# Where did this joke \[about Sears in TV shows\] come from? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 26, 2017, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-joke-about-sears-in-tv-shows-come-from/799919 "2017-10-26T20:14:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-joke-about-sears-in-tv-shows-come-from/799919/61 "2017-10-27T22:41:25Z")
> [@tracer](#): > > The 100-in-1 had an _integrated circuit_ in it! Sure, it was just a capacitor and a resistor (in its color-coded sleeve, no less!) that someone had soldered to a little white circuit board, but darn it, it was “I.C. technology”, man! My mistake. There was a transistor and a couple of resistors there, and the resistors were printed circuit elements. It was the _diode_ that was in its package and glued on to the board. Here’s a photo: [![](http://www.rcgrabbag.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/dsc_2365-edit.jpg) ](http://www.rcgrabbag.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/dsc_2365-edit.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2017, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-joke-about-sears-in-tv-shows-come-from/799919/62 "2017-10-28T15:40:18Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > When I was a kid we would go over the Sears Wish Books for days, trying to decide what we wanted Santa to bring us. Many of those catalogs have been archived on [Wishbook Web](http://www.wishbookweb.com/the-catalogs/). Thanks for the link! I’ve been wanting to look over the old catalogs for some time. I remember once on Sanford and Son, Aunt Esther was given a bottle of wine. She looked at the label and read it in a French accent, “From the vinyard of J.C. Penny.” ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2017, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-joke-about-sears-in-tv-shows-come-from/799919/63 "2017-10-28T20:38:32Z")
The only Sears-related joke I can think of is “Where’d you learn to drive, Sears Driving School?” Am I imagining this? Apparently they do/did have driving schools, but Sears was a perfectly cromulent store for us so it wasn’t clear why this would be automatically a bad thing. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2017, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-joke-about-sears-in-tv-shows-come-from/799919/64 "2017-10-28T22:50:34Z")
My mom bought all my clothes from Sears. Their catalog offered a much better selection. We bought a lot of stuff from Sears. It was good quality merchandise. You could often see the difference in quality compared to Walmart. My last big purchase was a flat pack storage shed in 2014. A small one for garden hoses and the lawn mower. Several stores carried it. Sears had a competitive price and I ordered it from the web site. ---
**Author:** ![asterism549](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ab992/32.png) [@asterism549](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterism549)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2018, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-joke-about-sears-in-tv-shows-come-from/799919/65 "2018-05-21T17:04:02Z")
In the Frank Zappa song, “Camarillo Brillo”, Frank asks the question “Is that a real poncho . . . I mean, Is that a Mexican poncho or is that a Sears poncho?” We always found that funny and despite the fact that Sears has generally good quality products, we quickly began using this as a way to demean something that was not authentic or high quality. Ex: “Is that a real guitar, or is that a Sears guitar.” ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2018, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-joke-about-sears-in-tv-shows-come-from/799919/66 "2018-05-22T04:48:11Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > You weren’t looking at the plus size bras, were you? Unless your dad or older brother had copies of _ **Playboy** _ hidden around the house, the Sears catalog was the go-to item for acting out your fifth-to-seventh-grade fantasies (and in some cases, probably beyond). :o ---
**Author:** ![jrbor76](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9e8a1a/32.png) [@jrbor76](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jrbor76)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2018, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-joke-about-sears-in-tv-shows-come-from/799919/67 "2018-05-22T17:49:48Z")
Is the OP possibly thinking of the movie _The Great Outdoors_? I keep thinking of that scene where Dan Aykroyd’s character is in the bathroom grooming himself, and his creepy twin daughters are staring at him, and he asks his wife, “How come (John Candy’s character)'s kids look at him like he’s Zeus, and my kids look at me like I’m a rack of yard tools at Sears?” ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2018, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-joke-about-sears-in-tv-shows-come-from/799919/68 "2018-05-22T20:56:31Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > When I was a kid we would go over the Sears Wish Books for days, trying to decide what we wanted Santa to bring us. Many of those catalogs have been archived on [Wishbook Web](http://www.wishbookweb.com/the-catalogs/). One year I asked my dad how much he spent on us kids for Christmas. He flippantly said “$22”, and we spent all Nov and Dec adding and subtracting items from the Sears catalog to get just under $22. Talk about dog-eared pages! By the way, we bought a small bungalow that had been a Sears house back in the day. But we had to pay more than catalog price. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-this-joke-about-sears-in-tv-shows-come-from/799919.md?page=3)