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Favorite Catch Phrases
Topic Started: Nov 28 2013, 10:41 AM (3,668 Views)
CliffClaven
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And a playground favorite of my distant childhood:

"NIIIIIIagra Falls!
SLOOOOOWly I turn!
STEP by STEP . . . INCH by INCH . . . "

Usually prelude to comically beating somebody up, as in the Three Stooges version of the routine.
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JazzGuyy
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I've often wondered how far back that routine goes and who might have originated it. I know that it was done by lots of comedy teams over the years. I'm most familiar with Abbott and Costello doing it.
TANSTAAFL!
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Frank Hale
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A&C certainly beat it into the ground, but delightfully so. There's a very funny episode (2/1/45) of their radio show in which the first skit, reprising "Pay the $2", has Costello in court with Mr. Kitzel (Artie Auerbach) as his lawyer, and the second puts Costello in prison (after he doesn't pay it) with (I think) Murray Leonard, who does the "slowly I crept" thing we fondly remember from their films. As I recall, they used "Pokomoko" or something as the location of dreaded memory.

As to the WB cartoons, you could add "Look Ma, I'm dancin'!" to "Could be" and "It's a possibility". Someone inquired here about the origin of that a few years ago but, as I recall, never got an answer. I guess there was no law against the WB cartoon-smiths inventing their own catch-phrases, if that's the solution.

Edit: Come to think of it, I think Mr. Kitzel may be the origin of "Could be" and "It's a possibility". Seems like he used it a lot, and he had that high voice. I assume this is old vaudeville stuff.
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Frank Hale
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Hey! As long as we're reminiscing about WB cartoons, let's give a shout out to Bert Gordon, the Mad Russian and one-man-catchphrase-arsenal, best heard on the Eddie Cantor radio show:

"How do you dooooo???"

"Do you mean it????"

"Ha-ha-ha....Silly boy!"

"This you won't believe, because it's a lie!"

TV catchphrases like "Dyn-o-mite!", repeated ad nauseam by people in work situations I have done my utmost to forget, always drove me up the wall. But somehow I never get tired of old Bert.
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Sgt Saturn
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Some catch phrases depended very much on delivery, such as Frank Nelson's "EEE-Yeeeeeeeeesssss?"
The Ol' Sarge
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mort bakaprevski
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As a kid, I really hated the "Niagara Falls" routine.... & I can't say I've mellowed towards it over the years.

Frank, you've got it. It WAS Artie Auerbach doin' "could be" & "it's a possibility."

The following is only for you older farts. Who said, "Well now I wouldn't say that."?
"Nov Shmoz Ka Pop."
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Frank Hale
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It's more than the delivery; there's a personality element. I more or less like the people I meet on old radio shows. I even find Clint Eastwood and Arnold Schwarzenegger somewhat admirable in the movies. But I can’t think of when I found anyone on television to be anything other than just an out-for-the buck-smarmy-jackass. Hearing the phrases at work never helped, of course.

Mort, that's an easy one on "I wouldn’t say that": Mr. Peavey (Richard LeGrande) on The Great Gildersleeve.
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mort bakaprevski
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Indeed.

In retrospect, I just don't get it. There wasn't anything inherently funny in the line itself. Guess it WAS the delivery or personality.... or somethin'.
"Nov Shmoz Ka Pop."
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JazzGuyy
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A lot of the catch phrases weren't inherently funny. It was the context and/or the delivery. Hearing the phrase always brought those things to mind.

TANSTAAFL!
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panzer the great & terrible
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What a revoltin' development this is. (Life of Reilly)

What is it, Lassie? The barn? On fire? (The kid could only know if he set the fire himself)

I Taught I Taw a Puddy Tat (one of the worst)

Of course you know this means war (one of the best)



Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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Stony Brooke da Mesquiteer
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Bugs Bunny saying, "Ain't I a stinker!"

My fave: "Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor, not an interior decorator!"
It's like Rodney King used to say, "Can't we all get a bong."
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JazzGuyy
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Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy!
TANSTAAFL!
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panzer the great & terrible
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One of my favorites.

Hahahahaha.

On a slightly less exalted level: Yoo hoo, it's me, my name is Pinky Lee...
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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CliffClaven
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Boomer vintage:

"Anything can happen in the next half hour!" (Stingray)

"But first a word from Sponsorville, and then our next cartoon." (Beany and Cecil)

"We'll be right back with a few scenes from next week's show." (Walt Disney)

"And Jerry Mathers as the Beaver." (Hallmark Hall of Fame)



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Sgt Saturn
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He's dead, Jim.
The Ol' Sarge
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