Googling indicates it seems to have come from Vaudeville and been popularized by the Three Stooges and Abbot & Costello. Any definitive cites? And what, exactly, was the usage/point of this bit?
Isn’t it just an eery literary build up?
Google on “slowly I turn.”
Both, actually.
Stooges Video and A & C transcript here.
And you forgot “Niagara Falls! Slowly I turn. Step by step…inch by inch…”
Should I be worried that I’m old enough to remember seeing that?
It was a staple of vaudville, used by many acts who worked their own spin on the classic skit.
the laugh came from a word, which when spoken innocently by the rube, turned the other man into a raving maniac based in his past experience.
Commonly used words were “Niagra Falls” “Pokomoko” and “Susquehanna Hats”
Here , is a good article about the skit.
Watched the video. Boy, that’s weird. “Slowly I turned…” is just shoehorned into that bit, isn’t it? I mean, I see the Niagara Falls and the smackdown, but the “Slowly I turned…” is just plain odd. I guess it’s the “Wasssuuuppp!?” of its day.
PS–Boy, I forgot what slapstick geniuses the stooges were. Those WWE types could take some pointers.
I’ll just add that once I saw Raymond Burr do this skit on “Sonny & Cher,” and the key word in that one was “Nantucket.”