[Ads-l] proleptic "toast"

[Ben Zimmer]

I mentioned the movie's release date in my original post. It's notable that
the two earliest non-"Ghostbusters" examples found so far -- Bill's from
the SF Chronicle and mine from the Kansas State Collegian -- both appeared
in Sept. '84 when the movie was very much on people's minds. (It was still
the top film at the box office that month.)

I checked out the Chronicle cite Bill found, and it describes a Silicon
Valley rally for Reagan's reelection campaign. In addition to the
similarity of "Fritz [Mondale] is toast" to the movie line ("This bitch is
toast"), the article notes that the rally was attended by "hundreds of
teenagers wearing 'Fritzbusters' T-shirts depicting Mondale as a chubby
ghost."

Link to clipping on Genealogybank: https://bit.ly/fritzistoast

--bgz


On Wed, Jun 21, 2023 at 3:38 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Ghostbusters, it says at Wiki, was released in the U.S. June 8, 1984.
>
> JL
>
> On Wed, Jun 21, 2023 at 3:07 PM Bill Mullins <amcombill at hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > 1984  San Francisco Chronicle 4 Sep 8/1
> >
> > His companion, Bill Baron, who was perched on a friend's shoulders, said
> > Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale does not stand a chance.
> > "Fritz is toast," he said.
> >
> >
> >
> > 1986 San Francisco Chronicle 24 Apr. 57/3
> >
> > He says that all of North Africa will be "toast" within half an hour.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > 1986 Albuquerque Tribune 24 May 12/3
> >
> > "If this had happened 10 or 15 years ago, I wouldn't be here talking to
> > you," Firestone said.  "I'd be toast."
> >
> >
> >
> > 1986 Spacecamp (film) premiere 6 Jun
> >
> >  You're gonna be toast.
> >
> >
> >
> > 1986 San Francisco Chronicle 4 July 59/3
> >
> > I'm only here because I have to be; come the revolution you people will
> be
> > toast.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Maybe a little later than you are searching for, but this one has stood
> > out in my memory since I saw the film on release.
> >
> > 1988 Die Hard (film) premiere 12 Jul
> >
> > Theo: "The quarterback is toast!"
> >
> > https://youtu.be/FRyQFnAj3B8?t=49
> >
> > Note:  I was unable to find the line in any online scripts or subtitle
> > files, so I suspect that (like Bill Murray's Ghostbuster lines) it was
> > ad-libbed.
> >
> >
>

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