[Ads-l] "I Scream" - "Ice Cream" (1819)

[Peter Reitan]

The song “I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream,” was published in 1927.  The expression, in identical form, is more than two decades older.  And the pun has been used in Ice Cream advertising since at least the 1840s.

The earliest example of the pun I’ve seen is a joke about rabies from 1819.

[Begin Excerpt]Language Tortured. – Why is the inscription generally found in confectinoers’ shops of “Water Ices and Ice Creams,” like a person attacked with hydrophobia – because when “water I sees, I screams.”[End Excerpt]
The Sporting Magazine, Volume 5, N. S., Number 27, December 1819, page 134.

The pun was also used in a grammar joke.

[Begin Excerpt] Grammar. – “James, decline ice cream.”  “Yes sir; I scream, thou screamest, he screams.” [End Excerpt]
Monmouth Inquirer (Freehold, New Jersey), June 3, 1847, page 1.

I have a post with more on my blog.
https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2022/04/rabies-pain-and-confusion-why-i-scream.html

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