New phrases aren’t thought up by some committee of wordsmiths sitting around in an office all day long. People from many different walks of life have contributed to the goofy things we let fly out of our mouths regularly. Scientists, presidents, and yes, even humorists, are responsible for coining a lot of the terms that we use today. Here are a few that we can safely hold comedy accountable for.
4. “THE (BLANK) FROM HELL”
The Yale Book of Quotations, released in 2006, credits comedian Richard Lewis with coining the phrase “the (blank) from hell.” They traced it back to a bit he did in his early stand-up days, where he talked about going on what he called “a date from hell.” An editor for Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations disagreed with the assertion, but Lewis was adamant that he popularized the saying during his appearances on David Letterman’s show in the 1980s.
3. “ASS CLOWN”
Singer Michael Bolton is referred to in Office Space as a “no-talent ass clown” by David Herman’s character in the movie, who’s also afflicted with the name Michael Bolton. According to his co-star, Ajay Naidu, “ass clown” was not in the original script that Mike Judge wrote. Bolton was supposed to be called a “no-singing asshole,” but Herman had to change it while they were filming. As a result, “ass clown” made its debut on the big screen and was later added to the dictionary.
2. “JUMP(ED) / JUMPING THE SHARK”
Jon Hein of Howard Stern Show fame is said to be one of the first people to refer to a specific moment when a TV show starts going downhill as “jumping the shark.” The saying was inspired by a scene from the 1977 Happy Days episode “Hollywood: Part 3,” in which Fonzie (played by Henry Winkler) literally jumps over a shark on water skis. Hein created the website JumpTheShark.com in 1997, where he compiled lists of hundreds of TV shows that he felt had “jumped the shark” at some point. He sold the website for over $1 million in 2006.
1. “BUCKET LIST”
Though a lot of people find it hard to believe, the term “bucket list” does legitimately appear to have originated with the 2007 Jack Nicholson-Morgan Freeman comedy The Bucket List. Screenwriter Justin Zackham says he came up with the phrase back in 1999 when compiling a list of things he wanted to do before “kicking the bucket.” The list later became the basis for the movie’s screenplay. Surprisingly, no solid evidence of “bucket list” being used in that same context before then has turned up.
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