# Party, drunk, lampshade-for-a-hat. Where and when did this originate? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 30, 2005, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-drunk-lampshade-for-a-hat-where-and-when-did-this-originate/337788 "2005-12-30T23:01:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2005, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-drunk-lampshade-for-a-hat-where-and-when-did-this-originate/337788/1 "2005-12-30T23:01:36Z")
This image must be fifty years old, or older, but it shows no sign of being forgotten. You know what I mean: the way that the person at a party who’s drunk a little too much of the true, blushful Hippocrene puts a lampshade on his head. A recent ad for multiple-cat kitty litter shows the kitties having a secret party, and sure enough, one of them ends up with a lampshade on his head. So, does anyone know where this gag was first used? I assume it was some movie, but I have no idea which. I’m guessing it would be sometime in the late 1940s or early 1950s, when the long cocktail party of the postwar era began. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-drunk-lampshade-for-a-hat-where-and-when-did-this-originate/337788/2 "2005-12-31T00:05:49Z")
I don’t know, but the best play on this was a gag from the short lived Fox sitcom _Greg the Bunny_: “Look at me! I’m a drunk stereotype!” ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-drunk-lampshade-for-a-hat-where-and-when-did-this-originate/337788/3 "2005-12-31T00:18:43Z")
i would reckon it started when lampshades were able to be removed. i’m looking into when that would be. i’m thinking the jazz age. there were some wild parties then. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-drunk-lampshade-for-a-hat-where-and-when-did-this-originate/337788/4 "2005-12-31T02:21:41Z")
It occurs to me that this would make an excellent party costume… I should aquire a lampshade… ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-drunk-lampshade-for-a-hat-where-and-when-did-this-originate/337788/5 "2005-12-31T02:32:09Z")
I think the joke was that putting on a shallow conical lampshade made it look kind of like you were wearing one of those Asian straw hats. I know that there was at least one Bugs Bunny cartoon that used this flavor of the gag, but I don’t recall what decade it was from. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-drunk-lampshade-for-a-hat-where-and-when-did-this-originate/337788/6 "2005-12-31T03:22:35Z")
Often they extend the gag to turning the “lamp” on and a light comes on where the person’s head should be. No actual information, just curious myself. I always wondered when I was a kid what the hell was up with that. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-drunk-lampshade-for-a-hat-where-and-when-did-this-originate/337788/7 "2005-12-31T03:34:22Z")
IIRC, Mr. Dithers, Dagwood Bumstead’s boss, used to do the lampshade trick at partys. That’d likely be back in the mid 30’s. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-drunk-lampshade-for-a-hat-where-and-when-did-this-originate/337788/8 "2005-12-31T04:08:54Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Often they extend the gag to turning the “lamp” on and a light comes on where the person’s head should be. This works well with the slang sense of “lit.”