Go [name], it's your birthday

[Dave Wilton]

I don't know what the MC Hammer connection is exactly. Lyric? If so, which
song on the album? Or is it just from the album title?

I found another, slightly different, Usenet usage from about six months
earlier: "Ooo...you go girl!  It's your birthday..."; From: Timothy J.
Kurnik, 6967 (kurnik at lds.loral.com), Subject: Re: HELLO?, Newsgroups:
alt.kids-talk, Date: 1993-09-20 06:37:29 PST.

There are lots of hits associated with "get busy," but no earlier ones.
Clearly that's a common variant.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
> Of Ed Keer
> Sent: Wednesday, May 15, 2002 12:17 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Go [name], it's your birthday
>
>
> I always thought the phrase was "Go [name], don't hurt
> 'em", but a quick check on google shows it's "Please
> [name], don't hurt 'em" from the MC Hammer CD (back to
> the wayback machine) "Please Hammer, don't hurt 'em"
>
> Still, could they be related?
>
> Ed
>
>
> --- Drew Danielson <andrew.danielson at CMU.EDU> wrote:
> > Dave Wilton wrote:
> > >
> > > I'm wondering about a catchphrase that I've seen
> > from time to time, in
> > > movies and TV and occasionally used by people I
> > know. "Go [name], it's your
> > > birthday! Go [name], it's your birthday." The
> > phrase is delivered in a
> > > sing-song patter, often accompanied by rotating
> > arm movements. The phrase is
> > > not just used to acknowledge a birthday, but
> > rather any time there is
> > > something to celebrate or the named individual has
> > done something worthy or
> > > notable.
> > >
> > > The most famous appearance that I've found is in
> > the 1999 movie, _American
> > > Pie_: "Go trig-boy, it's your birthday."
> > >
> > > The furthest back I've been able to trace it is a
> > 1994 Usenet post: From:
> > > DarkStarr (p00838 at psilink.com), Subject: Re:
> > Extremists, Newsgroup:
> > > soc.culture.african.american, Date: 1994-03-23
> > 18:15:05 PST.
> > >
> > > I gather its origin is somewhere in
> > African-American slang, but does anyone
> > > have anything more specific?
> > >
> > > (Search tip: This one was a bear to search. "It's
> > your birthday" pulls up
> > > thousands of unrelated hits and you can't search
> > on the exact phrase
> > > starting with "go" because the medial name changes
> > with each use. Finally it
> > > hit me that the phrase is usually repeated, and a
> > search of the exact phrase
> > > "it's your birthday go" pulled up a 100 or so
> > precise hits.)
> >
> > Yeah this is a hard one to search for.  You may want
> > to try searching
> > for "it's your birthday" "get busy", since the
> > second phrase is also
> > part of this incantation (often pronounced as 'bIz
> > E:' or something like
> > that)...
> >
> > "gs Stink}, itsyer birthda}, git bizza}"
>
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> LAUNCH - Your Yahoo! Music Experience
> http://launch.yahoo.com
>