Origin of "I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help you"
jj
usage of this saying but it also seems to predate his usage.
Does anyone know the earliest usage?
Maria Conlon
I have no idea, but: If someone said that to me, I'd laugh. ("Yeah,
right, you're here to help me. I'd better watch my wallet.)
Perhaps too cynical,
Maria Conlon
Donna Richoux
> It seems US President Reagan made the most popular, widely quoted
> usage of this saying
I don't know why you say that.
>but it also seems to predate his usage.
>
> Does anyone know the earliest usage?
Google Books shows it turning up as a general joke (nothing to do with
Reagan) that circulated in 1977 about the Three Biggest Lies. For
example:
... the three biggest lies: the check is in the mail; of course I'll
still respect you; and I'm from the government and I'm here to help you.
-- Aware, nos. 76-111 - 1977
I do see some later references tying the last phrase of the joke to
Reagan in various political contexts, but it would take more work to see
if he personally worked the line into his campaigning, etc.
--
Best wishes -- Donna Richoux
Chuck Riggs
wrote:
Reagan, who frowned on big government, would have used the expression
satirically, if he used it. I vaguely remember it being from that era,
so it is quite possible.
--
Regards,
Chuck Riggs,
who speaks AmE, lives near Dublin, Ireland
and usually spells in BrE
John Kane
They didn't use that term but it was rather nice to see the army
arrive during the Great Ice Storm of 1998.
I'm a lot more dubious of having Wal-Mart tell me of how good the
economy will be when their store opens.
John Kane Kingston ON Canada
jj
>jj <jayj...@blarf-fake-not-real.com> wrote:
>
>> It seems US President Reagan made the most popular, widely quoted
>> usage of this saying
>I don't know why you say that.
Because when I was searching the internet before making my original
post, I got many references to Reagan saying the "the nine most
terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government
and I'm here to help." He's probably the biggest fish to utter the
phrase. So when the "TV Presence President" says something on TV...
>>but it also seems to predate his usage.
>>
>> Does anyone know the earliest usage?
>
>Google Books shows it turning up as a general joke (nothing to do with
>Reagan) that circulated in 1977 about the Three Biggest Lies. For
>example:
>
>... the three biggest lies: the check is in the mail; of course I'll
>still respect you; and I'm from the government and I'm here to help you.
> -- Aware, nos. 76-111 - 1977
We've google/bing/yahoo'd the same turf it seems. :-)
>I do see some later references tying the last phrase of the joke to
>Reagan in various political contexts, but it would take more work to see
>if he personally worked the line into his campaigning, etc.
I recollect some usage of the phrase to tease either (or both) the
Kennedy or Johnson presidencies but perhaps it came to be during the
New Deal/Roosevelt (FD not T) era?
jj
>Reagan, who frowned on big government, would have used the expression
>satirically, if he used it. I vaguely remember it being from that era,
>so it is quite possible.
Right you are! "The 9 most terrifying words in the English language
are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'"
jj
Not at all "too cynical" Maria, the phrase is almost always used in a
joking manner and that you really won't be helped and you're
instinctive protection of your wallet is the correct response. :-)
Robin Bignall
One can't be too cynical.
</pithy aphorism>
--
Robin
(BrE)
Herts, England
Donna Richoux
> tr...@euronet.nl (Donna Richoux) wrote:
> >jj <jayj...@blarf-fake-not-real.com> wrote:
> >
> >> It seems US President Reagan made the most popular, widely quoted
> >> usage of this saying
>
> >I don't know why you say that.
>
> Because when I was searching the internet before making my original
> post, I got many references to Reagan saying the "the nine most
> terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government
> and I'm here to help." He's probably the biggest fish to utter the
> phrase. So when the "TV Presence President" says something on TV...
>
> >>but it also seems to predate his usage.
> >> Does anyone know the earliest usage?
> >
> >Google Books shows it turning up as a general joke (nothing to do with
> >Reagan) that circulated in 1977 about the Three Biggest Lies. For
> >example:
> >
> >... the three biggest lies: the check is in the mail; of course I'll
> >still respect you; and I'm from the government and I'm here to help you.
> > -- Aware, nos. 76-111 - 1977
>
> We've google/bing/yahoo'd the same turf it seems. :-)
We can't have done exactly the same thing, because you still appear to
hope to find a much earlier use. I can pretty much rule out earlier
decades because I put those numbers in as well. 1973 is the earliest I
find for the Three Lies joke, from something called "Proceedings"
(actually, Proceedings of the Thirty-Seventh Executives Conference, The
Institute of Paper Chemistry).
>
> >I do see some later references tying the last phrase of the joke to
> >Reagan in various political contexts, but it would take more work to see
> >if he personally worked the line into his campaigning, etc.
>
> I recollect some usage of the phrase to tease either (or both) the
> Kennedy or Johnson presidencies but perhaps it came to be during the
> New Deal/Roosevelt (FD not T) era?
You could try the website of Time magazine or the New York Times.
They're more awkward to use, so you have to really want to bother.
--
Best -- Donna Richoux
jj
> I can pretty much rule out earlier
>decades because I put those numbers in as well. 1973 is the earliest I
>find for the Three Lies joke, from something called "Proceedings"
>(actually, Proceedings of the Thirty-Seventh Executives Conference, The
>Institute of Paper Chemistry).
Danger Will Robinson, absence from Google does not mean non-existence.
Steve Hayes
wrote:
I thought it was plural -- we're from the government, and we're here to help
you.
And my first thought would not be my wallet, but "you have the right to remain
silent", even if you don't.
