Query: "Let George do it"

Douglas G. Wilson douglas at NB.NET
Mon Nov 10 05:01:19 UTC 2008


> Quick review of Google Books shows "Let George do it" becoming suddenly
> fashionable in 1910: many instances from 1910, nothing before.
>
> Either the expression came from the comic strip, or the comic strip was
> named for a suddenly fashionable slogan which arose otherwise at about
> that time.
>
-

Addendum: Quick review of on-line newspaper archives shows "Let George
Do It" appearing as a comic-strip name in mid-1909, and the expression
all over the place starting in 1910.

It surely looks as though the catch-phrase came from the comic strip.

Here, from 1910 --

http://books.google.com/books?id=r_kSAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA293&dq=%22let+george+do+it%22+date:1900-1912&lr=&num=100&as_brr=0#PPA292,M1

-- it is remarked (p. 292): <<GEORGE HAS BECOME A TOPIC OF EVERY-DAY
CONVERSATION>> ... referring to George the comic-strip character.

-- Doug Wilson

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