Origin of "Happy Camper"
PT
expression "happy camper" as an ironic subside for "happy person"
--
PT
tinwhistler
A quick check at the news archives of Google brought up usages in the
60s referring to an actual campground with Happy Camper in its name.
The first non-eponym I found was a 1979 sports headline usage:
The Chronicle Telegram (Newspaper) - September 19, 1979, Elyria, Ohio
Subscription - The Chronicle Telegram - NewspaperArchive - Sep 19,
1979
Happy camper
So far, Tribe GM likes what he sees SPRING FLING: Charles Nagy is one
of the reason Indians' GM John Hart is pleased with his team's
progress ...
--
Aloha ~~~ Ozzie Maland ~~~ San Diego
Richard Maurer
When does a phrase become overused? I see "happy campers"
in newspaper articles back to 1879.
It was probably the Boy Scouts that caused the overuse:
... of the staff of Camp Shaffer, the summer camp
of the Blair-Bedford Council, Boy Scouts of America,
the slogan "Every Scout a Happy Camper" was selected. ...
Bedford Gazette (Newspaper) - May 30, 1930,
Bedford, Pennsylvania Subscription - Bedford Gazette -
NewspaperArchie
but before that this was probably part of suggestions
about what to bring to camp:
(The happy camper is the one who sleeps Small pillow
and cafce if desired. Two bath towels. One or more
dark blue or block skirt, or bloomers. ...
The Helena Independent (Newspaper) - June 24, 1928,
Helena, Montana Subscription - Helena Independent, The -
NewspaperArchie
-- ---------------------------------------------
Richard Maurer To reply, remove half
Sunnyvale, California of a homonym of a synonym for also.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(Who'll Stop the Rain?)
jerry_f...@yahoo.com
This is one of those misleading dates of periodicals from Google.
Nagy didn't join the Indians till 1990 (he was twelve in '79), and
Hart didn't become their general manager till '91, according to
Wikipedia. And September isn't in spring. (Obaue: I have a vague-y
memory of how Nagy pronounces his surname.)
I searched Google Book Search for "not a happy camper". Safire's /
Political Dictionary/ has a non-camp citation as far back as 1981 and
says the term became common in politics a few years after that.
I didn't look any further, but you might be able to find more
information by doing a similar search.
--
Jerry Friedman
jerry_f...@yahoo.com
<jerry_fried...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Jul 2, 10:56 pm, tinwhistler <ozziemal...@post.harvard.edu> wrote:
>
>
>
> > On Jul 2, 8:21 pm, "PT" <x...@xyz.com> wrote:
>
> > > Does anyone have a reasonably authoritative citation for the origin of the
> > > expression "happy camper" as an ironic subside for "happy person"
>
> > > --
>
> > > PT
>
> > A quick check at the news archives of Google brought up usages in the
> > 60s referring to an actual campground with Happy Camper in its name.
> > The first non-eponym I found was a 1979 sports headline usage:
>
> > The Chronicle Telegram (Newspaper) - September 19, 1979, Elyria, Ohio
> > Subscription - The Chronicle Telegram - NewspaperArchive - Sep 19,
> > 1979
> > Happy camper
> > So far, Tribe GM likes what he sees SPRING FLING: Charles Nagy is one
> > of the reason Indians' GM John Hart is pleased with his team's
> > progress ...
>
> This is one of those misleading dates of periodicals from Google.
> Nagy didn't join the Indians till 1990 (he was twelve in '79), and
> Hart didn't become their general manager till '91, according to
> Wikipedia. And September isn't in spring.
Sorry, I can take people's word that September is in spring in some
places, but not where Nagy and Hart were at the time.
--
Jerry Friedman
Evan Kirshenbaum
Others have mentioned early literal uses of the phrase. The
metaphoric sense appears to have arisen in the 1980s. "Not a happy
camper" first shows up in the _NY Times_ in November, 1988, and the
next month William Safire has a column there entitled "The Unhappy
Campers", in which he says [12/25/1988]
In David Aaron's new spy novel "Agent of Influence" ... a group of
Wall Street M.&A. men are about to lose a leveraged buyout deal to
a competitor ... What figure of speech does the author .. choose
to describe the infinite flubmess on the greedy faces of his
characters? Here it is, as _au courant_ as a "poison put" bond:
"Seldom had he seen such a group of _unhappy campers_."
...
"It is not a group of happy campers that gets off the bus," wrote
David Bird about homeless men in The New York Times in 1981.
Although that is the first use recorded in the Nexis morgue, the
phrase must have had earlier currency among at summer camps ...
