[Ads-l] The peasants are revolting (Comic: The Wizard of Id)

Sun Jun 4 18:31:04 UTC 2017

Back in March, I initiated a thread about a line in the comic "The
Wizard of Id". Now there is an article on the Quote Investigator
website on the topic:

“The Peasants Are Revolting” “You Can Say That Again”
http://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/06/03/revolt/

[Begin acknowledgment]
Great thanks to Fred Shapiro whose inquiry about famous quotations in
comic strips led QI to formulate this question and perform this
exploration. Special thanks to the mailing list discussants: Randy
Alexander who found the “The Marvelous Land of Oz” citation, Jeff
Prucher who located the Pogo citation, and James A. Landau who found
an instance of the 1955 joke. Thanks to Barry Popik for his research
on this topic. Also, thanks to Arnold Zwicky for his linguistic
analysis and presentation of several examples.
[End acknowledgment]

Garson

On Thu, Mar 23, 2017 at 11:03 PM, Randy Alexander
<strangeguitars at gmail.com> wrote:
> Not a comic, but Baum's 1904 _The Marvelous Land of Oz_ has this:
>
> "Still, you must surrender!" exclaimed the General, fiercely. "We are
> revolting!"
> "You don't look it," said the Guardian, gazing from one to another,
> admiringly.
>
> The General is General Jinjur, girl leader of the all-girl Army of Revolt.
> They are about to take over the city of Oz.
>
> Randy
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 23, 2017 at 6:09 AM, Jeff Prucher <
> 000000b93183dc86-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Jeff Prucher <jprucher at YAHOO.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: The peasants are revolting (Comic: The Wizard of Id)
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> -------------------
>>
>> Walt Kelly used a version of this in Pogo, collected in "The Pogo Sunday
>> Punch" (published in 1957, but my reprint copy omits any original copyright
>> info, so I don't know the range of dates collected therein).
>>
>> "You can't treat us peasants like peasants---just for that we'll overthrow
>> the gummermint! We're revolting!"
>> "You don't have to tell me---your king loves you anyway"
>>
>>
>> There is a scan at the Internet Archive here:
>> https://ia601908.us.archive.org/4/items/WaltKellysPogo/
>> War%20nor%20Peace%201957.pdf
>> (page 13 of the pdf, first panel).
>>
>> Jeff Prucher
>>
>> On Tuesday, March 21, 2017 2:45 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
>> adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> Excellent! Thanks for searching and locating that 1959 snippet with a
>> joke based on the double-meaning of "revolting", Jim. My post included
>> a January 30, 1958 citation. But the joke you found was distinct, and
>> I found an instance in 1955.
>>
>> Date: July 8, 1955
>> Newspaper: The Times Record
>> Newspaper Location: Troy, New York
>> Article: The Table Gossip
>> Quote Page 8, Column 2
>> Database: Newspapers.com
>>
>> [Begin excerpt]
>> A South American was describing his country to an American woman
>> "Our most popular sport is bullfighting," he told her.
>> "Isn't it revolting?" she asked.
>> "No," smiled the man. "That's the second most popular sport."
>> [End excerpt]
>>
>> Garson
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 21, 2017 at 4:18 AM, James A. Landau
>> <JJJRLandau at netscape.com> wrote:
>> > On Mon, 20 Mar 2017 12:00:02 Zone - 0400 ADSGarson O'Toole <
>> adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>> > Subject: The peasants are revolting (Comic: The Wizard of Id)
>> >
>> >>The double-meaning of the phrase "The peasants are revolting" was
>> >>featured in the comic strip "The Wizard of Id".
>> >
>> > Google Books gives a snippet view which is dated 1959:
>> >
>> > https://books.google.com/books?id=gNjVAAAAMAAJ&q=%
>> 22isn't+that+revolting%22&dq=%22isn't+that+revolting%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=
>> 0ahUKEwi17f3WkufSAhXGMyYKHXBBDq0Q6AEIMTAF
>> >
>> > The Irish Digest  volume 67  page 158
>> > <quote>
>> > Said a Mexican describing his country to an Irishman:
>> > "Our most popular sport is bull-fighting."
>> > "Isn't that revolting?" he asked.
>> > "No," smiled the Mexican---"that the second most <end of snippet>
>> > </quote>
>> >
>> > Also from the Barnaby strip:  "Little Men's Marching and Chowder
>> Society" (or was it "Chowder and Marching Society"?)
>> >
>> > - Jim Landau
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > _____________________________________________________________
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>> >
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>>
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Randy Alexander
> YouTube
> <https://www.youtube.com/user/strangeguitars?ab_channel=RandyAlexander>
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>
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