"I kid, because I love"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sat, 27 Nov 2004 19:46:10 -0800, Vida J Morkunas
<vidamorkunas at TELUS.NET> wrote:

>A little meme keeps reappearing in many of the blogs that I read
>(MetaFilter, Engadget, boingboing and other tech / consumer electronics
>type sites)
>
>Usually the line "I kid because I love" will appear when the writer is
>joking about something, or kidding.
>
>Where does this phrase come from? Where was it first written?

I associate the line with Krusty the Clown on _The Simpsons_...

    "I kid, 'cause I love.  I'm telling you the best folk in
    the world are prison folk."
    --"The Brother from Another Series", aired Feb. 23, 1997
    http://www.snpp.com/episodes/4F14

But I see that the Usenet archive has it back to Feb. 1994:
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=pcnet.22.762446402@englab.indstate.edu

Since the _Simpsons_ writers have modeled Krusty on the old Borscht Belt
comedians, I'd bet that the line was long part of the shtick of "insult
comics" like Don Rickles -- as a way to defuse any hard feelings after a
nasty jibe (and to set up the insultee for an even nastier jibe).

Jon Stewart, who also borrows heavily (if self-consciously) from Borscht
Belt shtick, has made use of the line, as in this 1998 interview:
http://jon.happyjoyfun.net/tran/1998/98_1003npr.html


--Ben Zimmer