# "You are \[name\], and I claim my £5"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-name-and-i-claim-my-5/482285>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 21, 2009, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-name-and-i-claim-my-5/482285 "2009-01-21T11:12:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-name-and-i-claim-my-5/482285/1 "2009-01-21T11:12:14Z")

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Where does this phrase come from?

I usually see it on blog comments when someone is accused of sounding like someone famous.

e.g.

Post 1: “I hate mooses”  
Post 2: “You are Sarah Palin, and I claim my $5”

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**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-name-and-i-claim-my-5/482285/2 "2009-01-21T11:35:06Z")

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I don’t know if it’s the original case, but decades ago UK newspapers used to run competitions where they described a reporter and his whereabouts e.g. “Fred Smith will be walking along Bournemouth seafront today between 0900 and 1200 carrying a copy of our paper and wearing a red rose.”

If you challenged the right man: “You are Fred Smith and I claim my £5”, you won that prize money.

And [here is the original ‘Lobby Lud’!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobby_Lud)

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**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-name-and-i-claim-my-5/482285/3 "2009-01-21T11:56:28Z")

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It is perhaps best known to the _reading_ public from Graham Greene’s novel _Brighton Rock_ where a similar device is used.

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**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-name-and-i-claim-my-5/482285/4 "2009-01-21T13:14:20Z")

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The original was Lobby Lud. (This would have been well known when Brighton Rock was first published)

> **[Lobby Lud](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobby_Lud)**
>
> Lobby Lud is a fictional character created in August 1927 by the Westminster Gazette, a British newspaper, now defunct. The character was used in readers' prize competitions during the summer period. Anonymous employees visited seaside resorts and afterwards wrote down a detailed description of the town they visited, without giving away its name. They also described a person they happened to see that day and declared him to be the "Lobby Lud" of that issue. Readers were given a pass phrase and...

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**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-name-and-i-claim-my-5/482285/5 "2009-01-21T13:22:23Z")

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Wonderful - ignorance deftly fought, thank you chaps!