# "What, me worry?" PAUL Newman?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-me-worry-paul-newman/915888>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [July 21, 2020, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-me-worry-paul-newman/915888 "2020-07-21T01:39:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2020, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-me-worry-paul-newman/915888/1 "2020-07-21T01:39:50Z")

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I have this memory of watching some sort of action film on TV when I was a kid (1960s or 70s) starring Paul Newman where during a chase scene he suddenly breaks the fourth wall, looks at the camera, and says, “What? Me worry?”

I am guessing this was after Alfred E. Neuman’s motto was firmly entrenched, and was some kind of inside “I’m the OTHER Newman” joke.

Is this just a figment of my imagination or did it really happen?

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**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2020, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-me-worry-paul-newman/915888/2 "2020-07-21T06:23:29Z")

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Mel Brooks’s _Silent Movie_? It sounds like a Mel Brooks gag, and Paul Newman was in it (but it’s one I haven’t actually seen).

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**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2020, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-me-worry-paul-newman/915888/3 "2020-07-21T11:58:56Z")

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IIRC there was only one line in that movie, said by Marcel Marceau, a mime.

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**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2020, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-me-worry-paul-newman/915888/4 "2020-07-21T17:30:41Z")

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There was only one spoken line in _Silent Movie_, but there were lots of lines in title cards.

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**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2020, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-me-worry-paul-newman/915888/5 "2020-07-22T23:41:00Z")

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I found an issue of _MAD Magazine_ where Nixon and Agnew are drawn on the cover as a parody of _The Sting_. Nixon takes Paul Newman’s place. It’s issue 171 from December, 1974.

I also found [an article](https://www.austinchronicle.com/events/film/2001-10-12/141588/) in _The Austin Chronicle_ describing Bruce Willis’s Joe Blake in _Bandits_ (2001) as being like a “What, me worry”-faced reimagining of Paul Newman’s Butch Cassidy from _Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid_ (1969).

Probably not what you’re looking for.

~Max