no soap, radio

[Garson O'Toole]

In 2011 the tagline/punchline "No soap, radio" was mentioned on the
list. Fred asked about it years earlier in 2003. Wikipedia has an
entry about the phrase which is employed as the pseudo-punchline of an
anti-joke. Barry Popik has an entry for the phrase with a citation in
the New York Times on June 18, 1971.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_soap_radio
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/no_soap_radio/

The phrase "no soap, radio" was used as the title of a subsection of
an absurdist play in Evergreen Review in 1964. The text in the
subsection burlesqued an old-fashioned radio serial adventure program
I think.

This is not an modern instance of the non-joke punchline, but it may
be an important precursor.

Cite: 1964 August-September, Evergreen Review, Volume 8, Number 33,
The Automation of Caprice by Michael O'Donoghue, Subsection title: "no
soap, radio", Start Page 38, Quote Page 41, Column 1, Evergreen
Review, Inc., New York. (Verified on paper)


[Begin excerpt]

                 the camera i
    episode one - a play within a play
----------------------------------------------------
               no soap, radio

announcer: when we last left ramona, you will re-
member that she had succeeded in eluding the
myopic leader of the icelandic underground; but
in doing so, had missed one of the pyrenees
mountains' many treacherous turns, and now lies,
head and arms pinned, beneath the massive,
mauve daimler-benz. two hours pass. five hours.
with life slowly dripping from her bruised and
torn body, still she lies unnoticed. then, in the
distance, she hears barking. ...

[End excerpt]

Garson

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org