yadda yadda origin

[alindallas]

I thought “yadda,yadda” was one of those long-enduring Jewish idioms. Are you saying it was only invented in our lifetime? Before I become disillusioned, I would like to hear from someone who is somewhat old(er) and VERY Jewish. A term this piquant must be properly backgrounded.

[Sampiro]

I always assumed it was related to ‘yada’, the Hebrew verb for “to know” (which I ‘yada’ due to its use in Genesis- X knew his wife and she bare Y, or the Sodomites wanting to know the angels).

[kambuckta]

In 1971, Dory Previn released an album (Mythical Kings and Iguanas) that included a song titled, ‘Yada Yada La Scala’.
Good Lord, and to think I used to actually listen and get into to such wrist-slashing lyrics back then.

Thank fuck I’ve gotten old and more cranky.

[kambuckta]

'Let’s stop talking, talking, talking, any lame excuse
Justifying, alibying, listen: what’s the use?
The sparrow chirps, the chipmunk chatters
And we go on as mad as a hatter, and we go
Yada yada, yada yada yada yaaaadah’.

Nineteen seventy ONE folks.

Oh yes, I WAS cool back then.

[Guinastasia]

I hearby proclaim that Mike Judge stole the term “bunghole” from me. Yes, LBJ did use it upon one occasion, but I was the first to use it as an insult when I was in grade school. Take my word for it.

[hank_malloy]

have one of the first FANTASY lp records that Lenny Bruce made, it was made out of red vinyl, and one of the “bits” he used on that LP was called something like
A JAIL STORY, about prisoners in jail, planning an escape. the warden finds out about the “break” and tried to talk the prisoners out of trying to break out. At one point, Bruce yells, using a convicts’ voice,something like “yadda, yadda, yadda , warden, let us out or we’ll kill the kid”…something like that. i’m sure that YADDA remark was used in that record, which dates from the late 1950’s…about '58 or '59.

[njtt]

@phillip_leslie

I didn’t know about the lenny bruce connection until early 80’s when talking with richard cory

They say he owns one half of this here town.

@ftg

Google’s Usenet archive goes back to 1981. The uptick in average people using the Internet didn’t affect Usenet since most of the newbies didn’t use Usenet. Very few of them even heard of it.

What did the newbies use in 1995 then? Certainly not the Web, which hardly existed. Just email and ftp?

I will admit that I did not get online until about 1995, initially from a Unix prompt, but even at that time Usenet was practically the only fun thing on the Internet, and I discovered it pretty quickly. I would be surprised if 1992 newbies did not discover it very quickly too.

[C_K_Dexter_Haven]

MODERATOR COMMENT: First, I want to welcome hank malloy to the Straight Dope Message Boards, we’re glad you’re here.

Second, I want to note that hank posted yesterday (13 March 2011) and that the prior post was from July, 2010, so it’s been eight months. This is what we call a “zombie” thread, meaning that it’s been resurrected after a long sleep. That’s OK, I just want to make y’all aware of it. Some of the past posters may not be around any more, or may not be reading this thread, and so may not respond if you’re commenting on what they said a year or more ago. So, just be aware.

[The_Flying_Dutchman]

If the OP is who he claims to be, then he would be a brother of Susan Sarandon, the actress in the movie The Client among many others. You would think that alone would be sufficient for anyone to desire some sort of distinction.

[Voyager]

@hank_malloy

have one of the first FANTASY lp records that Lenny Bruce made, it was made out of red vinyl, and one of the “bits” he used on that LP was called something like
A JAIL STORY, about prisoners in jail, planning an escape. the warden finds out about the “break” and tried to talk the prisoners out of trying to break out. At one point, Bruce yells, using a convicts’ voice,something like “yadda, yadda, yadda , warden, let us out or we’ll kill the kid”…something like that. i’m sure that YADDA remark was used in that record, which dates from the late 1950’s…about '58 or '59.

See post #3. This bit is available on CD (I listened to it again just a few days ago, great bit) and is from about that time.

To add something new to the above, when Dutch starts saying “yadda yadda” to the Warden, the Warden responds with something like “don’t do that Louis Armstrong bit” - which makes me think there is a connection to jazz somehow.

[samclem]

@Voyager

To add something new to the above, when Dutch starts saying “yadda yadda” to the Warden, the Warden responds with something like “don’t do that Louis Armstrong bit” - which makes me think there is a connection to jazz somehow.

My guess is, he was referring to the song ja da, ja da, ja da ja da jing jing jing, and Armstrong did a version.

[Beruang]

I did not invent the word “Duh” – it was how the character Moose in the old Archie comic books started every sentence – but I was the first one in our neighborhood to use it as a mocking insult.

I beg your forgiveness.

[Powers]

@njtt

What did the newbies use in 1995 then? Certainly not the Web, which hardly existed. Just email and ftp?

The web, indeed. And bulletin board systems, chat rooms, MUDs, and yes, e-mail.

For 1992, which was the year mentioned previously, remove the web, but the others were still available.
Powers &8^]

[Fear_Itself]

@Powers

The web, indeed. And bulletin board systems, chat rooms, MUDs, and yes, e-mail.

For 1992, which was the year mentioned previously, remove the web, but the others were still available.

I was using Compuserve in 1985.

[phillip_leslie]

i just wanted to remove the un from unknown found this site and it seemed like the place to do it.it was forty years ago this past spring that this yadda yadda came forth.both it and i have gone many places. if i had a nickel or maybe jerry and a few others five bucks . response 29 yes i have 5 sisters and three brothers .

[Chihhsing]

Any other account of the expression’s origin is nonsense yadda yadda.

Grammelot

[Kenm]

I and a friend coined the use of NOT at the end of a sentence, oh, about 40 years ago or more.

“I am the greatest football player in the school. NOT.”

My post is my cite.

[John_W.Kennedy]

No explanation that neither antedates nor considers the use of “yatata yatata” in Allegro (1947) can be taken seriously. And you can’t just say, “It’s from Grammelot,” without evidence. Heck, maybe it’s just an adopted bit of theatrical rhubarb.

[samclem]

@Chihhsing

Any other account of the expression’s origin is nonsense yadda yadda.
Grammelot - Wikipedia

Your post is nonsense.

[hogarth]

(I know this is an old thread, yadda yadda zombies, etc.)

I’m reading the book The Egoist by George Meredith (written in 1879) and I noticed he used “ta-ta-ta-ta” where we might use “yadda yadda”:

“You have told me that you wept to read of one: like him, then. My principles have not changed, if I have. When I was younger, I had an idea of a wife who would be with me in my thoughts as well as aims: a woman with a spirit of romance, and a brain of solid sense. I shall sooner or later dedicate myself to a public life; and shall, I suppose, want the counsellor or comforter who ought always to be found at home. It may be unfortunate that I have the ideal in my head. But I would never make rigorous demands for specific qualities. The cruellest thing in the world is to set up a living model before a wife, and compel her to copy it. In any case, here we are upon the road: the die is cast. I shall not reprieve myself. I cannot release her. Marriage represents facts, courtship fancies. She will be cured by-and-by of that coveting of everything that I do, feel, think, dream, imagine . . . ta-ta-ta-ta ad infinitum. Laetitia was invited here to show her the example of a fixed character—solid as any concrete substance you would choose to build on, and not a whit the less feminine.”

“Ta-ta-ta-ta ad infinitum. You need not tell me you have a design in all that you do, Willoughby Patterne.”

Now obviously “ta-ta” is not quite the same as “yadda”, and who knows how the Victorians would have pronounced it. But in my head it sounds like “yadda yadda”!