I first heard it in the film Echo Park, but now I’m wondering why so many people remember exactly where they first heard such a trivial and silly joke.
Well, when Tony Randall did it in TOC he did it quite well and it was pretty funny!
#34,35 “arse” is not a word used in America.
Please tell me this is the biggest whoosh since the Concorde.
Not in the least. It was funny. Your mileage must vary.
Told to my PE class by a school athletic director in 1968 when discussing how to position yourself on the field. I would bet money it was a used in athletic coaching for some time before I heard it from him.
The
[Quote Investigator weighs in]
(Quote Origin: Denial Is Not a River in Egypt – Quote Investigator®).
A whoosh is a deliberate joke. The deliberate part was and is still up in the air.
So where’s the joke in Hail Ants’ statement? Please explain why you thought it was a whoosh. Randall delivered the joke well and it was quite funny, so I took his comment as a serious statement
Yes, the use of “ass” on television in this era would be a bit shocking (as I recall, anyway), which might be why it got such a big laugh from the audience.
You’ve asked it, and so has Elendir’s Heir and Johanna.
The top 3 google hits are those threads. Tv tropes does not mention MAS*H, and while it sounds exactly like something Flagg would say, I’m not sure he did. Are you?
Because he’s stating in post #42 what was already directly in the OP.
Oh, is that the problem? He didn’t think he was mentioning the Odd Couple for the first time in the thread. He was answering the question “why do so many people remember where they first heard such a dumb joke?”
The answer is, because for many of us it was TOC, and it was really damned funny!
He was?
I’m not going to continue arguing, but I wonder if we’re reading the same thread.
Anyway, I agree Tony Randall delivered the joke well, and it was quite funny for 1973, so if Hail Ants intended the opposite, then I’ll admit to being whooshed.
@ Exapno: Otherwise, as I said, different people think different things are funny. If you didn’t think it was, I’ll take your word for it.
I think the first person to do this would be the first literate 12 year old who saw the word being written.
“That says ass.”
I can’t cite it other than saying I remember his character saying it (to Henry Blake).
Yeah, what he said. Wasn’t being ironic or sarcastic, when I saw that bit on TOC as a kid I found it really funny and still find Randall’s delivery perfect (more so than just the silly word pun).
To Apuleius, in fact.
I specifically remember getting amused, as a 12 yr old, by the last three letters in “algebra”.
“When you assume, you make an ass out of u and me.”
~ Oscar Wilde on Assumption
Since he died in 1900, it’s quite old. Don’t know the year.
Here’s one of the many articles I can cite: http://www.drelizabethgreen.com/assume-ass-u-me/