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk
Steve Hayes
wrote:
>Because when I was searching the internet before making my original
>post, I got many references to Reagan saying the "the nine most
>terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government
>and I'm here to help." He's probably the biggest fish to utter the
>phrase. So when the "TV Presence President" says something on TV...
His capacity for irony surprises me.
Jonathan Morton
news:ri1a75lm0l5d5omua...@4ax.com...
>
> I thought it was plural -- we're from the government, and we're here to
> help
> you.
I thought you were right, but Google has more hits for the singular version.
> And my first thought would not be my wallet, but "you have the right to
> remain
> silent", even if you don't.
The version I use - which I certainly didn't invent, but which was clearly
coined in homage to the original - is "we're from Head Office...".
I would agree with Steve, that the instinctive reaction is that we're going
to be sacked, blamed for someone else's mistake, have our good work stolen
by someone else, told to implement some brilliant idea (which won't work) or
otherwise put upon - but not actually fleeced directly.
HR and IT departments have got this sort of thing perfected.
Regards
Jonathan
Donna Richoux
Of course. Absence from Google Books means absence from Google Books, if
the search was done right and the database is behaving itself. But it's
a very large collection spanning several centuries, so I count its
absence as fairly significant.
I told you some other places to look, if you think it existed before the
1970s. Perhaps it existed in a different form. What would that be? How
differently can the idea be stated and yet count as the same? Would you
like Orwell and Huxley and Heller and Kafka?
Or further back? The beadle in _Oliver Twist_? I can think of various
sanctimonious and oppressive characters in 19th century literature, but
they tended to be private and religious, more than government employees.
Glenn Knickerbocker
> -- Aware, nos. 76-111 - 1977
Also:
Problems of journalism: proceedings of the convention,
American Society of Newspaper Editors, 1976
and
Bulletin - American Congress on Surveying and Mapping
nos. 52-63 - 1976
citing "W.A. Radlinski (in his keynote address)"
There's also an incomplete listing with an illegible title page that
claims to be from 1973. George Will wrote a column a couple years ago
calling this "the hoariest jest in conservatism's repertoire," but I
could have sworn I heard it from guys quoting George Carlin at Boy Scout
camp around 1974.
It's called "Cliff's Catalog" in this file from the 1970s:
http://www.hdssystems.com/Laws.html
An Abridged Collection of Interdisciplinary Laws
Last updated January 12, 1979
but I didn't find any hint of who Cliff was.
�R
Evan Kirshenbaum
Unfortunately, none of the early ones I see on Google Books have
verifiable dates, and citing something to "nos. 76-111" of a magazine
doesn't make me comfortable about the date they attach. The earliest
datable one I see has it from 1978, given by an identified person,
though not asserted to be original with him:
And, warned Mr. Kruper of the Federal productivity center, what
could make things worse are more Federal rules aimed at improving
productivity. "You know the three great lies," he joked--"the
check is in the mail; I'm going to love you as much in the morning
as I do tonight, and I'm from the Government and here to help
you".
_NY Times_, 5/27/1978
I'm not sure if I should take the fact that the second lie is given in
a clunkier form than the normal "Of course I'll respect you in the
morning" as indicating that this might be an early version or whether
it just means that Kruper was bad at remembering jokes.
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |And the wildest dreams of Kew
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 | are the facts of Khatmandhu,
Palo Alto, CA 94304 |And the crimes of Clapham
| chaste in Martaban.
kirsh...@hpl.hp.com |
(650)857-7572 | Rudyard Kipling
R H Draney
>
> And, warned Mr. Kruper of the Federal productivity center, what
> could make things worse are more Federal rules aimed at improving
> productivity. "You know the three great lies," he joked--"the
> check is in the mail; I'm going to love you as much in the morning
> as I do tonight, and I'm from the Government and here to help
> you".
>
> _NY Times_, 5/27/1978
>
>I'm not sure if I should take the fact that the second lie is given in
>a clunkier form than the normal "Of course I'll respect you in the
>morning" as indicating that this might be an early version or whether
>it just means that Kruper was bad at remembering jokes.
Kruper's version suggests that he might have had in mind the *other* joke
concerning the same cliche:
Q: "Will you respect me in the morning?"
A: "Honey, I don't even respect you *now*!"
....r
--
A pessimist sees the glass as half empty.
An optometrist asks whether you see the glass
more full like this?...or like this?
RichardMaurer
I see a clump of cites around 1977. The following might actually be
from 1957. It is a snippet view, but it's got "item notes". It is
worth
including anyway because I like the form of the joke:
... we have heard the joke about the two biggest lies, "I am from
DES
and I am here to help," and the commander saying,
"we are glad to have you. ...
United States Army aviation digest - Page 68
by U.S. Army Aviation Center, U.S. Army Aviation School -
History - 1957
Book overview Snippet view - Item notes: v. 3 - 1957 - History
--
---------------------------------------------
Richard Maurer To reply, remove half
Sunnyvale, California of a homonym of a synonym for also.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(Dancing half of the good dances and singing half of the good songs
makes one wholly good.)
jj
Thanks to everyone for their efforst on this.
The phrase came up on a US National Public Radio item today.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111774394
It said that Edmun Muskie was the first known politician to use the
phrase but no earlier info or date. I've posted a comment asking for
origin details. I may also contact the speaker/writer Geoff Nunberg.
"The truth is out there" :-)
JJ
HVS
But "trust no 1".....
--
Cheers, Harvey
CanEng and BrEng, indiscriminately mixed
kerryd...@gmail.com
Kerry