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

[Baker, John]

        Sorry, no; it's been at least 20 years since I've seen it.  It was in booklet form, probably about 6" x 9", with cardboard covers, probably 24 to 48 pages.  All of the jokes had a hillbilly theme.  I can remember one or two of the others, but I guess that isn't terribly germane.

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: Fred Shapiro [mailto:fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU]
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2003 9:35 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Not over till the fat lady sings ... in Texas?


On Sun, 5 Oct 2003, 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.

Do you remember anything about the title of this joke collection?

Fred Shapiro


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