Stupid .... tricks

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:36 PM -0500 3/19/02, Drew Danielson wrote:
>Gareth Branwyn wrote:
>>
>>  "James A. Landau" wrote:
>>
>>  > "stupid accounting tricks"---"stupid .... tricks" is in my
>>experience a phrase used only by computer people (I remember a
>>collection of "stupid UNIX tricks" in the newspaper Computerworld
>>several years back) but it could easily have arisen elsewhere.
>>  >
>>
>>  "Stupid .... tricks" originated (I believe) with David Letterman when he
>>  was still at NBC. "Stupid human tricks" was a regular segment (where
>>  people did silly bar-bet types of stunts). But then, the bit (and the
>>  term) may have come from Steve Allen, from whom Letterman got most of
>>  his act. They still do stupid human tricks periodically on CBS. When
>>  Letterman left NBC, there was a big intellectual property stink about
>>  whether he could take the bit, and the name, to CBS.
>>
>>  Gareth
>
>Letterman also had "stupid animal tricks" and "stupid kid tricks" on
>NBC.  I have no idea which came first.

I'm pretty sure it was "stupid pet tricks" that came first.

LH