The columnist Mary McGrory soon appropriated the phrase for
political use. Writing in 1982 about a suspiciously upbeat
Republican TV spot in an area of high unemployment, she noted,
"The happy campers of the commercial have few counterparts in the
Peoria area today."
Within a few years, People magazine was listing _happy camper_ as
current slang about attitudes; _tired camper_ was its opposite ...
Politicians knew a good metaphor when they met one. "I want the
authors of the bill to know," warned Representative Thomas
J. Tauke of Iowa, on the subject of toxic wate financing, "that I
am not a happy camper." ...
Although the phrase retained its direct camping association (the
actress Pamela Springsteen starred as a psychotic counselor in a
[1988] movie titled "Sleepaway Camp II--Unhappy Campers"), its
extended use dominated the field. "You got a bunch of happy
campers up here," an astronout A-O.K.'d Mission Control. And when
President-elect George Bush selected New Hampshire Gov. John
H. Sununu ... to be his chief of staff, rejecting the younger
Craig Fuller, Maureen Dowd of the New York Times wrote:
"Mr. Fuller has fought hard for the chief of staff's job and was
described by one friend as 'not a happy camper.'"
The David Bird quote is from 6/9/1981, and talks about Camp La
Guardia, described as "a retreat for homeless men who cannot care for
themselves". So there is still something of the literal sense there.
Casting a wider net, the first hit I see for "not a happy camper" is
At halftime, following an error-riddled second quarter,
Schembechler berated his players, collectively and individually.
"He was not a happy camper," Harbaugh said. "He went right down
the line. But it might have cleared a few cobwebs. He has a way
of doing that."
_Omaha World-Herald_, 10/19/1986
Outside of sports, the first is
Later, Walter Matthau began his tribute by saying, "I never made a
movie with Barbra Streisand,"--a reference to the fact that
although he really did ("Hello, Dolly"), he was not a happy camper
at the time.
_Chicago Tribune_, 4/12/1987
The first use of "happy camper" I see divorced from literal readings
(other than columnists addressing readers as "happy campers") is
"This is what I'm satisfied about," [swimmer Steve Lundquist]
said, opening his warmup to reveal a "1984 United States Swimming
Olympic Team" T-shirt. "It's made my day. I'm a happy camper
now."
_Philadelphia Daily News_, 6/26/1984
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |You gotta know when to code,
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 | Know when to log out,
Palo Alto, CA 94304 |Know when to single step,
| Know when you're through.
kirsh...@hpl.hp.com |You don't write your program
(650)857-7572 | When you're sittin' at the term'nal.
|There'll be time enough for writin'
http://www.kirshenbaum.net/ | When you're in the queue.
Mike L
> "PT" <x...@xyz.com> writes:
> > Does anyone have a reasonably authoritative citation for the origin
> > of the expression "happy camper" as an ironic subside for "happy
> > person"
>
> Others have mentioned early literal uses of the phrase. �The
> metaphoric sense appears to have arisen in the 1980s. �"Not a happy
> camper" first shows up in the _NY Times_ in November, 1988, and the
> next month William Safire has a column there entitled "The Unhappy
> Campers", in which he says [12/25/1988]
OK. But I think phrases like "Good morning, campers!" were in UK use
to non-campers well before then: you could say it on arriving in the
workplace. Now for "happy bunny". I'm not at all sure, but I don't
think I heard that till the 'nineties (hospital doctor to clergyman
friend who was having artificial joints: "If [not X], you wouldn't be
a happy bunny").
--
Mike.
Nick Spalding
<cb084c43-5d26-4a0a...@b1g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>
on Thu, 3 Jul 2008 12:10:13 -0700 (PDT):
> On Jul 3, 7:53?pm, Evan Kirshenbaum <kirshenb...@hpl.hp.com> wrote:
> > "PT" <x...@xyz.com> writes:
> > > Does anyone have a reasonably authoritative citation for the origin
> > > of the expression "happy camper" as an ironic subside for "happy
> > > person"
> >
> > Others have mentioned early literal uses of the phrase. ?The
> > metaphoric sense appears to have arisen in the 1980s. ?"Not a happy
> > camper" first shows up in the _NY Times_ in November, 1988, and the
> > next month William Safire has a column there entitled "The Unhappy
> > Campers", in which he says [12/25/1988]
> [...]
>
> OK. But I think phrases like "Good morning, campers!" were in UK use
> to non-campers well before then: you could say it on arriving in the
> workplace. Now for "happy bunny". I'm not at all sure, but I don't
> think I heard that till the 'nineties (hospital doctor to clergyman
> friend who was having artificial joints: "If [not X], you wouldn't be
> a happy bunny").
