# Rim Shot???

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rim-shot/87038>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 12, 2001, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rim-shot/87038 "2001-10-12T14:05:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mrkcneed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@mrkcneed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrkcneed)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2001, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rim-shot/87038/1 "2001-10-12T14:05:46Z")

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Can anyone tell me who invented or started the rim shot. You know that thing that drummers do after a punchline to announce the end of a joke. This one has really been troubling me. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, I have to know.  
:}

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**Author:** ![Delta-9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3be4f8/32.png) [@Delta-9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Delta-9)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2001, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rim-shot/87038/2 "2001-10-12T14:40:45Z")

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Well, we started that discussion [here,](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=92357) but unfortunately we didn’t get too far. Today is another day, though.

Welcome to The Straight Dope!

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**Author:** ![mrkcneed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@mrkcneed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrkcneed)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2001, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rim-shot/87038/3 "2001-10-12T14:49:40Z")

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thanks oh and by the way ‘rim shot’ in “goodgle” only returned 1 porn site. It did give me a good anamaniacs drinking game for some reason.

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**Author:** ![Delta-9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3be4f8/32.png) [@Delta-9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Delta-9)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2001, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rim-shot/87038/4 "2001-10-12T15:00:32Z")

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When using a search engine it pays to be as descriptive as possible. I searched using “comedy rim shot origins”, and got some interesting hits.

From [this page](http://www.rhythmbones.com/Clicks.htm):

> [@](#):
>
> Johnny (Ringo) McDonagh, De Dannan, Arcady. McDonagh has been playing bodhrán since 1967. He played with De Dannan, and is now leader of Arcady. Tommy Hayes calls him “the finest traditional player”, and **credits him with developing the rim shot.** McDonagh is also one of the top bones players in the world, was the first to play a bodhrán with a brush, and came up with the idea for the tunable bodhrán. The August/September 1995 edition of Dirty Linen has a feature article on Arcady and McDonagh.

I’m headed back to Google to see what else I can find.

::peeks over shoulder to see if the boss is around::

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**Author:** ![mrkcneed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@mrkcneed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrkcneed)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2001, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rim-shot/87038/5 "2001-10-12T15:11:25Z")

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Yeah thats not the guy cause he’s still alive. [http://www.ceolas.org/instruments/bodhran/performers.shtml](http://www.ceolas.org/instruments/bodhran/performers.shtml)

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**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2001, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rim-shot/87038/6 "2001-10-12T15:34:23Z")

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And he’s also clearly only being credited with developing the rim shot as a bodhran technique. The rim shot as both a standard drum technique and in comedic use certainly goes back further than 1967.

As noted in that other thread, we need to realize that the comedy use for the term includes drum signals which are not, technically, “rim shots”, such as a single pronounced thump on the bass drum.

The writer of this article credits it to Vaudeville:  
[http://www.s-t.com/daily/10-00/10-01-00/e01li146.htm](http://www.s-t.com/daily/10-00/10-01-00/e01li146.htm)

> [@](#):
>
> Beginning with the one-liners in vaudeville’s heyday, the rim shot moved through the golden age of comedy in the '40s, '50s, and '60s into the Catskills vacation resorts – they called it the “Borscht Belt” – where it became a staple of the masters of stand-up.
> 
> Myron Cohen, Jackie Mason, Alan King, Jack E. Leonard … and of course the king of the rim shots, Henny Youngman.

He forgot Milton Berle