[Ads-l] Everyone's A Comedian

[paul johnson]

Durante "Everybody want's to get in the act!


On 1/15/2018 8:23 AM, Mark Davies wrote:
>>> It feels like the beginning of a meme, but I cannot think of other nouns in the slot.
> https://corpus.byu.edu/now/?c=now&q=62622654
>
> https://corpus.byu.edu/glowbe/?c=glowbe&q=62622598
>
> MD
>
> ============================================
> Mark Davies
> Professor of Linguistics / Brigham Young University
> http://davies-linguistics.byu.edu/
>
> ** Corpus design and use // Linguistic databases **
> ** Historical linguistics // Language variation **
> ** English, Spanish, and Portuguese **
> ============================================
>
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Margaret Winters <mewinters at WAYNE.EDU>
> Sent: Monday, January 15, 2018 6:49 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Everyone's A Comedian
>
> Thank you!  Is it related, do you think, to 'everyone's a critic'?  It feels like the beginning of a meme, but I cannot think of other nouns in the slot.
>
>
> best,
>
> Margaret
>
>
> ----------------------------
> MARGARET E WINTERS
> Former Provost
> Professor Emerita - French and Linguistics
> Wayne State University
> Detroit, MI  48202
>
> mewinters at wayne.edu
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Sent: Sunday, January 14, 2018 10:41 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Everyone's A Comedian
>
> Margaret Winters wrote:
>> With apologies to the list if this has been (much) discussed, a friend
>> asked if I knew who said it first -- I don't.
> In 1903 the phrase "Everybody is a comedian" appeared in "The
> Pittsburgh Post". The entertainer and painter Charley Abbe explained
> his use of the phrase below.
>
> Date: October 25, 1903
> Newspaper: The Pittsburgh Post
> Newspaper Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
> Section: Three
> Article: The Stage and Its People
> Quote Page 2, Column 6
> Database: Newspapers.com
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> While putting some finishing touches to the work yesterday he said:
> "Did it ever occur to you that every man is a humorist? I am not
> referring to the play at Carnegie hall recently, but to every man in
> the daily walk of life. One business man goes in to see another, and
> the first thing he says is have you heard the latest? And then they
> tell jokes before settling down to business. We are a nation of
> story-tellers—not in relation to the truth, though. Everybody is a
> comedian, and everybody is a critic—that is, on comedians.
> [End excerpt]
>
> The citation above is interesting, but I haven't searched enough to
> make any strong claims about it.
> The phrase "Everybody's A Comedian Now" appeared in the subtitle of
> the1935 newspaper article below.
>
> Date: December 03, 1935
> Newspaper: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
> Newspaper Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
> Article: New Craze Hits Air Colony: Everybody's A Comedian Now:
> Reverse a Maxim, Bring It Up to Date - And You're a Member
> Author: Darrell V. Martin (Post-Gazette Radio Editor)
> Quote Page 20, Column 5
> Database: Newspapers.com
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> MOTHER GOOSE UP to date, a la Fred Allen: "Don't kill the goose that
> might win a prize on my amateur hour."
>
> This golden egg is followed by Nick Dawson, who says: "A bird in the
> hand is better than one from the studio audience."
>
> While Jane Froman interrupts to say, "People who live in glass houses
> are called control men" . . .
>
> Jack Benny: "An ounce of pretention is worth a pound on the back, for
> a radio comic.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
>
>
>
>
>> ----------------------------
>> MARGARET E WINTERS
>> Former Provost
>> Professor Emerita - French and Linguistics
>> Wayne State University
>> Detroit, MI  48202
>>
>> mewinters at wayne.edu
>>
>>
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