I wonder if 'happy campers' has anything to do with the TV series
'Hi-de-Hi'.
--
Nick Spalding
BrE/IrE
R J Valentine
I don't know about the google generation but the "happy camper" expression
would have been available both literally and figuratively when I was a kid
back in the fifties (before we had a television). One of the old camp
songs (erk'll know who wrote it and when) was "If you're happy and you
know it, clap your hands". Happiness and campership have been going hand
in hand for decades, if not centuries.
--
rjv
YMCA Camp Alumnus, Hecks[c?]her Park.
Cece
> On Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:15:47 +0100 Nick Spalding <spald...@iol.ie> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> } Mike L wrote, in
>
> - Show quoted text -
Children's librarians sing that now. I don't recall hearing it when I
went camping in the '50s. I first heard "not a happy camper" in 1987
or 88; I've wondered ever since where it came from, figuring it was
probably from some really silly movie or book.
Donna Richoux
> Mike L wrote, in
> <cb084c43-5d26-4a0a...@b1g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>
> on Thu, 3 Jul 2008 12:10:13 -0700 (PDT):
>
> > On Jul 3, 7:53?pm, Evan Kirshenbaum <kirshenb...@hpl.hp.com> wrote:
> > > "PT" <x...@xyz.com> writes:
> > > > Does anyone have a reasonably authoritative citation for the origin
> > > > of the expression "happy camper" as an ironic subside for "happy
> > > > person"
> > >
> > > Others have mentioned early literal uses of the phrase. ?The
> > > metaphoric sense appears to have arisen in the 1980s. ?"Not a happy
> > > camper" first shows up in the _NY Times_ in November, 1988,
>>and the
> > > next month William Safire has a column there entitled "The Unhappy
> > > Campers", in which he says [12/25/1988]
[Oldest citation was in there: "It is not a group of happy campers
that gets off the bus," wrote David Bird about homeless men in The New
York Times in 1981.]
]
> >
> > OK. But I think phrases like "Good morning, campers!" were in UK use
> > to non-campers well before then: you could say it on arriving in the
> > workplace. Now for "happy bunny". I'm not at all sure, but I don't
> > think I heard that till the 'nineties (hospital doctor to clergyman
> > friend who was having artificial joints: "If [not X], you wouldn't be
> > a happy bunny").
>
> I wonder if 'happy campers' has anything to do with the TV series
> 'Hi-de-Hi'.
IMDb and Wiki say the show began in 1980, which counts in its favor,
but it was a British sit-com not shown in the US, so I don't see how it
could have influenced the US public in time. Anyway, neither indicates
that "happy camper" was said in the show (though there were other
catchphrases).
By the way, there's an a.u.e thread on "Happy Camper" dated July 15,
2000. It doesn't have much more info, except to say it shows up in
_Campus Slang_ in 1985, but there's an interesting quote about Dan
Quayle getting into diplomatic trouble using it in 1989.
--
Best -- Donna Richoux
jerry_f...@yahoo.com
CrossThreadAlert: I was thinking of mentioning this song when Steve
Hayes asked about "pulling one's pud". "If you're horny and you know
it..."
--
Jerry Friedman
tinwhistler
The Wikipedia article on Camp Style draws very heavily on Susan
Sontag's essay, Notes on Camp, which appeared in the Partisan Review
in the fall of 1964. She noted the homosexual sensibility of camp,
and I suspect that early on, the phrase HAPPY CAMPER had that
sensibility for many people.
Richard Maurer
By the way, there's an a.u.e thread on "Happy Camper"
dated July 15, 2000. It doesn't have much more info,
except to say it shows up in _Campus Slang_ in 1985,
but there's an interesting quote about Dan Quayle
getting into diplomatic trouble using it in 1989.
Another snippet dated the same day indicates that this
snippet is also from campus slang:
Happy camper Usually nega- tivev My cat mom made
me paint the entire house ... Tm not a happy camper.'.
The Daily Herald (Newspaper) - September 27, 1981,
Chicago, Illinois Subscription - NewspaperArchie
Richard Fontana
Cece <ceceliaa...@yahoo.com> wrote:
[Erk wrote:]
> > }> > Others have mentioned early literal uses of the phrase. ?The
> > }> > metaphoric sense appears to have arisen in the 1980s. ?"Not a
> > happy }> > camper" first shows up in the _NY Times_ in November,
> > 1988, and the }> > next month William Safire has a column there
> > entitled "The Unhappy }> > Campers", in which he says [12/25/1988]
[...]
