"Don=?windows-1252?Q?=92t_?=let the door hit you in the butt on the way out"

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Sun Nov 4 21:04:06 UTC 2012


FWIW, I remember the bland "Don't let the door hit you on the way out" from
1960 or '61.

I first encountered the "hit you...split you" version, I believe, in the
National Lampoon many years later: late '70s?

JL

On Sun, Nov 4, 2012 at 3:57 PM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM>
> Subject:
>  =?windows-1252?Q?Re=3A_=22Don=92t_let_the_door_hit_you_in_the_bu?
>               = =?windows-1252?Q?tt_on_the_way_out=22?=
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Nov 4, 2012, at 11:31 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Sun, Nov 4, 2012 at 10:25 AM,  <sclements at neo.rr.com> wrote:
> >> When the screen door closes, therefore, you would be in danger of =
> being hit in the butt only if you were > walking into the building, not =
> leaving.
> >=20
> > Whoa! Nobody ever explained it to me that way, before. Well, you got
> > me there. That a folk-saying doesn't correspond to observed reality is
> > passing strange, I admit. :-)
>
>
> We don't often have screen doors here, but my recollection from the =
> movies is that when the screen door is on the inside of the regular =
> door, it would work.
>
> On Nov 4, 2012, at 11:32 AM, Margaret Lee <mlee303 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
>
> > I learned it (in the spirit of the black oral tradition) growing up =
> as, "Let the door knob hit you where the good Lord split you," after =
> asking someone to get out of your house.
>
> > Margaret Lee
>
> Now this is a version I can understand!=20
>
> And if the issue is slamming the door as the person walks out the door, =
> then screen doors don't matter.
>
> Benjamin Barrett
> Seattle, WA=
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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