Curb your hilarity!
There is now a creative and funny program on a cable channel in the states called "Curb Your Enthusiasm". The title phrase is one I've heard all my life, with no sense of its origin or history. Can anyone help?
I can remember hearing, "Curb your tongue, knave!" In other words, "Be quiet!" or "Shut up!"There is also the gentle reminder to, "Curb your dog!" meaning "Please have your dog do its business at the side of the road."
I am unsure of its origin.
I found a reference to similar catchphrase - "Desist! Curb your hilarity!" That was a "quip" used by George Robey. From Dictionary of Catch Phrases: American and British, from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day by Eric Partridge, updated and edited by Paul Beal, Scarborough House, Lanham, Md., 1992)
I don't know if the two phrases are related.
Replies
- Curb your hilarity! Smokey Stover 05/February/04
- Curb your hilarity! Driver 05/February/04
- Stifle yourself, Edith WordCrafter 05/February/04
- Curb your hilarity! Driver 05/February/04