> I first heard "not a happy camper" in 1987
> or 88; I've wondered ever since where it came from, figuring it was
> probably from some really silly movie or book.
As for me, I well remember (Hi, Coop!) first becoming aware of the
"happy camper" usage in the first half of 1987, when a dormmate, who
(ITIR) was from Berkeley, Calif., often used the phrase in its positive
sense (e.g. "I'm such a happy camper") (though I think there was a
touch of ironicality about it).
I wonder if there is some findable single pop cultural source of the
popularization in the mid-1980s.
--
Richard Fontana
Chuck Riggs
<mike_l...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>On Jul 3, 7:53?pm, Evan Kirshenbaum <kirshenb...@hpl.hp.com> wrote:
>> "PT" <x...@xyz.com> writes:
>> > Does anyone have a reasonably authoritative citation for the origin
>> > of the expression "happy camper" as an ironic subside for "happy
>> > person"
>>
>> Others have mentioned early literal uses of the phrase. ?The
>> metaphoric sense appears to have arisen in the 1980s. ?"Not a happy
>> camper" first shows up in the _NY Times_ in November, 1988, and the
>> next month William Safire has a column there entitled "The Unhappy
>> Campers", in which he says [12/25/1988]
>[...]
>
>OK. But I think phrases like "Good morning, campers!" were in UK use
>to non-campers well before then: you could say it on arriving in the
>workplace.
That expression goes way back in America, too. Was it from a TV show
or a film, originally?
>Now for "happy bunny". I'm not at all sure, but I don't
>think I heard that till the 'nineties (hospital doctor to clergyman
>friend who was having artificial joints: "If [not X], you wouldn't be
>a happy bunny").
--
Regards,
Chuck Riggs
Near Dublin, Ireland
(My email address, here, is broken)
Chuck Riggs
I never made that association with it, myself, since I believe the TV
or film character, from whom I first heard it, didn't either.
Donna Richoux
I agree. Being camp, and camping it up, has an entirely different feel
about it than going camping, going to summer camp, or being a camper...
That same Wikipedia article says that "camp" relating to female
impersonators and exaggerated ironic humor is first dated 1909 and is
of unknown etymology. I don't know when summer camps for children were
invented, but Boy Scouts were just starting then.
When people started saying "X is not a happy camper" -- and I can
remember the friend who said it to me first -- it had nothing to do with
drag queens or theatricals or anything of the sort. It just was a
slightly nicer, amusing way of saying "X is not happy."
Mike L
> On Jul 3, 4:10�pm, R J Valentine <r...@TheWorld.com> wrote:
>> �One of the old camp
> > songs (erk'll know who wrote it and when) was "If you're happy and you
> > know it, clap your hands". �Happiness and campership have been going hand
> > in hand for decades, if not centuries.
>
Don't get me started on noisy librarians ...
--
Mike.
3dab...@gmail.com
PT
I recall a line of clothing from the 1980's from a company called HEET
that was New Wave type clothing featuring Aloha style shirts and baggy
style shorts that featured the term "Be Happy Camper" and "were all
Happy Campers!" the designs featured cartoon style kids,all
dancing,playing musical instruments,drinking,dancing,and music
notes,beer glasses, that flew. While it seemed fairly popular,there is
no mention of it on the internet at all...:::
jayde...@aol.com
jayde...@aol.com
I remember it was around 1986 my ex-husband and I were camping and we
were driving back to the camp sight, Massosoit State Park,
Massachusetts, and he had a co-worker in the back seat who was also
camping, and when we got there, the dude in the back seat yells out to
these campers who were all smiling, waving, he says, "Hello fellow
campers" I said, "Look at them, they're all kindza happy, being
homeless" I said, they're happy campers. He laughed, then yelled to
them "Hello happy campers" I never heard it before I said it, in my
life!
sage
Wasn't the wake-up call at Butlins Holiday Camps,"Good morning, Happy
Campers"? I may be wrong; I never went to one.
Cheers, Sage
Robin Bignall
I've just had a look at a few sites where people reminisce about
Butlins, and nobody mentions that phrase. I wonder if it came from a
radio or TV series about a mythical holiday camp. Google doesn't give
any insight.
--
Robin
(BrE)
Herts, England
sage
You are probably right. Why does Joyce Grenfell come to mind?
Cheers, Sage
Robin Bignall
"George -- don't do that."
jche...@gmail.com
snide...@gmail.com
> > (Who'll Stop the Rain?)
>
> Beautiful. That's the farthest back I've seen yet: 1879. Good show!
/dps