What is the reference or origin of the phrase "Goodbye cruel world!" ?
464968
I think it was a song by James Darren -\nhttp://www.jacquedee63.com/goddbyecruelworld.html
388394
'Free world' is a mere abstraction. It is identical to saying 'perfectly red'. In this light, 'free world' appears to be an idealist concept. Perhaps we are then talking also about an "idea" (say idealized idea) of the world, a sort of archetype to which all its poor materializations refer.\n\n'Utopian' originated from the famous 'