[Ads-l] Joke for Philosophers and Linguists: "Please Give Me a Cup of Coffee Without Cream" "You'll Have To Take It Without Milk. We Haven't Any Cream"

[Jeff Prucher]

 It looks like the "Torchy" movie in question is one of a series of shorts that were based on a series of books by Sewell Ford (according to this promo poster on imdb: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0467329/mediaviewer/rm318772993/?ref_=tt_ov_i). Project Gutenberg has a number of these books, but searching for "milk" and "cream" didn't bring up anything resembling this joke.
Also according to imdb.com, the "Torchy" short that was closest to the newspaper citation is "Torchy Mixes In", released on 1/23/1921; I have no idea how accurate imdb is with dates this old, however. I was not able to find any Torchy shorts on YouTube or archive.org; I don't know what other resources might exist for this kind of thing.
Jeff Prucher    On Saturday, June 1, 2024 at 08:39:11 PM PDT, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:  
 
 List member LH inquired (off list) about the joke in the subject line.
It has been linked to various people including Jean-Paul Sartre,
George Carlin, Slavoj Žižek, O. O. McIntyre, Billy Wilder, and Leo
Rosten.

Here is a link to the new Quote Investigator article:
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2024/06/01/coffee-cream/

The earliest match I located appeared in a 1921 article which
indicated that the joke occurred in a movie.

Date: January 30, 1921
Newspaper: The Mansfield News
Newspaper Location: Mansfield, Ohio
Article: Might Be Different In Real Restaurant
Section: Social, Quote Page 7, Column 1
Database: Newspapers.com

[Begin excerpt]
"Give me a cup of coffee without cream."
"You'll have to take it without milk. We haven't any cream."
That from Johnny Hines' new Torchy comedy.
[End excerpt]

U.S. actor Johnny Hines was a star of the silent film era. He appeared
in several films in 1920 and 1921. I don’t know which of his films (if
any) contained this joke. Thus, the creator of the gag remains
anonymous, at this time.

Garson

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