# Why would it harelip the Pope?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-it-harelip-the-pope/142643
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 14, 2002, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-it-harelip-the-pope/142643 "2002-12-14T00:10:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2002, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-it-harelip-the-pope/142643/1 "2002-12-14T00:10:06Z")
David Allen Coe’s song “If That Ain’t Country” contains the, to me, obscure line “If that ain’t country, it’ll harelip the Pope/If that ain’t country, it’s a damn good joke.”
Putting aside whether Pope rhymes with joke (it’s my possibly-apocryphal understanding Coe killed a guy in prison, so I don’t want to rile him unnecessarily), how would one harelip (v., t.) anyone? Why the Pope in particular? Who first thought this was a v., t.?
Has anyone else heard this expression in any other context or have any clue as to the etymology? I’m assuming it must be very regional?
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2002, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-it-harelip-the-pope/142643/2 "2002-12-14T00:28:13Z")
Oddly, the lyrics actually seem to be “hair-lip the Pope,” rather than the correct “harelip.” Googling “hair lip the Pope” locates only the lyrics (with one exception, which gives no clue to the phrase’s origin.) “Harelip the Pope” gives zero results.
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### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2002, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-it-harelip-the-pope/142643/3 "2002-12-14T00:29:12Z")
According to [this](http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/essays/v6p287y1983.pdf), an old folk superstition had it that a harelip could be caused by the devil appearing to the expectant mother in the form of a hare (which itself, obviously, is harelipped). I think you could say that the devil was harelipping the baby.
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### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2002, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-it-harelip-the-pope/142643/4 "2002-12-14T00:31:36Z")
Oh, damn. Will a moderator fix my cite, please? Insert a quote after .pdf.
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### Author:  [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2002, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-it-harelip-the-pope/142643/5 "2002-12-14T00:42:27Z")
I _Dr. Strangelove_, Slim Pickens says: " I’m going to get them doors open if it harelips everybody in Bear Creek".
I think its just a colourful sourthern saying; doesn’t have to be the pope either.
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### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2002, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-it-harelip-the-pope/142643/6 "2002-12-14T01:08:44Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by javaman \*
> \*\*Oh, damn. Will a moderator fix my cite, please? Insert a quote after .pdf. \*\*
Thanks, **Manhattan**.
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2002, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-it-harelip-the-pope/142643/7 "2002-12-14T01:43:25Z")
> **[Penguin Random House](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com?date=19980625)**
>
> Committed to publishing great books, connecting readers and authors globally, and spreading the love of reading.
Southernism. 20th century.
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### Author:  [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2002, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-it-harelip-the-pope/142643/8 "2002-12-14T03:57:00Z")
I presume Gunny Hartman’s line in _Full Metal Jacket_
> [@](#):
>
> I will motivate you, Private Pyle, if it short-dicks every cannibal in the Congo!
comes from the same source. Lots of colorful metaphors in that movie.
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### Author:  [@tmwster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tmwster)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2002, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-it-harelip-the-pope/142643/9 "2002-12-14T04:52:09Z")
I never realized that was a regional expression. I thought it was just another one of my dad’s nonsensical expressions, like, “well _rain_ on their bald heads,” meaning, “to hell with them all.” He used it in the context of planning to take some unpopular action, “I don’t care if it hare-lips the mayor.” It sounds as if whomever is getting hare-lipped is optional, as long as it rhymes?