Fun with phrases

Tue Nov 15 17:35:09 UTC 2011

"You'll laugh! You'll cry! You'll stand up and cheer!"

A mock-stereotypical movie blurb.

>From NewspArch:

1911 _Chillicothe [Mo.] Constitution_ (Apr. 17) 2: "Across the Great
Divide." ... You'll laugh, you'll cry with them, because where there
is sunlight, like wise [sic] the shadows come, and a play is not a
play [without] thrilling incidents of daring and heroism.

1917 _Muscatine [Ia.] Journal_ (Sept. 4) 4: The Screen's Greatest
Patriotic Message  / LITTLE MARY PICKFORD / The Beloved Girl of the
U.S.A. in her Greatest Photoplay Screen Achievement / "The Little
American" / An Artcraft Production that will strike a responsive chord
in the breast of every relative of Uncle Sam. You'll laugh; you'll
cry; you'll cheer. Here is a photoplay that...gets it.

[They sure don't write 'em like that anymore.]

1919 _Eau Claire Leader_ (Feb. 12) 4: FRANK McINTYRE /  -IN- / "TOO
FAT TO FIGHT"/ ... A patriotic drama. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll
cheer, you'll stand up and root for the fat man who wouldn't stay
down!

1920 _Daily Free Press_ (Carbondale, Ill.) (July 1) 3: FRANK KEENAN /
The Great American Character Actor in / "Smouldering Embers" / You'll
laugh! you'll cry! you'll thrill! you'll sigh!

1922 _Sioux City Sunday Journal_  (Mar. 5) 31: If ever there was a
"smashing" success, a play with a "wallop," a "hit" - an entertainment
that slams Old Boy Blues right between the eyes and sends Kid Gloom
down for the count - here it is! You'll laugh! You'll cry! You'll
yell! You'll sigh!

1931 _Salt Lake Tribune_ (Sept. 11) 10: You'll laugh, you'll cry,
you'll stand up and cheer!/ Vina DelMar's "BAD GIRL."

Numerous other exx. of most of these phrases, and some others that are
similar ("You'' laugh! You'll cry! You'll love it!" is quite popoular)
right into the 21st C.

JL

On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 8:07 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: Fun with phrases
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "Good news, right? Wrong!"
>
> A rhetorical double shuffle I just heard (once again) in a CNN
> commentary. GB has an ex. from 1984/85 (not verified, but looks
> right). They begin to mount in the mid '90s, esp. in the chummily
> written genres of self-help, pop psychology, and business.
>
> There is also the less frequent "Great news, right? Wrong!" from the '90s.
>
> JL
>
> On Sat, Oct 29, 2011 at 5:14 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: Fun with phrases
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> "turn your life around"
>>
>> You know, redirect and improve it dramatically.
>>
>> From NewspArch unless otherwise noted:
>>
>> 1919 _Ludington [Mich.] Daily News_ (Jan. 7) 6: It pains the court to
>> sentence you and I inflict this penalty upon you now with the idea
>> that it will give you time to change your ideas of life and help you
>> to turn your life around so as to live a better man.
>>
>> Giant gap.
>>
>> 1952 Norman Vincent Peale _The Power of Positive Thinking_
>> (Englewood-Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall) xv: So in the pages that
>> follow I shall simply describe what I discovered that helped me,
>> turned my life around. And I am sure that the same wonderful thing can
>> happen to you. I believe it will turn your life around also.
>>
>> 1963  _Newark [O.] Advocate_ (July 18) 34: God saved my soul, turned
>> my life around, made me over anew.
>>
>> 1969 _Heavener [Okla.] Ledger_ (Oct. 2) 5: TURN YOUR LIFE AROUND Enjoy
>> Day-Bright Washdays with a Flameless Electric Clothes Dryer.  [The
>> flaming kind also work. - JL]
>>
>>
>> Peale's use in 1952 must have helped popularize it.
>>
>> JL
>>
>> On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 11:05 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: Fun with phrases
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 10:35 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>>>
>>>> "The predator becomes the prey!"
>>>>
>>>> I just heard it (again) in a promo for a TV special on shark hunting by humans.
>>>>
>>>> 165 GB exx.  beginning in 1961
>>>>
>>>> 70,000 raw ghits.
>>>>
>>>> The earliest GB exx. refer to the animal world.  By 2000, exclusively
>>>> human activity is often referred to.
>>>
>>> Not surprisingly, "the hunter becomes the hunted" has a much longer
>>> history, back to 1875 on GB.
>>>
>>> --bgz
>>>
>>> --
>>> Ben Zimmer
>>> http://benzimmer.com/
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> 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."
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> 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."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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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