Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
Collapse of stout party
English answer:
standard conventional punchline for a joke, associated with Punch magazine
Added to glossary by
Charles Davis
Nov 27, 2018 04:45
5 yrs ago
2 viewers *
English term
Maria
Collapse of stout party
English
Art/Literary
Poetry & Literature
Hello everyone!
I'm currently translating a piece from Julian Barnes's Love,etc and can't make head or tail of the phrase "collapse of stout party". There's practically nothing on the web but what I understood is that it refers to some joke with no information about the joke itself. Could you please explain to me what the phrase is about?
Thank you in advance!
I'm currently translating a piece from Julian Barnes's Love,etc and can't make head or tail of the phrase "collapse of stout party". There's practically nothing on the web but what I understood is that it refers to some joke with no information about the joke itself. Could you please explain to me what the phrase is about?
Thank you in advance!
Change log
Nov 27, 2018 04:45: Karen Zaragoza changed "Vetting" from "Needs Vetting" to "Vet OK"
Nov 27, 2018 04:45: Karen Zaragoza changed "Kudoz queue" from "In queue" to "Public"
Dec 11, 2018 07:26: Charles Davis Created KOG entry
Responses
+7
50 mins
Charles Davis
Spain
Spain
Native in English
&
English
Specializes in field
Spain
Related KudoZ points
:
236
Selected
standard conventional punchline for a joke, associated with Punch magazine
In practice it's simply a way of ending a joke, or used to be in Victorian times, and it's survived as a phrase without any exact meaning. It was supposedly used as the punchline of jokes in Punch, a humorous magazine founded in the mid-nineteenth century:
"The meaning of “collapse of stout party” is not precise. It was regularly used in Punch magazine, and was apparently a favourite punchline of Victorian anecdotes. The meaning is a mixture of:
· Ho ho ho!
· Tee hee chortle chortle!
· So there. With knobs on.
· Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
· Gotcha.
· Get out of that one.
· Nah nah nah nah nah."
https://2005-09.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm/bl...
Actually people don't seem to have found examples of the exact phrase in Punch. Here's a Punch cartoon from 1902 in which one of the characters is called "Stout Party" (and he certainly is):
"A BIG ORDER
Stout party (to waitress): Put me on a pancake, please!"
https://punch.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/Phil-May-Cartoo...
That is, "put a pancake on for me" (make me a pancake), but understood to mean "put me on top of a pancake" (that would be a big order). Not exactly side-splitting, but still.
I always imagined that it means that something so funny happened or was said that left the "stout party" (fat person) was lost for words or deflated, but actually it's just an (old-fashioned) conventional phrase.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2018-11-27 05:48:03 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
I've just looked up the context in which it's used by Julian Barnes in Love Etc. I found it here:
https://serchisbook.com/pulse-81194-by-julian-barnes.html
I won't quote it because it's a bit risqué, but basically you just want a phrase that means "That was telling him, wasn't it?", "He walked right into that", or words to that effect.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2018-11-27 06:00:33 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Or "That took the wind out of his sails!" (i.e. deflated him, left him lost for words).
"The meaning of “collapse of stout party” is not precise. It was regularly used in Punch magazine, and was apparently a favourite punchline of Victorian anecdotes. The meaning is a mixture of:
· Ho ho ho!
· Tee hee chortle chortle!
· So there. With knobs on.
· Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
· Gotcha.
· Get out of that one.
· Nah nah nah nah nah."
https://2005-09.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm/bl...
Actually people don't seem to have found examples of the exact phrase in Punch. Here's a Punch cartoon from 1902 in which one of the characters is called "Stout Party" (and he certainly is):
"A BIG ORDER
Stout party (to waitress): Put me on a pancake, please!"
https://punch.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/Phil-May-Cartoo...
That is, "put a pancake on for me" (make me a pancake), but understood to mean "put me on top of a pancake" (that would be a big order). Not exactly side-splitting, but still.
I always imagined that it means that something so funny happened or was said that left the "stout party" (fat person) was lost for words or deflated, but actually it's just an (old-fashioned) conventional phrase.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2018-11-27 05:48:03 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
I've just looked up the context in which it's used by Julian Barnes in Love Etc. I found it here:
https://serchisbook.com/pulse-81194-by-julian-barnes.html
I won't quote it because it's a bit risqué, but basically you just want a phrase that means "That was telling him, wasn't it?", "He walked right into that", or words to that effect.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2018-11-27 06:00:33 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Or "That took the wind out of his sails!" (i.e. deflated him, left him lost for words).
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Selected automatically based on peer agreement."
Something went wrong...