Not over till the fat lady sings ... in Texas?

[Baker, John]

        Well, of course I can't say for sure which came first.  But the catchphrase must have come from somewhere, and its wording is certainly suggestive of a hillbilly joke (a genre that used to be far more popular than it is today, particularly in traditionally hillbilly areas like Kentucky (where I bought the booklet).  The original joke, by the way, was funnier than is my stark retelling of it; I wanted to make sure that I didn't introduce any anachronistic elements in trying to restore its humor.

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: Alice Faber [mailto:faber at HASKINS.YALE.EDU]
Sent: Sunday, October 05, 2003 2:44 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Not over till the fat lady sings ... in Texas?


Baker, John wrote:
>         In the mid-1970s or so, there was a collection of hillbilly
>jokes (which I unfortunately no longer have and therefore cannot
>precisely date) that included this line.  The story's setup was that
>a group of hillbillies went to an opera.  At the intermission, one
>or more of the hillbillies started to leave but were stopped by
>another of their group, who said that "the opry ain't over till the
>fat lady sings."  It seems likely to me that this joke, which
>presumably had currency before and beyond the thin paperback
>collection, is the origin of the phrase.

I'd say the reverse; the joke plays on a pre-existing catch-phrase.

--
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Alice Faber                                             faber at haskins.yale.edu
Haskins Laboratories                                  tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
New Haven, CT 06511 USA                                     fax (203) 865-8963