page_title: 23 skidoo (phrase)
section_title: Examples of use
hierarchical_section_title: 23 skidoo (phrase) / Examples of use
caption_attribution_description: English: Early 20th century button with the phrase "23 SKIDOO!" in black on yellow within a red circle.
context_page_description: 23 skidoo is an American slang phrase popularized during the early 20th century. It generally refers to leaving quickly, being forced to leave quickly by someone else, or taking advantage of a propitious opportunity to leave, that is, "getting [out] while the getting's good." The exact origin of the phrase is uncertain.
  23 skidoo has been described as "perhaps the first truly national fad expression and one of the most popular fad expressions to appear in the U.S," to the extent that "Pennants and arm-bands at shore resorts, parks, and county fairs bore either [23] or the word 'Skiddoo'."
  "23 skidoo," first attested in 1906, combines two earlier expressions, "twenty-three" and "skidoo", both of which, independently and separately, referred to leaving, being kicked out, or the end of something. "23 skidoo" quickly became a popular catch-phrase after its first appearance in early 1906.
  In the 1935 movie Call of the Wild starring Clark Gable and Loretta Young, actor Jack Oakie used the phrase '23 Skidoo' to remove two loud bar patrons.
context_section_description: The Love Sonnets of a Car Conductor (1908): 
  A True McGlook once handed this to me:
  When little Bright Eyes cuts the cake for you
  Count twenty ere you eat the honey-goo
  Which leads to love and matrimony – see?
  A small-change bunk what's bats on spending free
  Can't four-flush when he's paying rent for two.
  The pin to flash on Cupid is 'Skidoo!'
  The call for Sweet Sixteen is 23."
  — Wallace Irwin, The Love Sonnets of a Car Conductor, 1908 
  The House Boat Boys; or Drifting Down to the Sunny South (1912): 
  "Just back up along the beach, and if you make the first move to do anything I'm going to shoot. Now, twenty-three for yours, mister, skidoo! We don't want your company; not today," said Thad.
  — St. George Rathbone, The House Boat Boys (1912) 
  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943): 
  He dispersed the crowd very simply by telling them he'd send for the pie wagon and take them all down to the station house if they didn't twenty-three skidoo.
  — Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn 
  Cheaper by the Dozen (1948): 
  He took Mother for a ride in his first automobile.... As Dad and Mother, dressed in dusters and wearing goggles, went scorching through the streets of Boston, bystanders tossed insults and ridicule in their direction.... "Get a horse. Twenty-three skidoo."
  — Frank B. Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, Cheaper by the Dozen 
  The saying was in popular usage prior to 1912, as it appears in the transcript of the Titanic Inquiry: 
  6341. Then was it that watertight door, which you see on the plan is in the alleyway, which is in front of your room?
   - I am not sure, but I think it is No. 23 door.
  6342. I do not know their numbers, but was it the one just forward of your room?
   - Yes, in the alleyway.
  6343. And you actually saw them doing that?
   - Yes, they were working on it.
  6344. You are quite right; it is No. 23 door?
   - We used to call it the skidoo door, on account of the number. That is how I remember the number.
  6345. (The Commissioner.) I do not understand that?
   - It is an American joke.
  6346. Will you explain it?
   - I could not explain it, my Lord.
  6347. (The Solicitor-General.) At any rate it connects No. 23 with something about skidoo?
   - Yes.
  William S. Burroughs wrote a short story in 1967 called "23 Skidoo".
  In an episode of Popeye the Sailor Man (1954), called "Taxi-Turvy", Olive Oyl asks Popeye to take her to 23 Skidoo Street: "23 Skidoo Street, driver."
  Aleister Crowley in The Book of Lies (ca. 1912–13) titled Chapter 23 "Skidoo" with the comment: "23" and "Skidoo" are American words meaning "Get out".
  Jackson Browne's song "It's Been Raining Here in Long Beach" (1967).  Also performed by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band: 
  I was a drunken lout, I ran about
  With ladies that I knew
  I did 'em wrong all night long
  Singing 23 skidoo
  There was a 1980s post-punk band named 23 Skidoo.
  John Prine's song "Jesus, The Missing Years" (1991): 
  And Charley bought some popcorn, Billy bought a car
  Someone almost bought the farm but they didn't go that far
  And things shut down at midnight, at least 'round here they do
  'Cause we all reside down the block inside at 23 Skidoo
  MF DOOM's song "Sofa King" (2005): 
  Kept all his earnings in the bank and his shoe
  Spat what he knew, energy for true
  To all fake rappers, 23 skidoo
  In Pacific Theater of WW2 Captain Perry J. Dahl flew a P-38 Lightning named 23 Skidoo with the 432nd Fighter Squadron of the 475th Fighter Group. He was credited with the destruction of 9 enemy aircraft in aerial combat.
  Jazz pianist Herbie Nichols recorded his instrumental "2300 Skidoo" circa 1955.
caption: "23 SKIDOO!" on an early 20th century button
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