Does the phrase "please, not in the face!" come from anywhere in particular?

June 15, 2007 8:48 AM

Does the phrase "Please, not in the face!" (in reference to a metaphorical imminent beating) have a definitive, particular origin from a famous film or some other piece of pop culture? Or has it just sort of established itself from actual beatings?
posted by so_necessary to writing & language (16 comments total)

The first place I regularly saw it was the video game Oni. But I have a hard time believing that that's where it originates from.
posted by vernondalhart at 8:52 AM on June 15, 2007

It was popularized, if not originated, in "The Tick" as Arthur's favorite catch-phrase.
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:56 AM on June 15, 2007

Prior to his death, Big Pussy begged Tony Soprano (and Paulie and Sil, I think) to not shoot his face, specifically his eyes.

I'm sure it predates that, though.
posted by mbd1mbd1 at 8:57 AM on June 15, 2007

The earliest source I know of is Blazing Saddles.
posted by shadow vector at 9:00 AM on June 15, 2007

I remember it from Repo Man(1984).

From script:

Marlene (holding chair over head of agent 2): Like hell we are.

Agent 2: Not in my face.

Plettschner: Hold it Marlene. Freeze!

Marlene drops chair.

Agent 2: My Face!
posted by googly at 9:04 AM on June 15, 2007

Ditto on Blazing Saddles. Might have been a reference to something earlier than my tenure as a movie viewer, however, given how much of the humor in that movie is referential.
posted by hollisimo at 9:04 AM on June 15, 2007

Betcha it's Yankee Doodle Dandy, 1942.

Since you have to register to read the message boards, here's the relevant post:

There's a funny scene towards the beginning of "Yankee Doodle Dandy" when George M. Cohan is still a boy. He gets a swelled head & thinks the success of his family's act is dependent on him. His father (played by that wonderful character actor Walter Huston) decides a little corporal punishment is in order. The mother (played by Rosemary DeCamp - who was so good later in the 60's as Marlo Thomas' mother on the TV sitcom "That Girl") tells the dad, "Not in the face" (becasue of the act)..then "not on the hands" (because of his taking lessons). The exasperated father finally says something like, "I'll apply it where he doesn't have any talent" & then hauls the boy over his knee & begins to give him an old fashioned spanking (the swats must be quite firm because one can see the dust fly from the seat of the boy's pants with each one!). It's an excellent film & Jimmy Cagney richly deserved his Best Actor Oscar. In fact, he started out as a song & dance man on Broadway before he made it big in the movies in the early 30's (mostly in gangster & other "tough guy" roles). Later in life, he kept in shape by doing dance routines daily.
posted by IvyMike at 9:05 AM on June 15, 2007

It was popularized, if not originated, in "The Tick" as Arthur's favorite catch-phrase.

You wish.

I don't know the source, but it's definitely older than that. I suspect that specific line is from some gangster film. It's considered an extra insult to disfigure the face of someone you kill, since you can't have an open casket. It's (movie) gangster code that when you're respected and get whacked, it's not a bullet in the head.
posted by mkultra at 9:07 AM on June 15, 2007

"Not in the face" goes back a long time. Here's "strike him not in the face" from a 1911 edition of Henrik Ibsen's The Pretenders. However, a google book search for "please not in the face" turned up zilch.
posted by Kattullus at 9:55 AM on June 15, 2007

Woody Allen also says it in one of his early comedies. "Love and Death", I think. File under Less Than Helpful.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 10:13 AM on June 15, 2007

Am I the only one who thought something else when they read the headline?
posted by alby at 10:51 AM on June 15, 2007

It was popularized, if not originated, in "The Tick" as Arthur's favorite catch-phrase.

You wish.

That's what he said. It was popularized by the Tick, although not originated by the Tick.

(I know, some people read "if not" as "perhaps even". That doesn't seem to have been meant here.)
posted by dhartung at 1:07 PM on June 15, 2007

It was popularized by the Tick

I reiterate my earlier statement: You wish. It's been well-known since long before the forty or fifty people who watched The Tick were even born.
posted by mkultra at 4:51 PM on June 15, 2007

I'm voting for the 'comedic' use of it coming more from Blazing Saddles. I remember that bit in 'Yankee Doodle Dandy', but it doesn't have quite the same ring...
posted by pupdog at 5:11 PM on June 15, 2007

I saw it on an episode of my favorite, "The Monkees," spoken in already-parodic style - this would predate "Blazing Saddles" by several years. I also saw it in some old gangster film (in black and white.) For what it's worth, it's a clichéd statment even in "old" Yugoslav movies and dramas from back home. I doubt that the phrase has any specific origin at all - it must be universal.

My flatmate says it was also used on the old "Maxwell Smart" show, but I don't know a thing about that.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 5:42 PM on June 15, 2007

There was a teen novel in the '70s about a girl who ran away to NYC and became a prostitute. The higher ranking women in the pimp's stable couldn't stand her and there's a scene where one of them tries to grab her teddy bear for her own kid. They start struggling and the "main lady" tells the one with the kid: "don't mark her face"
posted by brujita at 11:08 PM on June 15, 2007