"Only When I Laugh!"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Nifty!

In Jones's recollection, it was a crashed fighter pilot.

Lyons's version is too involved to be optimally black-humorous. Since the
hunter has mauled the bear in a fistfight or the equivalent, he really
does, in theory, have something to laugh about.

The other guys, not so much.

JL


On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 11:32 AM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Only When I Laugh!"
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>
> 6 July 1940
> ...The toughest man I've heard of was a gentleman who had the misfortune
> to run into an assegai in the Zulu War.
> "does it 'urt much?" asked his mate?
> "Only when I laugh," he answered.
>
>
> http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/40952033?searchTerm=%22only%20when%20i%20laugh%22&searchLimits=l-textSearchScope=*ignore*|*ignore*|||exactPhrase=only+when+i+laugh|||l-word=*ignore*|*ignore*|||fromyyyy|||notWords|||anyWords|||tomm|||toyyyy|||todd|||frommm|||fromdd|||sortby=dateAsc
>
> http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/
>
> Stephen Goranson
> www.duke.edu/~goranson
>
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of
> Jonathan Lighter [wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM]
> Sent: Thursday, April 11, 2013 7:07 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: [ADS-L] "Only When I Laugh!"
>
> The once famous punchline of several thematically related jokes.  James
> Jones, in _WWII_, asserts its existence during that era.
>
> The earliest ex. I have found:
>
> 1947 Leonard Lyons (synd. column) _Salt Lake Tribune_ (Dec. 26) 10: The
> bear story now making the rounds concerns the four bear hunters who went to
> the Canadian Rockies. They hunted singly all day and returned to the camp
> each night. One night only three of them returned. They went searching for
> the missing bear hunter. After long hours they came upon a bear - bloody,
> mangled and dead. Nearby they found their friend, unconscious. His left arm
> was almost severed, his legs were crushed. His scalp was almost off ,and
> half his scalp had been clawed away. They made a stretcher and started to
> carry him to a medical center. Two men carried him, and the third man
> walking beside him asked: "Does it hurt?" The victim opened his one eye and
> replied: "Only when I laugh!"
>
> JL
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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