I just used the expression “Holy crap!” in another thread. Then I got to wondering…
What exactly is holy crap? Is it like holy water?
It’s a dump taken by a saint, silly.
So it’s not poop that’s been sanctified to repel evil (but draw flies)? 'Cause I mean that would be a weird ritual.
It’s the shit the Pope takes in the woods.
[Dr.]
It was good for Peter Boyle.
[/Dr.]
What a Holy Cow leaves.
Now that definitely makes for a good expletive! Now I understand. In fact in gives a whole new meaning to the rotten stench of brimstone.
Here I was thinking it was Jesus poop.
It is the exclamation (written in Chinese) expressed by the black cat on the “Barking Pumpkin” record label.
It’s the kind of poop you do after eating Swiss cheese.
OK - that was funny.
Waitaminute, saints don’t poop, do they?
Sure they do, it just smells like roses.
It’s Japanese, isn’t it? I remember the person I asked to translate it said it was “Sacred Shit.”
And has the consistency of pesto.
Ah, could be. A friend back in college had a buddy in the National Guard translate it for him. The guy looked at it for a few seconds, mumbled “Spiritual… something?” then started laughing and explained that it could be loosely translated as “holy shit!”
Haven’t you ever the heard the old idioms
“Is a bear Catholic?”
“Does the Pope shit in the woods?”
These days, pretty much anything the Pope says.
This is from Language.forums.com posted by LanguageLover. I knew it had something to do with Batman and Robin.
Here are what I found from different resources trying to explain the origins of different expressions starting with “holy -”. Hope that it helps.
holy mackerel - exclamation of surprise - A blasphemous oath from the same ‘family’ as goddam and darn it, etc. Holy Mackerel dates back at least 200 years and is one of very many blasphemous oaths with the Holy prefix. Holy Mackerel was almost certainly a reference to Catholics eating fish on Fridays (rather like Holy Cow is a reference to Hindus, and Holy Smoke is a jibe at incense burning and funeral pyres; also Holy Moses - shortened to the rhyming Holy Moley - the way that the words trip of the tongue is very significant in how these expressions become widely used and adopted, and Holy Mackerel does have a certain ring to it, in a way that Holy Skate, or Holy Cod do not… ). As well as being a popularly eaten fish of the times (affordable by Catholics on limited budgets - the insulting term ‘mackerel snatchers’ was also used for Catholics in the 19th century), the word Mackerel has historically been a strong fish symbol and fish stereotype (the French word maquereau is slang for ‘pimp’, due to its habit supposedly of leading other fish to their mates). The term Holy Mackerel would also have served as a euphemistic substitute for Holy Mary or Holy Mother of God, which is why words beginning with M feature commonly in these expressions.
—Example: Holy smokes, that’s a big dog.
Origin: (Educated Guess) Reference to Ritual Catholic Incense burning. (Gordon P)
—The exclamations can be untranslatable idioms: Someone in Cairo, Egypt, might yell the Arabic for “God destroy your house!” in a situation where someone from Cairo, Illinois, would say “Holy mackerel!” Neither makes much literal sense.
—Or as David Letterman said on his show recently: “Holy crap!”
There’s evidence that human brains are hard-wired into using taboo words as emotional escape valves – the more taboo, the more effective. Tourette Syndrome is a brain disorder that includes involuntary shouting of obscenities
— From the Dictionary of American Slang (1960):
: : “Holy cow!” . . . Equiv. to “Holy cats!” both being euphemisms for “Holy Christ!” . . . Although this term is considered to be very popular among teenagers, no self-respecting, red-blooded teenager would dare use such a weak oath. It is, however, the common oath and popular exclam. put into the mouth of teenagers by all script writers, and is universally heard on radio, television, and in movies. It was first popularized by the “Corliss Archer” series of short stories, television programs, and movies, which attempted to show the humorous, homey side of teenage life.
: : Paul Beale (1985), however, in revising Eric Partridge’s “Dictionary of Catch Phrases American and British,” cites a different origin:
: : The orig. ‘Captain Marvel’ and ‘Batman’ oaths, ‘holy (something harmless),’ were in turn spoofed in later C20 by whatever seemed relevant to the situation: Nigel Rees, in “Very Interesting . . . But Stupid: Catchphrases from the World of Entertainment,” 1980, instances holy flypaper!, holy cow!, holy felony!, holy geography!, holy schizophrenia! holy haberdashery!, etc., and adds, ‘The prefix ‘holy’ to any exclamation was particularly the province of Batman and [his boy assistant] Robin, characters created by Bob Kane and featured in best-selling comic books for over thirty years before they were portrayed by Adam West and Burt Ward in the TV film series.’
So Batman and Robin’s poop is holy. Who’da thunk it? Superman, I could see, but Robin?
I thought that was more oneeof those “shit-for-brains” kind of cases, or perhaps a “bullshit” kid of thing.