Where did this saying originate? Was there someone named Reily who really had life by the ass? I know there was a t.v. show with this name, but I beleive the saying goes back before that.
It’s been a Mailbag column: What’s the origin of “the life of Riley”?
From the book ‘Why you say it’ by Webb Garrison.
A stand up comic, Patrick Rooney wrote a song in the late 1880’s. Mr. Reilly, the central character in the song, didn’t amount to much, but he was quite a daydreamer. Reilly imagined what he would do if he struck it rich in California.
Owning the railroads, he would buy no tickets. Having no need for money he would turn down jobs that offered to pay ‘a hundred a day’. Best of all he would take over the White House and sleep in the President’s chair.
Though Reilly exisited only in the imagination of Rooney, he voiced the feelings of multitudes who paid little attention to the spelling of his name. Having heard or read lines that described the way Reilly conceived of life at the top, people began to wish they could step into the Irishman’s shoes. Decades later, folks would still like a shot at the ‘life of Riley’.
Hope that answers your question.
::Pounding noise from the door ::
OPEN UP! Copyright Police
Oops, gotta go…
Here’s the Word Detective’s view on Riley.