[Ads-l] "What do you mean we, paleface / white man / kemo sabe?"

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Bill Mullins wrote:
>
> I'm told by a correspondent on another list that this is possibly/likely a reframing
> of another joke, in which a jockey brags about his many wins, and his horse
> says "What do you mean, you?"; and that Arthur Godfrey used the joke on his
> radio show circa 1939.

The jockey may have hesitated to share credit with his horse, but in
the excerpt below from 1934 an apple salesman was eager to share
credit with his horse.

Date: August 21, 1934
Newspaper: Kansas City Times
Newspaper Location: Kansas City, Missouri
Article: Letter to the Motion Picture Editor from Annie Kurtz
Quote Page 15(D), Column ??
Database: GenealogyBank

[Begin excerpt]
By the way, the above paragraph marks the first time I have said "we"
since I overheard a neighbor chiding a huckster for saying, “We can't
sell those apples for less." "What do you mean by 'We?'" she asked.
“Me and the horse, lady," was the answer.
ANNIE KURTZ.
[End excerpt]

> > > Could Bridwell have written the joke for the LA Times? I think he was
>
> > > still living in Oklahoma at the time, and I have no sense of what he
>
> > > was writing then, and where he was submitting it.
>
> >
>
> > He didn't write it for this particular quote -- it was from a column called "Cityside" written by Gene Sherman.  The column was widely
>
> > syndicated, and it ran in Bridwell's home newspaper, the _Daily Oklahoman_ on 12/12/1956.
>
> >
>
> > It seems far more likely that Bridwell read the joke and rewrote it for Mad.
>
> > We know that Bridwell read this particular Oklahoma paper because he had assorted Letters to the Editor published in it on 8/8/1954,
>
> > 5/15/1955, and 6/30/1964.
>
> >
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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