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Post by marianne48 on May 25, 2017 22:31:09 GMT
I'd never seen this movie, but I happened to catch a brief glimpse of it this morning on TCM. In the scene, Gene Kelly's character has an affectionate relationship with one woman, while Judy Garland, also in the scene, scolds him about how he failed to milk a cow properly. Kelly and Garland exchange frosty glances, and he exits the scene by giving the first woman a prolonged kiss, then turns to Garland and remarks, "See you next Thursday."
So---did that phrase mean the same thing in 1950 as it does today? If it did, was it added with the idea that most audiences of the time, particularly
the more innocent types who went in for musicals, wouldn't catch the double meaning? Would it even get by censors of the time? Or am I just attaching today's vulgar slang to a perfectly innocent MGM musical?
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Post by Doghouse6 on May 25, 2017 23:45:36 GMT
I have no idea how long the "see you next Tuesday/Thursday" code has been around, but it wouldn't surprise me if it's much longer than most would suspect (I had a friend who was saying "Eat my shorts" 15 years before the first Simpsons cartoon was ever made), and who knows how these things get started and absorbed into pop culture?
Just the same, it serves as a punchline with a perfectly acceptable meaning in the Summer Stock scene. Kelly's been milking cows all morning, and the result is only about a half-cup. Garland asks, "This is from ten cows?" Kelly explains, "No, only nine. We have a whole cow to go." When Garland tells him, "We usually get 130 quarts a day," a shocked and discouraged Kelly moans, "Oh, they'll never make it...I'll never make it." So as Kelly delivers his exit line, he's sarcastically referring to how long he expects it to take him to finish the milking.
The Production Code Administration often passed double-entendre dialogue if it could be interpreted innocently. Consider Joan Crawford's exit line in 1939's The Women, with which she calls Norma Shearer and her friends "bitches" without using the word: "You know, there's a name for you ladies, but it isn't used in polite society...outside of a kennel."
But as I say, I have no idea if Kelly's line would have been considered double-entendre as far back as 1949-1950, when Summer Stock was in production. Still, "See you next Tuesday/Thursday" pops up in many films, both after and before 1950. So again, who knows?
I can leave only this parting thought: there are seven days in the week and they could have picked any of them, but only two of them begin with a "T" and they chose one of them. Hmmm....
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Post by marshamae on May 26, 2017 18:38:34 GMT
See you next Thursday
What does it mean today?
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Post by Doghouse6 on May 26, 2017 19:28:44 GMT
See you next Thursday What does it mean today? It's a crude yet oblique allusion, combining homophones for "see you" (C and U) with the initials for "next Thursday" or "Tuesday" (N and T). That's about as genteel an explanation as I can manage. |
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Post by london777 on May 27, 2017 0:10:25 GMT
See you next Thursday What does it mean today? It's a crude yet oblique allusion, combining homophones for "see you" (C and U) with the initials for "next Thursday" or "Tuesday" (N and T). That's about as genteel an explanation as I can manage. So he was insulting Garland? I too have never been aware of it. I have many American acquaintances here on Devil's Island. I shall use it abundantly from now on. |
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Post by BATouttaheck on May 27, 2017 3:54:58 GMT
Seems we've both been livin' in caves somewhere. I had to look it up because I didn't want to ask ! Now I suppose I'll have to find the movie to watch the scene to see what's up with it ! "Forced" to watch a Kelly / Garland picture. Life can be so hard !  Actually, I have seen it but apparently the line went over my head. Not the first thing that has ! |
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Post by petrolino on May 27, 2017 4:06:06 GMT
Seems we've both been livin' in caves somewhere. I had to look it up because I didn't want to ask ! |
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Post by neurosturgeon on May 27, 2017 4:11:13 GMT
I led such an innocent existence that went a local news reporter, John Schubeck, misspoke during the just before 9pm newsbreak on a news story involving H.L. Hunt, replacing his last name with the C word, I had never heard the word before and didn't know why all of the guys in the room were laughing.
And until today, I had not heard this phrase before.
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Post by BATouttaheck on May 27, 2017 4:36:10 GMT
And until today, I had not heard this phrase before. There is a rather interesting (and detailed) write up on "the word" and its history on Wiki. Seems it has QUITE the history ! The article even briefly mentions "the phrase". Ah... the internet, so educational, eh ? |
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Post by Doghouse6 on May 27, 2017 17:58:26 GMT
It's a crude yet oblique allusion, combining homophones for "see you" (C and U) with the initials for "next Thursday" or "Tuesday" (N and T). That's about as genteel an explanation as I can manage. So he was insulting Garland? Well, that seems to be the question of the day (pun intended), and would hinge upon whether that particular coded usage was in place that many decades ago. But as I suggested in my 5/25 post, it's sometimes the case that seemingly current or recent slang or figures of speech have been around longer than some might suspect. For example, there's a 1934 short subject in which Mary Pickford says, "There's nobody I'd rather hang with." Just a night or so ago, I was watching a film from 1935 in which Una Merkel refers to someone as "all that." And in the same film, a "soul handshake" is seen. The term "groovy" has been used in films as far back as 1942. So as I said earlier, who knows? |
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