Did someone else die first?

November 21, 2006 9:12 PM

What'sThatFromFilter: "Stop, stop, he's already dead!"

Homer: Ohmigod! He's stealing all the burglars! Why you little --
[jumps Krusty Burglar, starts pummeling him]
Emcee: Oh, Homer, it -- it's all -- it -- it's all j -- jus -- just
an act!
Child: [crying] Stop! Stop, he's already dead.
[two men drag Homer off]
-- Homer, "Homie the Clown"

Does this phrase have an origin predating The Simpsons?

posted by oats to Media & Arts (6 answers total)

snpp.com is usually the closest thing to comprehensive on Simpsons-related matters, and their entry for Homie the Clown doesn't indicate that it's a reference to anything else.
posted by Paragon at 10:03 PM on November 21, 2006

Yeah, that's where I got my quote from (mea maxima culpa, snpp.com).
posted by oats at 10:27 PM on November 21, 2006

I think it's just a generic reference to bad melodrama, not a specific allusion to a movie.
posted by bluejayk at 11:42 PM on November 21, 2006

Well, "He's already dead" (without the "Stop! Stop!") was used in Love At First Bite (1979), but not as a dramatic, oh-god-the-pathos moment. Rather, it was somewhere between a punchline and a catchphrase. (And when I was ten, it had me rolling on the floor). I've no idea whether there's any relationship relationship between this occurence and the one you're seeking, but I really don't know.
posted by Clay201 at 12:27 AM on November 22, 2006

I think it's just an escalation of what a kid might normally say, thus making it funny. You'd expect the kid to say, "Stop, stop, you're hurting him!" But no—he's already dead!

But yeah, I'm lost on whether it comes from an earlier usage.
posted by limeonaire at 6:01 AM on November 22, 2006

I know I've seen it in movies long before the simpsons. I recall hearing the exact phrase in a gangster movie, where people are "roughing up" a guy and a woman says stop stop he's already dead while they pummel the guy.
posted by mathowie at 9:42 AM on November 22, 2006