[Ads-l] the Good News Bad News joke routine

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Sun Jul 7 19:23:02 UTC 2019


Here is an anecdote published in 1852 with contrasting "good news" and
"bad news". The anecdote is intended to be at least mildly humorous; I
think. The template is:

Bad news: a problem has occurred
Good news: the capability to solve the problem has opportunely become available

Year: 1852
Book: Literary Anecdotes and Contemporary Reminiscences of Professor
Porson and Others
Author: E. H. Baker (Edmund Henry Barker)
Volume 1
Publisher: J.R. Smith, London
Section: CXIV: Anecdotes of the Rev. T. Barker
Section Date: 1837
Quote Page 98 and 99

[Begin excerpt – check for OCR errors]
He had a female servant, who married a man that was shortly after the
marriage chosen to serve in the militia. His intimacy with Mr Bethel,
who was the Colonel of the Regiment, induced him to try to get the
husband excused from serving; he accordingly proceeded to Mr Bethell's
seat at Rise, and, as the Colonel was at Scarborough, proceeded
thither, and succeeded in effecting his object. As he was entering the
Rectory, on his return to Cherry-Burton, his man-servant met him at
the gate, and said with a woeful countenance, 'Lord, Sir, I have some
bad news to tell you, the haystack has fallen down.' 'Never heed,'
replied MR BARKER, 'I have some good news to prop it up,—I have got
the man off.'
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Sun, Jul 7, 2019 at 2:56 PM Arnold M. Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu> wrote:
>
> > On Jul 7, 2019, at 9:38 AM, Margaret Winters <mewinters at WAYNE.EDU> wrote:
> >
> > To follow up with a headline from yesterday's New York Times, The Good News: The Job Market Is Solid. The Bad News: The Job Market Is Solid.
>
> excellent.
>
> the url you provided, on the other hand, is a thing of evil.
>
> arnold
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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



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