# Stop saying "carrot and stick." Just stop **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 24, 2006, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-saying-carrot-and-stick-just-stop/358046 "2006-05-24T17:00:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Birdmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71e660/32.png) [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-saying-carrot-and-stick-just-stop/358046/21 "2006-05-24T18:46:31Z")
[QUOTE=Epimetheus] I’ve never heard it until now. Of course I am only 28… [/QUOTE] I’m 25, for the record. I feel like it’s been much more commonly used in the last year or 6 months, to a degree that saddens me. I’ve heard Condoleeeeeza say it in several interviews, all of which open the door to images of her as a donkey following a carrot. She’s sort of equine, isn’t she? ---
**Author:** ![Birdmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71e660/32.png) [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-saying-carrot-and-stick-just-stop/358046/22 "2006-05-24T18:49:30Z")
[QUOTE=Manatee] Damn right on the latter. 😃 [/QUOTE] That was unexpected. And awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-saying-carrot-and-stick-just-stop/358046/23 "2006-05-24T18:50:50Z")
I’ve never heard the phrase before. ---
**Author:** ![threemae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f9b8f/32.png) [@threemae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threemae)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-saying-carrot-and-stick-just-stop/358046/24 "2006-05-24T18:58:29Z")
[QUOTE=Contrapuntal] **Cheeseteak** beat you to it. Just a bit more subtly. 🙂 [/QUOTE] **Cheesesteak** didn’t have the guts! He was afraid that he would get hit. With a stick! And he didn’t have the nerves to ask for a carrot either. Well I demand both. Especially the carrot. ---
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-saying-carrot-and-stick-just-stop/358046/25 "2006-05-24T19:01:58Z")
I fucking hate carrots. You could put a carrot on a fucking stick and throw them both off the edge of the Disc for all the fuck I care. I don’t care if they’re raw, cooked, or minced up with raisins in that insipid salad that somebody has to bring to every fucking church picnic I’ve ever been to. Carrots suck. They have the texture of the rope I had to climb in Mr. Nilles’ gym class when he wouldn’t even put mats on the gym floor, they have less flavor than old saliva and they’re ugly. Fuck all orange food for reminding me of carrots. That’s no kind of reward to me at all. You want to reward me? Promise me I’ll never ever see another fucking carrot in my food ever again, that’s all the reward I ask. ---
**Author:** ![Birdmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71e660/32.png) [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-saying-carrot-and-stick-just-stop/358046/26 "2006-05-24T19:08:09Z")
Mr. Bus Guy: I love you. I can only deal with a stewed carrot. You know Mel Blanc hated them too? He used to have to chew one when he was doing Bugs and always spit it out after the take. Couldn’t swallow 'em, couldn’t stand 'em. He tried chewing other veggies but nothing made a sound that was “carroty” enough. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-saying-carrot-and-stick-just-stop/358046/27 "2006-05-24T19:17:42Z")
“Carrot and stick”, with “carrot” as the reward and “stick” as the punishment, has been around for going on 60 years now: > [@](#): > > From the _Oxford English Dictionary_: > **1948** _Economist_ 11 Dec. 957/2 The material shrinkage of rewards and the lightening of penalties, the whittling away of stick and carrot. **1954** J. A. C. BROWN _Social Psychol. of Industry_ i. 15 The tacit implication that..most men..are..solely motivated by fear or greed (a motive now described as ‘the carrot or the stick’). **1963** _Listener_ 21 Feb. 321/2 Once Gomulka had thrown away the stick of collectivization, he was compelled to rely on the carrot of a price system favourable to the peasant. ---
**Author:** ![BugaBooRu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e0b2c6/32.png) [@BugaBooRu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BugaBooRu)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-saying-carrot-and-stick-just-stop/358046/28 "2006-05-24T19:28:04Z")
[QUOTE=Kimstu] I think there may still be time to catch “herding cats” and “misunderestimate”, though. If you hurry. [/QUOTE] No! Don’t take away my “herding cats”! I’ll be left with only “nailing Jello to a tree”. Besides, I love that EDS commercial. ([http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8215789355288508566&q=herding+cats](http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8215789355288508566&q=herding+cats)) ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-saying-carrot-and-stick-just-stop/358046/29 "2006-05-24T19:58:28Z")
> [@](#): > > ee, nowhere in MY life has a carrot ever been thought of as a reward for anything. Well I understood it to be a unattainable reward for a mule. I think a carrot would make a tasty treat for such a beast. ---
**Author:** ![Amaranta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Amaranta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amaranta)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-saying-carrot-and-stick-just-stop/358046/30 "2006-05-24T23:46:32Z")
[QUOTE=Crotalus] The funny thing about this, to me, is that this cliche was taught to me when I was a child with no implication of a threat at all. The image was one of an unreachable reward. I remember an illustration of it that showed a boy on a donkey, using a stick and a string to dangle a carrot in front of the face of the donkey, to persuade the donkey to move forward. The phrase was “carrot on a stick”, not carrot and stick. Does anyone else remember this? [/QUOTE] I think this is the phrase “to dangle a carrot” in front of someone, and doesn’t involve a threat. At least that’s what I’ve always heard, in the same context that you have. ---
