Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In - Catchphrases

Catchphrases

In addition to those already mentioned, the show created numerous catchphrases:

• A six-note pattern preceding a code-word or punchline to an off-color joke, such as "do-doo-doo-da-do-doo ... smack!" or "... family jewels!" (sometimes extended to 18 notes by repeating the GGGDEC pattern two more times before the code-word). This same musical phrase had been used as a "signature" at the end of many pieces played by Spike Jones and his City Slickers.
• "I didn't know that." (Dick Martin's occasional response to what happened on an episode)
• "Easy for you to say!' (Dan Rowan's reply whenever Dick Martin tripped on his tongue during a joke)
• "Ohhh, I'll drink to that." (Martin's response to something Rowan said that he liked.)
• "I was wondering if you'd mind if I said something my aunt once said to me." A phrase that Dick Martin would always say to interrupt Dan Rowan's announcements on what would happen during their next show; this phrase was followed by a story about a bizarre situation that his aunt went through.
• "Look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls! (a lesser-known set of reference books whose phonetically funny name helped both Laugh-In and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to poke fun at NBC censors)
• "Go to your room."
• "Uncle Al had to take a lot of medicine last night" (line by Uncle Al, the Kiddies' Pal, played by Alan Sues)
• "You bet your sweet bippy!"
• "Here come de judge!" (reprising comedian Pigmeat Markham and further popularized by guest stars Flip Wilson and especially Sammy Davis Jr.)
• "Beautiful downtown Burbank" (various actors/characters, referring tongue-in-cheek to the Los Angeles suburb in which the NBC studios (and thus the program) were located; the same term was frequently used by Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson).
• "'Ello, 'ello! NBC, beautiful downtown Burbank" (the response to calls received by a switchboard operator played by Judy Carne). When the series was syndicated in 1983, the NBC logo and the network's name were edited out.
• "And that's the truth." (Edith Ann, summarizing whatever she just said, and capping it with a juicy raspberry)
• "One ringy-dingy...two ringy-dingies..." (Ernestine's mimicking of the rings while she was waiting for someone to pick up the receiver on the other end of the telephone lines)
• "A gracious good afternoon. This is Miss Tomlin of the telephone company. Have I reached the party to whom I am speaking?" Ernestine's greeting to people whom she would call
• "I just wanna swing!" Gladys Ormphby's catchphrase
• "Is that a chicken joke?" Jo Anne Worley's outraged cry, a takeoff on Polish jokes
• "Here comes the big finish, folk!" (usually before the last of a series of a star's bad puns)
• "Sock it to me!" experienced its greatest exposure on Laugh-In although the phrase had been featured in songs like Aretha Franklin's 1967 "Respect" and Mitch Ryder's 1966 "Sock It To Me, Baby!"
• "Oh, that Henny Youngman"
• "Marshall McLuhan...what're you doin'?" (Henry Gibson)
• "I don't know. I've never been out with one!" (First introduced by guest star Marcel Marceau, this catch-all punchline would be uttered by any guest star. Goldie: "Are you of the opposite sex?"
  Tiny Tim: "I don't know, Miss Goldie, I've never been out with one.")
• "Blow in my ear and I'll follow you anywhere."
• "Now, that's a no-no!"
• "Tune in next week when Henny Youngman's wife burns Jell-o!"
• "If married, divorced him and married {etc.}" The purpose being to try to set up a tongue-twister, involving the last names of celebrities. Example: "If Rosemary Clooney married Regis Toomey, divorced him and married Mickey Rooney, divorced him and married Paul Muni, divorced him and re-married Regis Toomey, she'd be Rosemary Clooney Toomey Rooney Muni Toomey!" Sometimes, the punchline results would be take-offs of songs or plays or products: "If Kaye Ballard married former astronaut Wally Schirra, divorced him, married his brother, she'd be Kaye Schirra Schirra."
• "Morgul the Friendly Drelb" (a pink Abominable Snowman-like character that appeared in the first episode and bombed so badly that his name was used in various announcements by Gary Owens for the rest of the series (usually at the end of the opening cast list, right after Owens himself: "Yours truly, Gary Owens, and Morgul as the Friendly Drelb!") and credited as the author of a paperback collection of the show's sketches)
• "That's the most beautiful thing I ever heard."
• "Ring my chimes!"
• "Want a Walnetto?", was a pick-up line Tyrone would try on Gladys, which always resulted in a purse drubbing.
• "We have to stop meeting like this. My wife's getting suspicious." (or some other variant form of the phrase)