"Is this a great country, or what?"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

Yakov Smirnoff's line was "America: What a country!"

He even had a short-lived TV series called "What A Country."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090543/


On 3/16/06, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Is this a great country, or what?"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Russian emigre' comic Yakov Smirnoff was using the tagline, "What a great country !" about twenty years ago. But I'm not sure about the specific form you're looking for.
>
>   JL
>
> Geoffrey Nunberg <nunberg at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU> wrote:
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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Geoffrey Nunberg
> Subject: "Is this a great country, or what?"
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>
> Does anybody have an idea what the source of this is?
>
> Geoff Nunberg
>
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