[Ads-l] "Only When I Laugh!"

[Jonathan Lighter]

This may be the earliest printed ex. in the U.S.:

1943 _Midland Journal_ (Rising Sun, Md.) [6]:

                                             NO EXAGGERATION
The old man loved to spin a yarn around the general store stove.

"Well, sir," he was saying this time, "so there I was - pinned to the tree
by fifteen Injun arrers. And there I stayed for nigh a week."

"Uh-huh," put in a young fellow, winking at the others, but didn't the
arrows hurt you?"

The old man fixed him with a baleful eye. "Nope, son, only when I laughed."

JL



On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 2:43 PM Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "Only When I Laugh!"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 4/12/2013 11:32 AM, Stephen Goranson wrote:
> >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.
>
> So can we antedate it into the 19th century?  And which Zulu War?
>
> Joel
>
>
> >
> 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/40952033?searchTerm=%22only%20when%20i%20laugh%22&searchLimits=l-textSearchScope=*ignore*%7C*ignore*%7C%7C%7CexactPhrase=only+when+i+laugh%7C%7C%7Cl-word=*ignore*%7C*ignore*%7C%7C%7Cfromyyyy%7C%7C%7CnotWords%7C%7C%7CanyWords%7C%7C%7Ctomm%7C%7C%7Ctoyyyy%7C%7C%7Ctodd%7C%7C%7Cfrommm%7C%7C%7Cfromdd%7C%7C%7Csortby=dateAsc>
> >
> >http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/
> >
> >Stephen Goranson
> >www.duke.edu/~goranson
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org