Where does the "they said" format come from?

July 5, 2019 8:02 PM

I've seen this around a lot lately. Just now, a news story about $1200 bunk bed pods was commented on thusly on Twitter: Under Socialism no one will own anything, they said. Under Socialism you’ll live in grim identical barracks, they said.

I know it's not a recent formulation: I first ran into it years ago in an Astérix book, in French – "qu'ils disent" – in the same spirit, usually a monologue or aside in which somebody makes a point about a ridiculous promise or (as in this case) a warning, which comes true in some ironic manner. The Astérix one was a Roman soldier saying "Join the legion, they said. See the world, they said."

There may not be a point of origin, but I'd be curious to know if there is one.

posted by zadcat to Writing & Language (10 answers total)

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/it-will-be-fun-they-said
posted by ManInSuit at 8:08 PM on July 5, 2019

It’s been around a lot longer than the Internet. I’d guess it came out of the military after WWII but I’m having trouble finding a reference for it.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 8:46 PM on July 5, 2019 [2 favorites]

I’m giving up for the night, but after fairly extensive searching the earliest thing I’ve found so far has actually been Asterix.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:58 PM on July 5, 2019 [2 favorites]

Jokes based specifically on "Join the Army and See the World" are old and seem relatively easy to find. This Reddit thread links to a recruiting poster from the 1920s and to a screenshot of a joke from the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup (1933): "Join the Army and See the Navy." What I can add is that at 06:10 in The Three Stooges' Boobs in Arms (1940), there's a sign that says, "Join the Army and See the World or What's Left of It." The "they said, they said" formulation evokes vague connotations for me that are older than the web, but so far I'm in "paint roller" territory.
posted by Wobbuffet at 10:10 PM on July 5, 2019 [1 favorite]

Marvin the robot in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

"Thank you the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation," said Marvin, and trudged desolately up the gleaming curved corridor that stretched out before them. "'Let's build robots with Genuine People Personalities,' they said. So they tried it out with me. I'm a personality prototype. You can tell, can't you?"

posted by XMLicious at 10:23 PM on July 5, 2019

IANA memeologist but I would have recognized this as an Asterix reference (along with These Romans Are Crazy) way before the 1995 date given for Warcraft 2 in knowyourmeme.
posted by each day we work at 4:30 AM on July 6, 2019 [1 favorite]

This citation-less Yahoo Answer identifies “a Bob Hope movie” as a source of the “Xxxx, they said. It’ll be fun, they said” format.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 6:48 AM on July 6, 2019

This citation-less Yahoo Answer identifies “a Bob Hope movie” as a source of the “Xxxx, they said. It’ll be fun, they said” format.

I chased that one for a while and never turned anything up. Also, Bugs Bunny cartoons.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 11:16 AM on July 6, 2019

Some classic "they say that in the army" marching cadences may be related to this, and Canadian WWII soldiers are credited with a full song ("Gee, Ma I Wanna Go Home") that has been filked a bit. Here's Leadbelly's version. I know that variations persisted as schoolyard chants for decades after.
posted by maudlin at 2:07 PM on July 6, 2019 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Had to add this one today: a news story about a woman who fell off a balcony doing yoga – Twitter comment: "Faites du yoga qu'y disaient, c'est bon pour la santé qu'y disaient...."
posted by zadcat at 6:43 AM on August 29, 2019