"Inmates Running the Asylum"

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   The person who asked for my address here was someone from a WWII submarine museum I had queried about the "submarine sandwich."  (USS=United States Ship.)
   The query (attached below) is about "inmates running the asylum."  I hope this doesn't imply something about our armed forces.
   I can't find an easy answer to this.  I think I've heard it used for the 1930s Marx Brothers films, for Spike Jones, and for screwball comedies such as BRINGING UP BABY, but I don't recall an exact source.  My friend at work recalls a baseball usage in 1961.
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