Thrown Under the Bus

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, I’m Sean, and I’m from San Diego.

Hello, Sean. Welcome.

Hey, Martha. Hey, Grant.

I’ve recently been noticing that on a lot of reality TV shows, I hear this phrase, and they always, it’s like when they confront another one of the players for having kind of, I don’t know, doomed them to failure in front of the judges. And the phrase is, I always say, why’d you throw me under the bus like that?

Is this a reality show involving buses or islands?

No, no. I watch a lot of Hell’s Kitchen, and it’s used on that show like every time.

Oh, really?

Yeah, and I’ve seen it on a couple other shows. And I guess my question was, there had to have been some sort of origin of that. And every time I look it up, all it does is just show its different uses, which are basically, why’d you screw me over? And then, I mean, I just don’t see it as a very, like, reliable way to do in your company, like your comrade, you know? There are better ways to make somebody fail.

Yeah, I mean, there’s better ways.

A knife, a gun, poison?

Yeah, it doesn’t seem like the logical means to an end. And so I figured there must have been some sort of, like, point when it happened. And I tried looking it up, but I couldn’t find it. So I guess that’s what I was wondering about.

Yeah, so where’d that bus come from, Grant?

It’s a good question. The strongest theory that I know of, Sean, is that it comes from the world of traveling shows, traveling teams, and traveling concerts. These are people who spend a great deal of time on the bus. And there’s a saying. You’ll find it again and again in the memoirs of people who used to do road tours or still do. They always say, be on the bus or under it. And so this is like a mantra because if they do a truck stop, you’ve got a set amount of time to use the bathroom and get a snack and get back on the bus or you will be left behind and you will pay your own airfare or taxi fare to catch up with the bus. It’s constantly a problem. There’s always some hapless character on these tours. There’s always somebody who gets left in Des Moines.

Oh, don’t I know it. I used to be in a band with four other women, and those rest stops took forever.

So, and that’s the other thing. Yeah, a rest stop, you set a time limit, and you’re on the bus, and the bus goes. And they don’t wait for anyone except the driver, of course. The rule is do whatever the driver does, of course. And so the strongest idea is that it came from the world of sports, where this is particularly important, because they do a lot more traveling, actually, if you can believe it, than most, say, Broadway shows that are taken out or most big concert kind of band music shows that are taken out. And through that way, it started to be picked up in the language of sportscasters who, of course, use it on the air and of sportswriters who use it in their writing. And in that way, it got spread to the general population. And it really caught fire just a few years ago. I started noticing it everywhere. And so I did a little dictionary entry for it and provided my research to some other people who in turn wrote about it. And then, as you mentioned, I still hear it on the occasional television show. When I watch television, I still hear it in news reports. I still hear it in discussions of politics. And even in personal conversations, people will mention it.

So do you think Throw Me Under the Bus is Jump the Shark?

I mean, it seemed like we were hearing it so much in the last couple of years.

Yeah, do I think that throwing me under the bus is tired?

Yeah, it’s a little tired, but we’ll see if it’s got legs. It may yet go the distance, Martha.

All these people out there are saying, tired legs, puns.

I’m sorry.

Yeah, that was pretty fantastic.

I aim to please, buddy.

Sean, we really appreciate your calling.

Oh, great. Thanks. It was enlightening.

Okay, yeah, that’s the best that we can hope for.

Okay, great.

Thanks for catching on the flip-flop. Bye-bye.

Thank you. Bye-bye.

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