That's worse than "Nappy-headed Ho!"
His talk show days are over!
That's worse than "Nappy-headed Ho!"
His talk show days are over!
Some nitwit from the left will surely call him on it. I'm sure many today have no clue what that phrase relates to.
JIG IS UP
The phrase “the jig is up” surfaced more than 200 years ago. The exact origin is unknown, with speculation ranging from the end of a musical performance to the removal of a fishing line (a jig) from water – although the anglers’ term didn’t catch on until the 1860s, so this seems unlikely.
Some scholars believe it originally referred to the end of either a trick or game, since the word jig (sometimes spelled gig) had acquired this meaning by the time Shakespeare was writing plays.
The first recorded use of “the jig is over” appeared in 1777. About 20 years later, a Philadelphia newspaper published the earliest known version of our current expression – throwing in an extra “g” (the jigg is up) for good measure.
What does “the jig is up” imply today? The Canadian Oxford defines it as a scheme that’s been “revealed or foiled,” while Webster’s suggests it means “all chances for success are gone” – especially when applied to “risky or improper” strategies.
The gigantic Oxford English Dictionary broadens the scope to “the game is up, it’s all over.” The Gage Canadian Dictionary says the expression is slang for “it’s all over; there’s no more chance,” and The Houghton Mifflin Canadian Dictionary of the English Language offers a similar entry: “the game is up; all hope is gone.”
As with many words and phrases, then, there is a spectrum of meaning. What’s obvious, however, is that “the jig is up” could easily be uttered with conviction by a disgruntled Alliance MP who believes that “it’s all over” for the party if the leader doesn’t quit.
GIG IS UP
Replacing the “j” with a hard “g” (as in “guffaw”) suddenly makes the expression far less familiar, if not actually strange, to the ear and eye.
Musicians have called short-term jobs “gigs” since the early 20th century – especially one-night engagements. But do jobs ever become up? Certainly contracts can be up, which means they’ve expired on a specific date. But gigs?
Although there is no reason we couldn’t start saying “the gig is up” to mean “the gig is over,” the phrase isn’t well established.
“The jig is up,” on the other hand, is cited by lexicographers all over the western hemisphere. Indeed, in his Dictionary of Historical Slang, Eric Partridge points out that “the jig is up” was actually “standard English” until 1850, when it slid down a few notches to colloquial status.
I think it’s a movie quote from “Blazing Saddles”.
“Pat” who? This article is about “James” Dobson.