December 9, 2010

"Putting the cheese in machismo."

Have you ever said something you thought was witty — I just said "putting the cheese in machismo" (a propos of this) — and your audience is about to give you credit, because they've never heard it before, but you have to Google to see if you really are the first, and of course, you're not the first?

(Once I post this, I'll be first on the list, in all likelihood, but at the time I'm writing this, there were 6 hits. So that makes my wisecrack pretty original. I predicted there'd be 20,000 hits, so the Googling was mildly rewarding.)

33 comments:

MadisonMan said...

I could see a nice Machego in machismo. Or a 15-yo cheddar. But Velveeta, or Co-Jack? Not so much.

MadisonMan said...

Sorry -- manchego, not machego.

traditionalguy said...

Sheesh...you cheese eating surrender monkeys in Wisconsin even wear cheese hats when its cold at Lambeau field. Anybody from Wisconsin needs to stay away from making cheese fetish references.

Known Unknown said...

Are you trying to say you've won some kind of thread?

Unknown said...

I think you nailed it, Madame.

The hypocrisy in here the last day or so was thick enough to walk on.

PS That is a very provocative likeness.

Ann Althouse said...

Machismo is the theater of masculinity. When you put the cheese in it you ham (?!) it up more than usual.

Ann Althouse said...

What's more masculine than a "Wizard of Oz" reference?

Scott M said...

A-way back in '98, I thought I had coined a term "base raping" in regards to FPS PC games. I heard widely used after that and always thought it was my doing. Only to find years later, via Google, that someone beat me to it (in context) by about two years.

Scott M said...

What's more masculine than a "Wizard of Oz" reference?

Pretty much anything... :)

This is said as a decedent of the wonderful Frank L. My mom's maiden name is Baum and he's her great-great uncle, I believe.

coketown said...

I always thought it was pronounced "mah-kiz-mo" so wouldn't have appreciated the wit. But what you're describing happens to me several times a day. In person, I'm a fountain of wit. If I model my quip on someone else's saying, I give credit to them.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Back in the thread on banning Sharia law in Oklahoma, I came up with 'Al-Qlahoma' all by myself. I then googled before posting, only to find that Colbert beat me to it. ( Although with an inferior spelling. )

Graham Powell said...

Same thing happened to me when I called a friend "Nostradumbass". Google says... too late!

Larry J said...

Actually, I had the opposite experience. I incorrectly attributed a statement to Dave Barry that he apparently never said. I thought he wrote in his book, "The Complete Guide to Guys", "Women would rest a lot easier if they realized that men are as simple as we seem."

So, he never wrote it and the only Google reference I can find is my post making the statement. So, it's MINE!

Defenseman Emeritus said...

Happened to me when I decided that the word "ginormous" was played out. I thought I coined the new term "hugiant" to replace it but turns out I wasn't even close to being first.

Ann Althouse said...

"This is said as a decedent of the wonderful Frank L. My mom's maiden name is Baum and he's her great-great uncle, I believe."

If you're indeed saying that as a *decedent* then I'm really impressed. I'm impressed too if you're merely a descendant.

Scott M said...

See...there's that smug inscrutability again..lol

But, yes, it's true. Family lore also says all that crap about it being a veiled political discourse (ie the yellow brick road symbolizing the gold standard, etc, etc) is crap.

Sigivald said...

Macheezmo Mouse.

Crimso said...

I posted on my Facebook page recently "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, but the guardrails are ideology." No Google hits for that exact phrase. What do I win?

The Crack Emcee said...

"Everything that we have is 'American Made', it's a little bit cheezy but nicely displayed."

-- Franbk Zappa

Funny, when I pointed out Americans are cheezy - on the thread about Norman Rockwell - it was all cool, no mentiuon of anything wrong. But now, in defense of a dead woman, it's a crime. Whatever - all you're doing is proving your NewAge credentials.

Like all NewAgers, you hate America.

Scott M said...

What do I win?

The thread.

Crimso said...

Scott M wins the thread.

Amexpat said...

I thought I had coined two phrases in the comments here.

"Obamagnostic": December, 2009, a couple of previous hits on Google

"not bad is good enough for me": January, 2007, appears to be the first usage.

Beth Donovan said...

Sorry to disappoint you, Ann - search in Bing for "cheese in machismo" and there are over 80,000 hits - your only semi-originality is the word, "putting" instead of put or puts.

Good try, though!

Phil 314 said...

OK, I tried this (though its not particularly witty or repeatable). Anyway, one of my sons and I several years ago began to refer to a certain type of Mexican restaurant that appeals to American tastes. The key ingredient is lots of "melted cheese", hence we began to call them "Melted Cheese Mexican restaurants" or MCM for short.

Whoop dee do!

(PS MCM restaurants are a guilty pleasure; not a place to find "elites")

Larry J said...

SWWBO said...
Sorry to disappoint you, Ann - search in Bing for "cheese in machismo" and there are over 80,000 hits - your only semi-originality is the word, "putting" instead of put or puts.

Good try, though!


Actually, if you do a Google search on the phrase in quotation marks, you get 903 hits.

The Google search even returns a link dated January of 2009 for t-shirts that read, "I put the cheese in machismo".

The Dude said...

I made a sign for my future farm - Pasture Prime Acres.

Thought it was witty and pithy and original. Turns out Asleep at the Wheel titled one of their albums Pasture Prime 25 years ago. Oh well, I'll buy the farm before I buy a farm, in any case.

Bob Ellison said...

For all intensive porpoises, my audience has failed all my life to give me credit for wit.

Kirk Parker said...

Scott M,

If he's you're uncle, you're not descended from him.

Unless.... oh jeez.... bleah...

Scott M said...

Technically correct. The best kind of correct. He's in my family tree, suffice to say.

MamaM said...

If thread winners are going to be declared, how about a show of hands for booby prizes?

Joseph said...

I did that recently googling the metaphor a piece of the "white privilege pie". Then I thought maybe there would be a recipe for something with that name. Turns out only two people have ever used it (online) before but not for a recipe. But then I decided it wasn't as funny as I first thought.

MamaM said...

With the demand for tits arriving at random intervals, the thought of showing hands for booby prizes struck me as cheezy kind of idea. At the time I posted, I had not yet read Synova's 3:48 call for a thread loser on the team/no team post. After having done so, I appreciate her clear expression of why she felt the situation called for one.

Once again, someone else was there first.

The Crack Emcee said...

I'll say it another way:

A feminist attacking sentiment in a man, at the time of someone's death, is just an underhanded attempt to break balls - proving A) you could give a shit about us as human beings, and B) until you abandon that hateful ideology, you are unworthy of the admiration that sentiment springs from.

Being an asshole is one thing, but working to attain that status, as feminists usually do, is a whole other ball of wax.

The fact you can't tell the difference is an epic fail.