paranoid

[Garson O'Toole]

Here are some cites from a shallow search for the fractured verse with
the word schizophrenic. I only pushed it back to 1982 and not Jon's
date of 1967: A version of this comically-altered verse appeared in a
play that was reviewed in New York Magazine in 1982.

Cite: 1982 November 8, New York Magazine, Theater: Even the Kitchen
Sink by John Simon, Page 59, New York Media, LLC, New York. (Google
Books full view)

ANYBODY WHO HAS EVER LOVED ONE OF today's characteristic highly gifted
and deeply disturbed young women should feel right at home with
Standing on My Knees, John Olive's play about Catherine, a
schizophrenic poet living in—yes—today's equivalent of a garret. ...

We want to believe in Catherine's art, yet the best example we get is
a defiant non-jingle the girl hurls at her therapist: "Roses are red,/
Violets are blue;/ I'm a schizophrenic/ And so am I."

http://books.google.com/books?id=AOgCAAAAMBAJ&q=%22are+red%22#v=snippet&


The quotation was also included "1,911 Best Things Anybody Ever Said"
(1988) by Robert Byrne. It seems to appear in one of his earlier
books, but access is blocked in GB. Byrne credits Frank Crow.

Roses are red,violets are blue,
I'm a schizophrenic, and so am I.
                       Frank Crow

The Wikipedia entry for Oscar Levant (accessed May 16, 2011) includes
this saying and credits Levant.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Levant

The Penguin dictionary of modern humorous quotations (1987) by Fred
Metcalf may contain it. But access is blocked in GB, and I do not know
who is credited.


On Mon, May 16, 2011 at 12:35 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: paranoid
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>>I thought this one canonically went "...I'm schizophrenic, and so am
> I."
>
> That is precisely the wording I heard in the spring or summer of 1967 or
> '68. I remember it distinctly because at the time I thought it was about the
> funniest thing I'd ever heard.
>
> It was displaced (ca1982?) by the T-shirt (with the pointing finger) that
> said, "I'm with Stupid."
>
> JL
>
> On Mon, May 16, 2011 at 11:47 AM, Ben Zimmer
> <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu>wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: paranoid
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> On Mon, May 16, 2011 at 11:35 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>> >
>> > At 11:18 AM -0400 5/16/11, Garson O'Toole wrote:
>> >>Cite: 1967 July 21, Christianity Today, Dear Slogan-Lovers by Etychus
>> >>III, Page 20, Christianity Today International, Carol Stream,
>> >>Illinois. (Verified on microfilm)
>> >>
>> >>When it comes to expressing their views on life, they say by button:
>> >>"I Want to Be What I Was When I Wanted To Be What I Now Am,"
>> >
>> > I remember spotting a different version of this one in 1972 in the
>> > form of a pithy [sorry] men's room graffito:
>> >
>> > I WISH I COULD BE WHAT I WAS
>> > WHEN I WISHED I COULD BE WHAT I AM
>> >
>> >>  or
>> >>"Neuroses Are Red, Melancholy Is Blue, I'm Schizophrenic, What Are
>> >>You?,"
>>
>> I thought this one canonically went "...I'm schizophrenic, and so am
>> I." Or perhaps that was a later variation, changing the expected rhyme
>> as a rug-pulling technique (a la "Shaving Cream").
>>
>> >> or "End Poverty, Give Me $10." They further advise: "Reality Is
>> >>Good Sometimes for Kicks But Don't Let It Get You Down," and "Even
>> >>Paranoids Have Real Enemies."
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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