"You cannot be serious" (McEnroe, 1996)

Tue Jan 18 05:53:34 UTC 2005

On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 22:28:18 -0500, Benjamin Zimmer
<bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:

>Christian Science Monitor, March 30, 1984, p. 34 (Nexis)
>[I]n spite of all the heroics that Connors, Borg, and Billie Jean King
>have introduced into the game - not to mention You Cannot Be Serious
>McEnroe - there remains an Edwardian summer garden-party flavor to tennis.

Just to pin this down further, McEnroe's "you cannot be serious" outburst
occurred in 1981, in the first round at Wimbledon against Tom Gullikson.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,343-316639,00.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wimbledon2000/778283.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/uk/2000/newsmakers/2072245.stm

--Ben Zimmer