# Origin of "Today would be a good day to die" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 25, 2003, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-today-would-be-a-good-day-to-die/190849 "2003-07-25T13:12:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2003, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-today-would-be-a-good-day-to-die/190849/21 "2003-07-25T22:30:37Z")
And great minds think alike. [LINK](http://www.studiofoglio.com/1.graphics.fun/Jagershots/jager.001.jpg) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-today-would-be-a-good-day-to-die/190849/22 "2003-07-26T00:10:35Z")
I can find you a cite from 1849, written by a white, religious guy. He said, “This would be a good day to die.” From [Making of America](http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moajrnl;cc=moajrnl;g=moagrp;xc=1;xg=1;sid=a25b4da1d01101b73a96e7ba581c39da;q1=good%20day%20to%20die;rgn=full%20text;idno=acg2248.1-09.009;view=image;seq=0293) database at the LOC. Perhaps he heard it from an Indian, or perhaps an Indian heard it from him. It doesn’t seem like that unusual a sentiment. It might have occurred to almost anyone in the last 1000 years. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-today-would-be-a-good-day-to-die/190849/23 "2003-07-26T00:15:47Z")
**Dogface** is quoting a FireSign Theatre bit, **Tangent**. The tune above is sung in a Native American style. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-today-would-be-a-good-day-to-die/190849/24 "2003-07-26T04:24:29Z")
Huh… shows what I know. I thought it was invented for the Klingon culture on the various Trek shows. ---
**Author:** ![Gumbercules](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gumbercules](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gumbercules)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-today-would-be-a-good-day-to-die/190849/25 "2003-07-26T04:46:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AskNott \* > \*\*In a modern story, a tool-and-die shop hired a full-blooded Lakota as an inspector. The man was taciturn, working in silence until the end of each job, when he would solemnly proclaim, “It is a good die today.” \*\* Bwahahhaaahhaa! Didn’t anyone else think this was funny? ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-today-would-be-a-good-day-to-die/190849/26 "2003-07-26T05:00:29Z")
They used the line in the movie “Billy Jack”, which came out around the same time as “Little Big Man”, and which was almost as funny (if unintentionally). StG ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-today-would-be-a-good-day-to-die/190849/27 "2003-07-26T10:25:35Z")
I’m sure someone said ‘and your little dog too’ way before 1939. As I’m sure someone said ‘Frankly mah Deah, I don’t give a damn’ before the same year.So I still say _Little Big Man_ brought the phrase into popular culture. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-today-would-be-a-good-day-to-die/190849/28 "2003-07-26T19:44:59Z")
But did anybody say “Pardon me while I cut off my balls and shove a hot poker up my ass”\* before George Carlin. Sir Rhosis \*or something like that ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-today-would-be-a-good-day-to-die/190849/29 "2003-07-26T20:20:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sir Rhosis \* > \*_But did anybody say “Pardon me while I cut off my balls and shove a hot poker up my ass”_ before George Carlin. > \*\* Well, some of those medieval penitents could be pretty hard-core. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-today-would-be-a-good-day-to-die/190849/30 "2003-07-26T23:29:41Z")
> [@](#): > > Well, some of those medieval penitents could be pretty hard-core. Bwahahhaaahhaa! ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-today-would-be-a-good-day-to-die/190849/31 "2003-07-27T00:37:07Z")
I always prefered Terry Pratchett’s dwarf version: “Today is a good day for SOMEBODY ELSE to die!” ---
**Author:** ![Torgo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@Torgo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torgo)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-today-would-be-a-good-day-to-die/190849/32 "2003-07-27T01:04:20Z")
The phrase was first put into Western pop-culture with the publication of **Black Elk Speaks** in 1932. There Black Elk recounts his experiences fighting with Crazy Horse at LBH and Crazy Horse’s aforementioned battle cry. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-today-would-be-a-good-day-to-die/190849/33 "2003-07-27T01:49:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Marley23 \* > \*\ ***Dogface** is quoting a FireSign Theatre bit, **Tangent**. The tune above is sung in a Native American style. \*\* Really? Guess I never heard that bit. The song appears in _Smoke Signals_, the movie quoted above by **Chronos**. The two main characters sing it during a long bus ride. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-today-would-be-a-good-day-to-die/190849/34 "2003-07-27T02:56:05Z")
> [@](#): > > The phrase was first put into Western pop-culture with the publication of Black Elk Speaks in 1932. There Black Elk recounts his experiences fighting with Crazy Horse at LBH and Crazy Horse’s aforementioned battle cry. Of course, Black Elk was 13 when he fought Custer, right? And he’s telling this in 1932. If this put the phrase into popular culture, I’d be surpirsed, but I’m willing to accept cites that it appeared in print anytime during the next 30 years after 1932. ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-today-would-be-a-good-day-to-die/190849/35 "2003-07-27T19:49:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Marley23 \* > \*\*I have heard few lines in TV history that are more fun to spoof. I’ll usually turn it into something like “Today is a good day to die. But Wednesday will be even better. It will be fair and warmer, with a high of 72 degrees, with a low of 65 in the late evening, Captain.” \*\* Brilliance. If you told me that Terry Pratchett himself had written that, I’d have believed you. I’d even make it my sig, if I were the type to, you know, display my sig. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-today-would-be-a-good-day-to-die/190849/36 "2003-07-27T20:00:48Z")
Bloody Klingons. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-today-would-be-a-good-day-to-die/190849.md?page=1)