Not over till the fat lady sings ... in Texas?

[Fred Shapiro]

On Sun, 5 Oct 2003, Baker, John wrote:

>         In the mid-1970s or so, there was a collection of hillbilly
> jokes (which I unfortunately no longer have and therefore cannot
> precisely date) that included this line.  The story's setup was that a
> group of hillbillies went to an opera.  At the intermission, one or more
> of the hillbillies started to leave but were stopped by another of their
> group, who said that "the opry ain't over till the fat lady sings."  It
> seems likely to me that this joke, which presumably had currency before
> and beyond the thin paperback collection, is the origin of the phrase.

Do you remember anything about the title of this joke collection?

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
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