "popsicle.’ There is an actual cite from 1974 using “Let’s blow this pop stand.” It certainly went back before that. There was a 1980 _Mork &f MIndy_ show which included the “…blow this popsicle stand” language. All info from Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang. * * * More than you wanted to know, perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![sivispacem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b19c9b/32.png) [@sivispacem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sivispacem)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-phrase-lets-blow-this-popsicle-stand/167842/5 "2003-04-11T03:18:29Z")
All I know is, I’m naming my son Popsicle Stand. ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-phrase-lets-blow-this-popsicle-stand/167842/6 "2003-04-11T03:24:28Z")
Why not name him “Bubbles”? ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-phrase-lets-blow-this-popsicle-stand/167842/7 "2003-04-11T03:27:28Z")
Or why not “Blanket” ? I always thought it was “Taco stand.” Hmm.