[Ads-l] Quote: Politicians, like diapers, should be changed regularly (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Laurence Horn]

> On May 14, 2019, at 8:44 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> (Material has been snipped)
> 
> Bill Mullins gave a citation:
>>>> _Columbus [OH] Dispatch_ 23 Oct 1943 p 6 col 2
>>>> 
>>>> "[John] Wayne plays a cowboy whose theory is that women, like socks, should be changed often.”
> 
> Laurence Horn wrote:
>> “…and for the same reason”?
>> 
>> That’s what makes the politicians version more memorable—besides losing the whiff of misogyny.
> 
> I have not seen "for the same reason" appended to the women/socks
> version of the joke. (I think that is your point).
> 
> The phrase "for very much the same reason" is appended to the
> politicians/socks version of the joke in 1952. ("Office holders, like
> socks, should be changed often and for very much the same reason.")
> 
> The phrase "for the same reason" is appended to the diapers/socks
> version of the joke in 1966.
> 
> The laughter response can be triggered when the brain is tricked into
> unexpectedly entertaining a taboo thought according to one theory of
> humor. The phrase "for the same reason" in the politicians/diapers
> quip causes the listener to confront the excrement taboo juxtaposed
> with politicians.
> 
> The phrase "very much the same reason" in the politicians/socks joke
> leads to an olfactory taboo which is considerably weaker. That might
> make it less memorable.
> 
> Garson

Exactly, plus in the socks version the transfer virtually has to detour through “stink” as a lexical item, while in the diapers version…well, the stink transfers quite well without lexical mediation, and it’s not solely olfactory.  YMMV.

LH

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