"You can't make this stuff up."

[Jonathan Lighter]

Come to think of it, Dave Barry usually says, "I am not making this up."

GB searches for "You can't make this up" and "You could never make this up"
don't go as far back as Doug's 1979. "

Most of us were grownups by then.

"I am not making this up" exx. at GB begin in 1904, with a good
interruptive and rhetorical one in 1917:

"It was unpretentious and uncurtained, but it had a real bed, a chair, and
actually —*I am not making this up* — it had a small mirror hanging on the
wall."

But it wasn't common for a long time.

JL

On Sat, Nov 3, 2012 at 1:51 PM, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at nb.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "You can't make this stuff up."
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On 11/3/2012 12:27 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      "You can't make this stuff up."
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > I associate this observation with Dave Barry, and GB alleges he used it
> in
> > a 1987 book but won't prove it by letting me see even a snippet.
> >
> > NewspArch reveals a genuine 1991 exx. set down by a person who is not
> Dave
> > Barry. ....
> --
>
>  From NewspArch:
>
> ----------
>
> _Lethbridge [Alberta] Herald_, 10 Oct. 1979: p. 20:
>
> <<[Title] Peering into the future is good business / .... / By PETER
> SCOTT / Herald Staff Writer / .... [story about a local "psychic fair"]
> .... You can't make this stuff up.>>
>
> ----------
>
>  From Genealogybank:
>
> ----------
>
> _Marietta [GA] Journal_, 11 Jan. 1986: p. 7C:
>
> <<[Title] Pat stole the day's glory from the Pats / by Bill Parrillo /
> Providence Journal / .... [football commentary including anecdote about
> altercation between players] .... / You can't make this stuff up,
> friends. Terrific theater. / .... [more story] ....>>
>
> ----------
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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