Stop me if you heard this one

"Stop me if you heard this one" (sometimes written more grammatically as "you've") is a cliche introduction to a joke or humorous anecdote by the teller. The phrase is merely rhetorical, while also being a way to acknowledge how old or commonly disseminated the joke is. The line was already a cliche by the 1920s; humorist Irvin S. Cobb, in a 1924 article, complained of the person who "when you, starting on a funny story, say 'Stop me if you've heard this one', does so. He stops you, dadburn him!"Cobb, Irvin S. "Irvin Cobb's Pet Bores." Hearst's International, November 1924.
The title was used for an old-time radio panel series (1939-1940, and again 1947-1948), initially hosted by Milton Berle with comedians and other humorists trying to guess punchlines. A variation of the phrase is "Have you heard the one about?" Either phrase became instant signifiers in pop culture of a hackneyed comedian.
==References==
*Teeny Little Superguy said it during the introductory theme song to his Sesame Street segments.
*Thomas Jefferson of Mount Rushmore begins his joke this way in The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence.
*Fozzie Bear, in his own mid-theme spot in The Muppet Show episode 123, asks Miss Piggy, "Have you heard the one about the very fat pig?" (She retorts with "Have you heard the one about this very flat bear?" and a karate chop.)
*The lyrics to the song "Ho Ho Ho (What a Funny World It Is)" in the Fraggle Rock episode "Fraggle Wars" include both "Have you heard the one about..." and, for the next monotone attempt at humor, "stop me if you heard this one."
*In the mid-credits gag for Muppet Treasure Island, with Long John Silver as a literal captive audience, Shecky the Tiki tells him "Stop me if you heard this one."
==Sources==
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Category:Joke References