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-saying-carrot-and-stick-just-stop/358046/31 "2006-05-25T00:08:06Z")
[QUOTE=Contrapuntal] **Cheeseteak** beat you to it. Just a bit more subtly. 🙂 [/QUOTE] And **vetbridge** even moreso. 🙂🙂 ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-saying-carrot-and-stick-just-stop/358046/32 "2006-05-25T00:29:12Z")
I liked John Carpenter’s version of _ **The Thing** _ better than than the walking carrot B&W flick of the 50s. I still like the carrot from the 50s, it’s just that Carpenter did it better, ya know? And it even had stick legs. The Carpenter Thing. As a head. A disembodied head. With stick legs. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-saying-carrot-and-stick-just-stop/358046/33 "2006-05-25T01:03:15Z")
[QUOTE=Birdmonster] I’m 25, for the record. I feel like it’s been much more commonly used in the last year or 6 months, to a degree that saddens me. I’ve heard Condoleeeeeza say it in several interviews… [/QUOTE] Okay I’ve just Googled “Condoleeza Rice” and “Goat Rodeo.” Nothing. Would you care to explain yourself? ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-saying-carrot-and-stick-just-stop/358046/34 "2006-05-25T02:44:02Z")
[QUOTE=Amaranta] I think this is the phrase “to dangle a carrot” in front of someone, and doesn’t involve a threat. At least that’s what I’ve always heard, in the same context that you have. [/QUOTE] And what praytell do you dangel the carrot with, well besides a string (and we all know that a carrot and string has sexual conatations in certain circles, so we won’t go there, would be a stick. ---
**Author:** ![jali](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecae2f/32.png) [@jali](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jali)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-saying-carrot-and-stick-just-stop/358046/35 "2006-05-25T12:56:51Z")
Carrot sticks - crunchy! I haven’t noticed a recent increase in the use of the very old phrase. I’ll try not to use it here (SDMB) so that I don’t needlessly annoy you. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-saying-carrot-and-stick-just-stop/358046/36 "2006-05-25T13:11:14Z")
[QUOTE=MEBuckner] “Carrot and stick”, with “carrot” as the reward and “stick” as the punishment, has been around for going on 60 years now: [/QUOTE] Interesting, I’ve always known it as “carrot on a stick” and it has conjured up images of a rabbit wearing a hat. Extending from the front of the hat is a stick, and dangling from the stick is carrot. The rabbit can always see the carrot, he can smell it, and his little rabbit paws can just brush it if he reaches out as far as he can. But he can never get the carrot, poor wittle wabbit. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-saying-carrot-and-stick-just-stop/358046/37 "2006-05-25T13:42:32Z")
[QUOTE=Crotalus] The funny thing about this, to me, is that this cliche was taught to me when I was a child with no implication of a threat at all. The image was one of an unreachable reward. I remember an illustration of it that showed a boy on a donkey, using a stick and a string to dangle a carrot in front of the face of the donkey, to persuade the donkey to move forward. The phrase was “carrot on a stick”, not carrot and stick. Does anyone else remember this? [/QUOTE] YES! I have mentioned this before only to look up at a wall of perplexed faces, or to receive response to the effect “but what’s the punishment?” ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-saying-carrot-and-stick-just-stop/358046/38 "2006-05-25T13:53:55Z")
The odd thing is that there seems to be considerable etymological scorn poured upon the phrase ‘carrot on a stick’ - it seems that for some people, it won’t be enough to declare that it arose later than, or as a derivative of, ‘carrot _and_ stick’ (either of which may or may not be true) - no, they want the phrase ‘carrot on a stick’ simply _ **not to exist** _. -And not in a manner of simple annoyance or overfamiliarity as expressed by the OP; this seems to be a case of them declaring that _there is no such idiom - what you just said doesn’t exist_. Well, yes, it fucking does exist, because _I just said it_, because _I’ve been saying it all my life_, because _I’m not alone in saying it_ and because_I’m going to keep on saying it_. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-saying-carrot-and-stick-just-stop/358046/39 "2006-05-25T13:53:58Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] YES! I have mentioned this before only to look up at a wall of perplexed faces, or to receive response to the effect “but what’s the punishment?” [/QUOTE] I had thought, before this thread, that the threat-free version from my childhood was “correct”, and that the “carrot and stick” variant was a modern bastardization based on misunderstanding. The cites provided by others above now leads me to think that both versions have coexisted for a long time. I can clearly remember the picture of the boy and the donkey with the carrot hanging from the stick. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-saying-carrot-and-stick-just-stop/358046/40 "2006-05-25T14:10:11Z")
Me too; I’m not even particularly bothered whether or not it predates ‘carrot _and_ stick’ - fact is, it exists; it’s out there and I don’t see why it should go away just because a few vociferous people with sticks (and possibly carrots) up their arses can’t get to grips with it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-saying-carrot-and-stick-just-stop/358046.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-saying-carrot-and-stick-just-stop/358046.md?page=3)