Althouse: "The old Professor-Peter-Peckinpah-all-purpose-anti-personnel-Peckinpah-pocket-pistol-under-the-toupee trick."

July 12, 2014

"The old Professor-Peter-Peckinpah-all-purpose-anti-personnel-Peckinpah-pocket-pistol-under-the-toupee trick."

Do you remember all the old tricks?

I didn't ever remember that the "old [blank] trick" format as an old joke-making trick was an old "Get Smart" trick, but I got brought up to speed when I made an "old [blank] trick" joke just now. It had gone generic in my head, and I'm glad to drag it back to a proper know-your-meme level of consciousness.

10 comments:

rhhardin said...: I don't offhand remember any Get Smart tricks in the 2008 Carell and Hathaway version, which pays homage to both the TV series and James Bond.

Missed it by that much was big.; 7/12/14, 8:26 AM
Wince said...: Althouse: "Would you believe... I missed remembering the old [blank] trick... by that much?"; 7/12/14, 8:34 AM
Big Mike said...: Here in the Washington metro area there are four antenna channels that show old movies and another three that show old sitcoms. Maxwell Smart lives! (And Gilligan and Bewitched and ...); 7/12/14, 8:37 AM
SomeoneHasToSayIt said...: Here's one.

Banana In The Tailpipe Trick; 7/12/14, 10:18 AM
Anonymous said...: It'll never work!

[Althouse holds gun to my head]

...But then, it's certainly worth a try.; 7/12/14, 10:38 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: It used to be one of my standard gags to say "That's the second biggest [fill in the blank] I've ever seen!"

Then I met my wife and my mother-in-law would always respond with "So what was the first biggest [fill in the blank] you've ever seen?"

Complete, total, 100%, childlike naivete and sincerity on her part.

No point in explaining, really.

Best to just stop saying it, forever.

The Lord works in mysterious ways.; 7/12/14, 10:49 AM
Guildofcannonballs said...: The old poison-needle-on-the-phonograph trick; 7/12/14, 2:59 PM
SomeoneHasToSayIt said...: Sorry. Wrong link above.
Here is the correct one.

Banana In The Tailpipe Trick; 7/12/14, 7:57 PM
Ambrose said...: So Tom Friedman is getting his column ideas from our very own Ann Althouse. Interesting that he refers to the "creators" of the show generically without apparently realizing it was Mel Brooks. Doesn't anybody know anything anymore? http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/13/opinion/sunday/thomas-l-friedman-the-world-according-to-maxwell-smart-part-1.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region&region=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region; 7/12/14, 8:07 PM
Danno said...: I saw several episodes lately and they were great. Maybe we should all put a "cone of silence" on Althouse for a few days?. (Just kidding!); 7/12/14, 9:42 PM