[Ads-l] "Talk to the Hand" Query

[Bill Mullins]

>   The phrase "talk to the hand" is widely attributed to Martin Lawrence's 1990s sit-com, but I am having trouble
>   pinpointing episodes where it was used.  Can anyone suggest relevant episodes or methods of finding them ?
>
>   Fred Shapiro

"Talk to the hand, cause the face ain't listening."

I never watched "Martin", but did start hearing this in the 1990s.  Maybe from Fran Drescher on "The Nanny".

One way of searching dialogue is through shooting scripts.  You can often google [show title] " script" and find one, but be aware that search results may not be 100% accurate — they may be early drafts, or the filmed result may be different from on-set changes made after a script is finalized.  I've had greater success finding movie scripts than TV scripts.

Another is through subtitle files associated with shows.  The closed caption dialogue in television and movies is captured in .SRT files (there are other formats/extensions used, but this is the most common.)  Google [show title] "srt" and you can often find the subtitle file(s) for the show in question.

Unfortunately, I don't see many SRT files online for "Martin".  If you can get the DVDs of the show, there are tools that will rip these files from them, but I'd imagine you are looking for something cheaper and online and immediately available.

The earliest textual cite I can find:

1995 Crusader [Susquehanna Univ. student newspaper] 10 Feb 4/4

If you weren't there, too bad!  Just talk to the hand!!

https://archive.org/details/Crusader-Vol_36_Nos_1-21_Sept_1994-April_1995/page/n100/mode/1up?q=%22talk+to+the+hand%22

[Note:  going through Archive.org, I see nothing until 1995, and then many (mostly collegiate yearbooks and newspapers) cites starting in that year.  If "Martin" is the vector for this phrase, I'd bet it was used in late 1994 or early 1995, or the 3rd season].

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