"Thanks! I Needed That!"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Cyberspace tells me that the ad I remember was for Mennen's Skin Bracer.

I actually can recall the gopher use of the phrase. My guess is that it was
based on the Wayne-Stack scene and that Karl has nailed the origin. Do we
have the date of the cartoon?

I've never seen _The High and the Mighty_, but  it can't beat _Airplane_.

JL

On Sat, Aug 21, 2010 at 9:27 PM, Karl Hagen <karl at polysyllabic.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Karl Hagen <karl at POLYSYLLABIC.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Thanks! I Needed That!"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Check that. The High and the Mighty is from 1954.
>
> On 8/21/2010 4:09 PM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred"<fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: "Thanks! I Needed That!"
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > I haven't researched this, and don't recall seeing anyone else discuss
> it.  The earliest I see on ProQuest is Los Angeles Times, Sep 25, 1969,
> where a slap is not specifically mentioned but the context is analogous.
>  Like Jon, I imagine this is older than 1969.
> >
> > Fred
> >
> >
> >
> > ________________________________________
> > From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
> Jonathan Lighter [wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM]
> > Sent: Saturday, August 21, 2010 6:27 PM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: "Thanks! I Needed That!"
> >
> > Anybody know the source of this allusion?  Allegedly it appeared in an
> old
> > movie, the context being that fear is turning one character into a jelly
> > blob. The hero slaps him once or twice and he's back to normal.
> >
> > I remember a TV commercial for God knows what (Aquavelva?) that used the
> > phrase and the slap some forty years ago, but I'll swear I knew the
> allusion
> > before that.
> >
> > Google Books was of no help.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
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>
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--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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