# Origin of "You kids get off my lawn"?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn/498592
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 3, 2009, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn/498592 "2009-06-03T16:01:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2009, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn/498592/1 "2009-06-03T16:01:09Z")
I tried poking around for the origin, but came up empty-handed. There are a lot of variations and I am not sure what to look for. Does anyone know?
I remember Letterman making this joke back in the day as one of his two ‘impressions’. The other being a cashier from the 7-11 (“The lotto machine is broken.”). This was during his NBC days, but I assume the origin predates that.
---
### Author:  [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2009, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn/498592/2 "2009-06-03T16:14:10Z")
Does anyone know?
No.
This has been shouted at kids as long as there have been lawns. This and every variation.
---
### Author:  [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2009, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn/498592/3 "2009-06-03T16:21:28Z")
I should clarify. I am not interested in the origin of when angry old people first shouted this, but instead when this line (and its variants) gained comedic prominence.
---
### Author:  [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2009, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn/498592/4 "2009-06-03T16:44:18Z")
As soon as bratty adolescents started mocking adults?
StG
---
### Author:  [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2009, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn/498592/5 "2009-06-03T17:11:45Z")
Heck, in middle school we once had a man utter those exact words, while waving a .357 magnum at us damned kids…
Yeah. I was a fat middle school kid, but I managed a solid turn of speed that day…
---
### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2009, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn/498592/6 "2009-06-03T17:46:48Z")
Doesn’t the grouch ole \*spinster at the beginning of “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1961)fuss at the kids for being on her lawn?
\*The actress, Ruth White, was an elderly 48!:eek:
---
### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2009, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn/498592/7 "2009-06-03T22:28:04Z")
_The New York Times_, [September 11, 1912](http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9807E6D9113AE633A25752C1A96F9C946396D6CF).
> [@](#):
>
> “Get off my lawn or I’ll beat your brains out!”
Of course, [sometimes it’s real](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/21/national/main1425127.shtml).
> [@](#):
>
> Martin, 66, is charged with murdering 15-year-old Larry Mugrage, who lived next door to the house where Martin kept a meticulous front lawn with grass that he could sometimes be seen measuring to the inch. Police said crossing that lawn is what got Mugrage killed. Martin, who lived alone, told officers he’d had several disputes with neighbors about walking on his grass, but hadn’t called police since 2003, Union Township police Lt. Scott Gaviglia said.
---
### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2009, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn/498592/8 "2009-06-03T22:59:48Z")
> [@CaveMike](#):
>
> I should clarify. I am not interested in the origin of when angry old people first shouted this, but instead when this line (and its variants) gained comedic prominence.
In my experience, back in the 50s and 60s, lawn care was a much bigger thing than it is today. Many men spent a great deal of time, money and energy trying to achieve the perfect lawn . . . especially retirees who had nothing better to do with their time, money and energy. So it was a big deal when kids would walk on their perfect lawn.
Today, not that many people are striving for that kind of perfection, and it’s become somewhat of a joke.
---
### Author:  [@Claire\_Beauchamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claire_Beauchamp)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2009, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn/498592/9 "2009-06-03T23:16:24Z")
> [@panache45](#):
>
> In my experience, back in the 50s and 60s, lawn care was a much bigger thing than it is today. … Today, not that many people are striving for that kind of perfection, and it’s become somewhat of a joke.
I just love broad, sweeping generalizations that purport to describe entire populations of large countries. Makes me giggle.
---
### Author:  [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2009, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn/498592/10 "2009-06-03T23:40:59Z")
> [@panache45](#):
>
> Today, not that many people are striving for that kind of perfection, and it’s become somewhat of a joke.
I think there are a lot of people that don’t understand why Hank Hill is funny.
---
### Author:  [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2009, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn/498592/11 "2009-06-04T01:13:53Z")
Kathy & Judy on WGN Radio were saying that for years…back into the 90s at least.
---
### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2009, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn/498592/12 "2009-06-04T01:35:23Z")
> [@Claire\_Beauchamp](#):
>
> I just love broad, sweeping generalizations that purport to describe entire populations of large countries. Makes me giggle.
