Screenwriter, playwright and novelist Gore Vidal is linked to two famous quotations about whipping. One is a funny quip about the old form of corporal punishment called “birching” (whipping someone…
Category: Humorous quotes
“The physician can bury his mistakes…”
Many books of quotations include a famous humorous quote by the eminent American architect Frank Lloyd Wright: “The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only…
The origin of the movie cliché “We have ways of making you talk!”
The threatening words “We have ways of making you talk” are now a familiar cliché in movies. It’s usually said for comedic effect, often with a heavy foreign accent, like:…
“I’ll die young, but it’s like kissing God.”
On August 3, 1966, the brilliant, boundary-stretching and, unfortunately, drug-addicted American comedian Lenny Bruce was found dead in the bathroom of his home in Hollywood, California. A syringe and other…
The origins of “Rum, sodomy and the lash” – Churchill’s alleged quip about British naval tradition…
Many books of quotations include a caustic quote attributed to Winston Churchill (1874-1965) in which he supposedly called British naval tradition nothing but “rum, sodomy, and the lash.” (Sometimes given…
SEPTEMBER 22 – “Slowly I turned…”
September 22 is the anniversary of the most widely known version of an old vaudeville routine – the “Slowly I turned” shtick. In this classic comedy bit, the name of…