Say it. Kind of rolls off the tongue easily.
25 years ago, I heard my college kid and his friend using this phrase in a friendly, bantering way when one or the other complained about workload, classload, teacher, boyfriend, girlfriend, etc.
More or less in the sense of “Other people have it worse, you know…stop being so self-centered.”
Does anyone recall hearing this phrase, and, if so, hearing it before 1988 or so? Trying to confirm my suspicion that it was their original.
Just driving by to say that I am sorry to see this thread not get the SDMB’d, er, answered 
It has me kinda curious. I am inclined to say the early 80’s. Going to school in Santa Barbara, suck-speak kinda emerged right along dude-speak, with the whole *schadenfreude *angle firmly in place.
I distinctly remember one of the cool dudes in the hall. Some other guy was going on about a class he hated and the cool guy took it in, looked at him, and, with a slight nod, calmly remarked “suckage” * and looked away. End of story.
*As in “I feel your pain and empathize, but, no, not really.” Pretty much summed it up in a Keanu Reeves sorta way ;).
exactly. More of a ‘I’ll take that under consideration in our interactions today, but, don’t expect any empathy.’ “Sucks to be you”…emphasis on ‘you’.
My guess is that it is a response to the first person who said, “sucks to be me.”
25 years ago would be 1991. I am positive I heard and used this phrase in the mid 1980s. In 1998 the band Prozzak had a minor hit with their song Suck To Be You (it’s a great song; very catchy!) and a couple of more recent songs with the same name by Clint on Sparks & LMFAO and by Emma Blackery make it difficult to search for the phrase.
Could there be an older origin? I keep thinking it must be related to the “Sucks to your <object of derision>” the boys used in Lord of the Flies, but I can’t seem to get the right search in google.
As I recall, the phrasing ran along the lines of:
“My auntie told me not to run,” said Piggy.
“Sucks to your auntie,” replied Ralph.
The online Cliff’s Notes offer, in the way of a glossary of the text:
sucks to your auntie a British slang expression of derision or contempt; here, “forget your auntie” or “your auntie be damned.”
Yah boo sucks! Poss. orig. Nigel Molesworth, almost exactly contemporary with Ralph and Piggy:
[QUOTE=Molesworth]
When the day of the pla comes all the parents are driven into skool hall and locked in so none can escape. Prince charming zoom upon the stage and pla begin:
PRINCE CHARMING: 'pon my soul it is indeed a pritty wench. Who art thou?
CINDERELLA: I am Cinderella.
PRINCE CHARMING: Thou art not thou art peason with a lot of rouge lipstick and a straw wig and thou lookest like the wrath of god.
CINDERELLA (dimpling): And thou molesworth 1 thou canst not call thyself prince charming when thou hast a face like a mad baboon.
PRINCE CHARMING: I will tuough you up for that my pritty maid.
CINDERELLA: Yar boo sucks thou art much too girly in thy white silk tights that are made from i kno not what. Thou couldst not tuough up a flea ha-ha-hee.
[/QUOTE]
This sounds authoritative. Thanks to all for your research and comments!