:rolleyes: Oh please. Nowhere did I say that I was describing the “entire population” of any particular large country. It’s simply a trend that seems to have been more prevalent than it is now. Go ahead and giggle, if you must.
---
### Author:  [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2009, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn/498592/13 "2009-06-04T03:43:50Z")
As a common-day joke, I’ve only been encountering it over the last couple of years. No idea what started the resurgence.
---
### Author:  [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2009, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn/498592/14 "2009-06-04T11:35:46Z")
I always thought it was Old Man Warner who lived in the trailor across the street from us when I was 6. At least, that is where I heard it first.
---
### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2009, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn/498592/15 "2009-06-04T11:40:32Z")
If you search Google Groups, it seems to magically appear around the end of 2002 and picks up useage in 2003. I’d assume a tv show incident in 2002.
---
### Author:  [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2009, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn/498592/16 "2009-06-04T13:10:56Z")
There’s a _Far Side_ cartoon (from the late '80s, IIRC) that shows an old man shaking his cane and shouting “HEY, YOU KIDS!” at kids who are standing on his dog, which is lying on the lawn, next to a sign that says **STAY OFF THE DOG**.
At least some humour in the situation is clearly derived from the stereotype of “Crazy Old Man Waving His Cane At Kids And Telling Them To Stay Off His Lawn”, with the rest of being the subversion in the form of having neighbourhood kids standing on his dog, and the realisation that the occurrence is commonplace enough for the old man to have needed to put up a sign contraindicating the activity.
All of which is a very long (and vaguely pretentious) way of saying “The stereotype was around and familiar to enough people when Gary Larson was doing _The Far Side_ for him to make it the subject of humour”. 😃
---
### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2009, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn/498592/17 "2009-06-04T13:26:43Z")
> [@samclem](#):
>
> If you search Google Groups, it seems to magically appear around the end of 2002 and picks up useage in 2003. I’d assume a tv show incident in 2002.
By the same token, I did a search on SDMB, with similar results. Although, there might have been some earlier references from deleted threads.
---
### Author:  [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2009, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn/498592/18 "2009-06-04T15:09:37Z")
> [@panache45](#):
>
> In my experience, back in the 50s and 60s, lawn care was a much bigger thing than it is today. Many men spent a great deal of time, money and energy trying to achieve the perfect lawn . . . especially retirees who had nothing better to do with their time, money and energy. So it was a big deal when kids would walk on their perfect lawn.
>
> Today, not that many people are striving for that kind of perfection, and it’s become somewhat of a joke.
See, I always thought it was more of a territorial thing. When I was a kid we would be terrified of getting yelled at for cutting through a neighbor’s yard and would take almost ninja-like steps to sneak through without being seen.
In fact, when I do my “grumpy old man” voice, I usually say “You kids get out of my yard!”, not “You kids get off of my lawn!”
---
### Author:  [@emakay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emakay)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2017, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn/498592/19 "2017-05-16T04:18:16Z")
A friend of mine from Rockville MD claimed that his neighbor used to yell this at the kids he grew up with in the neighborhood. In his telling of the story, the guy had a particular inflection of voice and an accompanying hand gesture, best described as an inverted had making a waving-off motion. This was circa 1988 when he was telling the story, I wonder if this meme became viral due to him!?!?
---
### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2017, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn/498592/20 "2017-05-16T04:37:50Z")
> [@emakay](#):
>
> A friend of mine from Rockville MD claimed that his neighbor used to yell this at the kids he grew up with in the neighborhood. In his telling of the story, the guy had a particular inflection of voice and an accompanying hand gesture, best described as an inverted had making a waving-off motion. This was circa 1988 when he was telling the story, I wonder if this meme became viral due to him!?!?
(Zombie revival). I doubt it. I grew up in the 80s and as a kid, I had a couple neighbors who would routinely yell at me to get off their lawn. I will admit, my memory of my neighbors has the phrase as “get off my/the grass!” But that was just their particular vocabulary choice. I’m assuming it’s like **Harmonious Discord** ’s hypothesis, that as long as their have been lawns, there’s been people yelling at kids to get off of them.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn/498592.md?page=2)