Current Usage of "Hello"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sat, 4 Jun 2005 06:45:21 -0400, Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
wrote:
>
>The Historical Dictionary of American Slang gives, as its first citation
>for _hello_ 'interjection used to call attention to the foolishness of an
>idea, comment, etc.' a line from the film _Back to the Future_ (1985):
>"Hello? McFly?"  Would anyone hazard a guess as to whether this usage was
>coined or popularized by that film?

Now that I look for the line in online sources, I think the HDAS quote may
be slightly wrong.  There are two relevant scenes: one in the present
(1985) and one in the past (1955), showing that the relationship between
George McFly (played by Crispin Glover) and Biff Tannen (played by Tom
Wilson) hasn't changed over thirty years:

-----
http://fusion-industries1.tripod.com/scene4thefamilymcfly/
Biff: And where's my reports?
George: Uh, well, I haven't finished those up yet, but you know I figured
since they weren't due til..
Biff: Hello, hello, anybody home? Think, McFly, think. I gotta have time
to get 'em retyped. Do you realize what would happen if I hand in my
reports in your handwriting? I'll get fired. You wouldn't want that to
happen would you? Would you?
-----
http://fusion-industries1.tripod.com/scene8dadthedork/
Biff: Hey, you got my homework finished, McFly?
George: Uh...well, actually, I figured since it wasn't due till Monday.
Biff: Hello, hello, anybody home? Think, McFly, think. I gotta have time
to recopy it. Do you realize what would happen if I hand in my homework in
your handwriting? I'd get kicked out of school. You wouldn't want that to
happen would you...would you?
-----

Here are sound files for the line, "Hello, hello, anybody home? Think,
McFly, think."

http://www.wavsite.com/sounds/4137/back24.wav
http://www.eventsounds.com/wav/mcfly.wav

(You can hear Biff rapping George's head, as if he's knocking on a door.)

The funny thing is, I remember the line the way it appears in HDAS -- as
simply, "Hello, McFly!"  Google suggests many others remember it that way
too.  Certainly that was the catchphrase among high schoolers after the
movie came out. (And as HDAS records, the movie _Clueless_ revitalized the
usage a decade later -- minus "McFly" of course.)


--Ben Zimmer