who started the whole "wait for it" line? (1 Viewer)

[EricW]

you know what i mean... i remember in Arrested Development; GOB would say stuff like "macaroni, wait for it... with cheese!". How I Met Your Mother's Barney says "Legen, wait for it... dary!". i was just wondering if there are any references that predate these.

 

[Hanson]

I started using it way before AD and HIMYM, but it was definitely a movie or TV reference. I always repeat it twice with a pause (wait for it... wait for it...), because that's how I originally heard it. I can't remember where it came from -- at one point, I though it was Scrooged, but it wasn't. The last time my friends and I tried to figure it out, all I could come up with was Star Wars. But I'd like to know as well just so I can tell my friends.

 

[Louis C]

It dates back at least as far back as Schwatzenegger in Kindergarten Cop. He tell the kids to "wait for it" with his whistle.

 

[Francois Caron]

Wasn't it from Monty Python? I can't remember exactly which episode though, but I do believe it was pronounced by John Cleese.

 

[EricW]

was it used in the same context? does anyone have specific lines?

 

[Linda Thompson]

Looks like others have wracked their brains over this one too, with no absolutely definitive answer...

http://theappleblog.com/2005/06/09/w...t-wait-for-it/

(Start at response #4)

 

[EricW]

that thread is interesting but the way i was referring to the usage of "wait for it" in the original post is pretty specific, as in they say a word/phrase that you usually don't split up, except in this particualr joke they put the "wait for it" in the middle

 

[Jonathan Kaye]

Can't recall one offhand in the TV series, but there was a "wait for it" in Life of Brian:

"Crucifixion party! Wait for it...Crucifixion party! By the left! Forward!"

The earliest I can recall the line used that way is in British Second World War films (or comedies referencing same), often by gruff sergeants to over-eager troops who were anticipating an order too quickly.

 

[MikeEn]

My girlfriend in 10th grade.

 

[LarryDavenport]

I think it's a British military thing. It was in Monty Python's "And Now For Something Completely Different" but you'll probably find it in British war movies prior to that. I think John Cleese said it in the self defense against fruit sketch, and Graham Chapman used it in at least one link.

 

[Jerome Grate]

A line my six year old son uses along with, "didn't see that coming..." He asked me that once as where the line came from and I couldn't answer him. Maybe the answer will come here.