"rerun of a bad movie"

[Garson O'Toole]

Jonathan Lighter wrote
> YBQ credits George W. Bush with having compared the alleged machinations
> of Saddam Hussein as "a rerun of a bad movie."
>
> He may have been the first to apply the words to Iraq, but GB turns up more
> than fifty earlier exx. of the metaphor.
>
> Earliest and most notable is from NYT journalist Harrison Salisbury's _Orbit
> of China_ (N.Y.: Harper, 1967), p. 177: "[T]he clamping down on sources of
> conflicting opinion; the closing of windows through which a clear view of
> the real world could be obtained, what was happening in China seemed like
> the rerun of a bad movie."

Thanks for pointing out this earlier cite JL. Here is an instance of a
comparable simile in 1960. The reference is to a horror film instead
of a bad movie.

Cite: 1960 November 22, Miami News, "Does Sen. Long Speak For The Real
South?" by Ralph McGill, Page 10A, Miami, Florida. (Google News
archive)

This face, and this voice, are like those we heard at Little Rock,
Clinton, Nashville and Norfolk before sanity was permitted to return
and reason allowed to replace folly. How often must we see and hear
them. Is it necessary to have them over and over again, like the
re-run of a horror film?

In 1940 a simile invoked a re-run of a phonograph record; however, the
song was not described as bad.

Cite: 1940 January 24, Prescott Evening Courier, Sea Incidents Said
Natural by DeWitt MacKenzie, Associated Press, Page 1, Column 3,
Prescott, Arizona. (Google News archive)

All this sounds mighty like the re-run of a World war phonograph
record. Prior to our entrance into the conflict. In April, 1917, we
were constantly encountering. what we regarded as rank violations of
our rights by both England and Germany.


The existence of these matches suggests there probably are other
closer matches based on comparisons with reruns of films, movies,
television shows, or records that are bad, terrible, horrible,
etcetera.

I think it is useful to know about the earlier uses of this type of
metaphor and simile. Yet, perhaps the Bush quote is particularly
salient because it is connected with the largest decision of his
Presidency.

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