Er, that’s it. Anyone know where this humorously mangled phrase first appeared?
No cite, but if this were a game show I would answer “Groucho Marx.”
Anyone know if this is right?
Yes, that’s what I would guess too, but I wondered if anyone had a definite cite.
I hope it’s not Groucho, because I’ve never thought it was very funny.
I reckon WC Fields more than Groucho.
Looks like it mighta been the Three Stooges…
http://www4.citizen.com/news2004/February2004/February_02/cc_02.02.04.asp
If that proves wrong, may I suggest: some annoying c**t?
I would have thought it was Bullwinkle, but it may very well have been Groucho Marx. It sure sounds like something he would have said!
<fotoman>
I think that this was a generic joke through vaudeville, which would resolve why several origins might be remembered. I remember the line from both the Marx Brothers AND the Three Stooges, as well as several other sources from that period. I need to browse though my Henny Youngman and Milton Berle joke collections to see if I can find it (they’re low tech - printed on paper - no search engine!!!)
</fotoman>
And I thought it was from a spoonerist character in the long running British soap “Coronation Street” http://www.corrie.net but having never seen the show (the opening music sparks off a Pavlovian movement for the off button) I cannot tell you which character. But maybe there will be a Corrie fan along in a minute to help…
That I have never seen the show but know it to be a Corrie reference must count for something. Even if true it does not mean it is the first usage I grant you though…
I suspect you’re thinking about Hilda Ogden. She was more of a malaprop
than a spooner. She had a large muriel on her wall.
My vote’s for the three stooges…I recall Curly using it for sure.
Then again, like Olive said, “this was a generic joke through vaudeville”.
O is probably right, But if Uncle Milty originated the joke I’d be surprised. 
Your right, :smack: , malapropism not spoonerism. A search on malaprop, Hilda and Sugden came up with a page telling us she nicked her act from Hylda Baker but searching there has led nowhere obvious. She only goes back to the early 1970’s though and maybe the joke (if we can call it that) is older than that.
Oh, good lord, a pun that obvious no doubt has been in pretty steady use since mid-19th century vaudeville and minstrel shows. The only answerable question might be, “who was the first to be filmed or recorded using it?”
mid 19th century? I didn’t think Vaudeville began quite that long ago…maybe the mid 1880’s. Ahh what the hell, that’s close enough. We don’t need to argue about every damn thing, do we?
This is a maloprop. Curly of The Three Stooges replied to an insult, “I resemble the incineration of that remark” when he (seemingly) meant to say, “I resent the insinuation of that remark”!!! Way funny, and now a nonsensical retort to an insult-obviously. Much like “I couldn’t care less” is often said, mistakenly, as “I could care less”-also nonsensical.
And here I always thought it came from Foghorn Leghorn.
It’s safe to say it’s not original to Berle. Nothing was original to Berle.
You state this as fact, sans cite. In any case, Curly may have said it, but the question is who said it first.
I’ve always attributed it to Groucho, but that may be merely because, when I hear it in my head, it is Groucho’s voice I hear. Yeah, I’m cite-less as well.
Not that this is proof, but didn’t Hawkeye say the line in the MAS*H episode where he was parading around post-op doing his Groucho impersonation?
mmm
It’s from the 70’s British sitcom “Are you being served?” Mrs. Slocum was always saying that.