My Dad is fond of using this catchall name for my mother. When I asked him about the name, he said that he thought that “Murgatroyd” was a character in an old time radio show-possibly Fred Allen or Jack Benny . He also thought it was used by William Bendix in the late 1950’s TV show “The Life of Reilly”.
Beyond these reminisces, I have no idea who the character was-anybody know?
Snagglepuss said it… Heavens to murgatroid!
(And I say it, too)
Here you go. Interesting history of the name and phrase.
A Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd is a main character (along with a lot of his ancestors who are also baronets Murgatroyd) in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Ruddigore.
Gary T beat me. Damn that Gary T!
— http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/heavens-to-murgatroyd.html
aaaaaaaaaahhh
Gary T!!!
Murgatroyd was also the nom de villiany of a Boskonian Bad Guy in E. E. Smith’s Lensman series. That predates Meet the People by 20 years.
I remember hearing Bing Crosby call Bob Hope ‘Murgatroyd’ once on a radio show. They were always giving each other goofy nicknames during shows, like Helium Hips, Turkey Jackson, Buster, etc. I think it was whatever came to mind at the time.
An old National Lampoon blurb, referring to Snagglepuss, speculated that St. Murgatroyd was the patron saint of interior decorators.
Doesn’t Marvin The Martian say that sometimes too? That’s my only (childhood) recollection of it. That and the “Illidium Space Modulator” or something like that.
Sorry FoieGras, Marvin never says this. His catch phrase was “You have made / This makes me very angry!”
*Sir Murgatroyd at Sebastapool *was written by Joseph S. Newman and published in a collection of verse, *Pack Up Your Troubles *in 1942:
It goes on for another hundred lines about their titanic match. Newman was the uncle of actor Paul Newman.
Also a character in Agatha Christie’s “A Murder is Announced”
Murgatroyd was in First Lensmen, which was a prequel, that wasn’t published until 1950.