Origin
The origin of the punchline remains mysterious, but it was circulating in a Philadelphia primary school by the early 1950s and in the suburbs of New York City as early as 1956–57.
The phrase "no soap" possibly originated around 1860, the time it was first recorded, meaning "I haven't any money" or "I will not lend you money." Its contemporary connotation is "not a chance" or "nothing doing." However, the phrase itself was being employed in an absurdist and humorous context as early as the 1750s, when it appeared in a well-known piece of nonsense prose improvised by the English dramatist and actor Samuel Foote in order to test the memory of a rival: "So she went into the garden to cut a cabbage-leaf to make an apple-pie; and at the same time a great she-bear, coming up the street, pops its head into the shop. "What! No soap?" So he died, and she very imprudently married the barber..."
Read more about this topic: No Soap Radio
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