[Ads-l] fu lion - 1913, foo dog - 1915, foo lion - 1918

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The Wikipedia entry for "Feghoot" states: "It can be considered a type
of shaggy dog story." This statement is completely authoritative and
decides this question definitively. The only way to counter this
nearly unassailable position is by visiting the Wikipedia website and
editing the phrase to insert "never" before the word "be".

Stephen Goranson initiated a thread on the "shaggy dog" topic. Here is
a link to post about a 1906 article with the punchline "though shaggy
some, was not so shaggy!"

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2015-August/138521.html

Garson


On Wed, Feb 17, 2016 at 11:11 AM, James A. Landau
<JJJRLandau at netscape.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "James A. Landau" <JJJRLandau at NETSCAPE.COM>
> Subject:      Re: fu lion - 1913, foo dog - 1915, foo lion - 1918
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Tue, 16 Feb 2016 16:24:30 Zone - 0500 Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU wrote
>
> <begin quote>
> Any relation to the protagonist of the shaggy dog story (or stories, in
> different incarnations) whose eventual punch line is, of course, "If the
> foo shits, wear it"?
> <end quote>
>
> No, no, no, that is not a "shaggy dog story".
>
> Webster's 11th Collegiate page 1142 "...a drawn-out circumstantial story concerning an inconsequential happening tat impress the teller as humorous or interesting but the hearer as boring and pointless; also: of, relating to, or being a similar humorous story whose humor lies in the pointlessness or irrelevance of the punch line"
>
> In a pun such as a Feghoot the intent of the buildup is to make the (often mangled) word or phrase in the punch line relevant.
>
> According to my father, the original shaggy dog story was that a man had lost his dog and placed an advertisement for the missing pet, specifying that the animal was a "shaggy dog".  Someone took pity on the man and brought him a replacement dog, intending to pass it off as the original missing dog.  The man who placed the ad took one look at the dog and said, "Not so damn shaggy!"
>
> I did not think it was a very funny story when I first heard it, or now.
>
> - Jim Landau
>
> PS: re the subject line: foo fighter?
>
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