"Don=?windows-1252?Q?=92t_?=let the door hit you in the butt on the way out"

[Benjamin Barrett]

I think I would say the standard form I know is "Don't let the door hit you on the way out." I didn't rip that off of anyone. It's something I have heard for as long as I can remember.

Although I understand it means "Scram and don't return," I've never understood the imagery, so I don't use it. It seems to be some sort of sarcasm, implying that even the door wants to get rid of you so bad, that it's prepared to hit the person in the behind.

The expression that Wilson provides doesn't elucidate the imagery at all for me.

Benjamin Barrett
Seattle, WA

On Nov 3, 2012, at 2:42 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, Inc., wrote thus.
>
> Y'all, the expression is,
>
> "Don't let the screendoor hit you
> Where the good Lord split you"
>
> See there? It make since! <har! har!>  Iss the punchline of a whole
> lot of traditional jokes referencing, e.g. a preacher downing
> congregants walking out on his sermon, If y'all are going to rip us
> off, *please* get it right. It ain't really no need for to half-ass
> black oral tradition into incoherence!

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