paranoid

[Garson O'Toole]

Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>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.

Apparently there are instances of two less clever variants in the 1950s:

Cite: 1957.Athenian Adventure: with Alarums & Excursions by Clarence
Pendleton Lee, GB Page 91, Knopf, New York. (Google Books snippet; Not
verified on paper; Data may be wrong)

Would you care to hear my verses?" They were entitled, I recall, A
Psychopath's Garden of Verses, but my memory retains only one:
  Roses are red, violets are blue.
  I'm a schizophrenic. What are you?

http://books.google.com/books?id=X8BGAAAAMAAJ&q=violets#search_anchor

Cite: 1958 February 28 (Date visible on page scan), U.S.A.: Volumes
5-6, GB Page unspecified, U.S.A. Pub. Co. (Google Books snippet; Not
verified on paper; Data may be wrong)

Wags at the United Nations recently wrote a jingle to be sent as a
Valentine greeting to the three-man investigating committee in the
Povl Bang-Jensen affair:

  NEU-roses are red;
  Melancholia's blue
  I'm schizophrenic -
  What are YOU?

http://books.google.com/books?id=Mg3ZAAAAMAAJ&q=schizophrenic#search_anchor

JL continued:
> 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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>

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