MUSIC-HALL CATCHWORDS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 149, 20 December 1929, Page 5

MUSIC-HALL CATCHWORDS

The death of J.-'W. Kickaby, the music-hall comedian, reminds one that the habit of passing round catchwords, often from a music-hall song, seems to have perished since the war, though hardly on account of it (writes Eobert "W. Bisk in the Edinburgh "WeeklyScotsman"). The war produced two at least. One was about the "Better Jole," and another was "Where did that one go?" Apart from these, I do not remember any of recent years which had currency in London, except, "Yes, we have no bananas." One of Rickaby's songs was "What Ho! She Bumps," and that took the fancy of the town, and became part of the daily chaff of the streets, like "Get your hair cut" and the much earlier "Does your mother know '■ you're out?" "Where did you get that hat?" and the more generally useful, "Now we shan't be long." The origin of the "bananas" catchword; puzzled a great many^ people who used it. It was said to have originated in an American film studio, where a film magnate, looking at a banquet set for the show, asked fiercely, "Have you no bananas?" and received the much-quoted reply from what America calls a "Yesman." A Yesman is a subordinate who always agrees with his superiors whatever they may say or do.