Transcript of “See You in the Funny Papers”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Crystal Ness from Huntsville, Alabama.
Hi, Crystal. What’s up?
I was calling because I have a term that my mother-in-law and my father-in-law use that I have never heard before.
Okay.
So they use this term when they’re tucking my kids into bed, their grandchildren. They said this with my husband when he was a child, too.
So instead of saying goodnight or night night, like what my parents used to say to me, they say, I’ll see you in the funny papers before they close the door.
At bedtime.
At bedtime. Yep.
And what did they mean by that?
I don’t know. I guess they mean, you know, goodnight. It’s sort of done in the same way as people would say goodnight or night night. You know, so it’s kind of like you in the funny papers and then they close the door. And I had never heard that before growing up.
Oh, really? And you haven’t heard it since?
I only hear it from my mother-in-law. And when I asked her about it, she said that her mother and her father used to say it to her. And my father-in-law said that his parents also said it to him.
Yeah, well, it stretches back to the early 20th century. It’s just kind of a jovial goodbye. It’s not necessarily putting little kids to bed, but people would say, yeah, people would say that to each other. And so it was often originally kind of a sarcastic thing. You know, if you’re in the funny papers, then, you know, you’re a comic character.
There were a lot of different versions of see you in this or that, like see you in church, which somebody might say sarcastically to somebody who doesn’t go to church or see you in jail. And sometimes see you in the funny papers would have a sarcastic tone to it.
But over time, it’s just it’s well, in your case, it turned into a sweet nighttime goodnight.
Yeah, it’s very endearing. I like that they say that to my kids because it’s just something special that they’ll remember about their grandparents.
But that’s fascinating.
So, yeah, see you in the funny papers, see you in the funny pages, see you in the funnies. All of those are versions of that.
The funny sheet.
The funny sheet.
Yeah.
It was a much bigger deal.
I’ve never heard of funny sheets.
Yeah, that term’s almost 160 years old, calling it the funny papers.
So do you still use it today?
I guess I should probably keep the tradition alive, shouldn’t I?
Yeah.
She continues to say that to my kids. So, you know, maybe when they have children, I’ll use the same term.
Oh, yeah, that’s really sweet.
Yeah, tuck them in with that.
Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.
Take care, Crystal.
Take care.
Bye-bye.
All right, thanks.
Bye-bye.
