It's a hoot!

[Anne Gilbert]

> I first heard this in the 1970s. I assumed it was gay male slang, though
> maybe it was just a southernism. The guy I heard it from was both.
> <<<<<
>
> I use this expression regularly, meaning "That's really funny!". I think I
> picked it up from my wife. We both grew up in NYC in the late fifties and
early
> sixties. She grew up in the East Village and is more likely to have picked
up
> expressions influenced directly or indirectly by gay men's usage than I,
growing
> up on the Upper West Side (and in the social community I lived in).
>
> OTOH, we both went to college at CCNY (late sixties - early seventies) and
> graduate school at UC Berkeley (mid/late seventies), so we might have
picked it
> up there.

To all:

Odd.  I've heard "it's a hoot!"  for years, right here in Rain City,
otherwise known as Seattle Washington.  And this is the first time I've ever
heard that it was originally associated with gay men, anywhere.  But what do
I know?
Anne Gilbert