"on the same page" / "If I tell you, I'll have to kill you."

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM
Sun Oct 29 16:50:01 UTC 2006


Wolf Blitzer wonders if the U.S. and Iraqi governments "are on the same page" in their strategy.  OED seems to lack an entry for this fantastically widespread cliche'.

  "If I tell you, I('ll) have to kill you," is recent humorous catch phrase.  The earliest version I can find at the moment is the tagline from the 1992 film, Sneakers_[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105435/taglines]: "We could tell you what it's about. But then, of course, we'd have to kill you."

  On Jan. 10, 1993, comes this, quoting Episode 11 of the TV series, _Flying Blind_ [http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.tv/msg/f6caf52480d5b4c6] :

  On first meeting Alicia's father.
Neil: What do you do?
Dad : If I tell you, I have to kill you.

  This episode is said to have been broadcast Nov. 22, 1992 [http://www.us.imdb.com/title/tt0103415/epcast ].

  JL


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