[Ads-l] Joke: Complainant says one should never end a sentence with a preposition. Rejoinder includes a terminal work like jerk or jackass

[Baker, John]

The joke was commonly heard (always, in my experience, as an anti-Harvard joke) in the early 1980s.  I specifically remember hearing it in the summer of 1982, in the course of a summer job; anti-Harvard jokes were being told, and I could anticipate that that one would be next, as it was.  I was a student at Harvard Law School at the time, so this was a somewhat aggressive series of jokes (though I believe I was not the only one there with a Harvard connection).

If I recall correctly, it had been printed in a popular magazine, probably Playboy but possibly Esquire, at some point in the previous two or three years.  In the versions I heard, the punch line was always “Where’s (or “Where is”) the library at, asshole?”


John Baker



From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Barretts Mail
Sent: Thursday 7 March 2019 2:19 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Joke: Complainant says one should never end a sentence with a preposition. Rejoinder includes a terminal work like jerk or jackass

IIRC, my junior high school math teacher told me that joke around that time. It was someone visiting Harvard who wanted to know where to park at. When admonished for ending the sentence with a preposition, the visitor repeated the question with “asshole” at the end.

It seems odd that my junior high school teacher would say that to a student, but he was the sort who would have (sotto voce). Then again, memory is fallible and perhaps he used “jackass” or something similar at the end.

I recall a few years earlier seeing print-outs of proverbs that had been rewritten with fancy words (something like “Good fortune of the neophyte”) and the fuzzy wuzzy witch story (the witch gets a hug at the end). They must have been mimeographed and passed around, probably by snail mail. It’s possible that the preposition joke got passed around that way.

FWIW
Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA

> On 7 Mar 2019, at 10:58, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
> I was just asked to explore a joke about prepositions, but I have not
> made much progress. Here are the two earliest instances I've seen.
> Maybe a list member can find earlier evidence.
>
> February 24, 1980, The Montgomery Advertiser
> [Begin excerpt]
> "Did you hear the one about the Auburn co-ed who had a blind date with
> an Alabama student? To make conversation, she asked her date, "Where
> do you go to school at?" He said he went to Alabama and that he was
> taught there never to end a sentence with a preposition. Replied the
> Auburn co-ed: "Okay, I'll change my question . . . where do you go to
> school at, meathead?"
> [End excerpt]
>
> May 21, 1982, Atlanta Constitution
> [Begin excerpt]
> So, at Harvard Square, he finds a fellow with a pipe dressed in a
> tweed jacket, rep tie and Gucci loafers and yells, "Hey, can you tell
> me where the Charles River's at?" The Harvard preppie replies, "My
> good man, we at Harvard never end a sentence with a preposition."
> Auburn man answers, "All right. Do you know where the Charles River's
> at, jerk?"
> [End excerpt]
>
> The terminal words I've seen include: jerk, jackass, meathead,
> asshole, bitch, and witch.
>
> Garson
>
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