[Ads-l] Joke: Cocktail or beer named Love in a Canoe is sure close to water

[Jonathan Lighter]

For non-film goers, the answer to the question is, "Because it's fucking
close to water."

Which is presumably the original uncensored answer.

JL

On Fri, Oct 23, 2015 at 1:06 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Joke: Cocktail or beer named Love in a Canoe is sure close to
>               water
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> JL wrote:
> > Some may recall Monty Python's question, "Why is American
> > beer like making love in a canoe?"
>
> Barry Popik has an excellent entry on this family of jokes with a
> great first citation dated July 11, 1952. A man who is asked to
> concoct a name for a new beer offers the following suggestion: "Canoe
> Beer". He is reticent to explain the rationale for the name, but he
> finally says: "In fact I used to lie down in the canoe and look up at
> the sky. That's pretty close to water and that's what this beer is."
>
> Here is a link to Barry's entry: http://bit.ly/1kyel5n
>
> Gershon Legman has an entry on the joke, and he situates it in 1952.
>
> I found an instance that disparages a cocktail instead of a beer. The
> text is only visible in snippets via Google Books, but the date is
> probably circa 1949:
>
> Year: 1949 (uncertain)
> Periodical: Temple Dental Review
> Volume 19
> Organization: Temple University School of Dentistry
> Quote Page 26 (uncertain)
> (Google Books snippet data; should be verified on paper)
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Have you tried Munchak's latest cocktail special -- "Love in a Canoe"?
> Perdue: "Yes, and it is sure close to water."
> [End excerpt]
>
> To estimate the true date I searched for numbers such as 1949 and
> 1950. The following excerpt suggests that the target volume probably
> does contain issues in 1949 or 1950.
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> The first regular meeting of the Temple University Chapter of the
> Junior American Dental Association for the 1949-1950 school year was
> held October 11, 1949.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
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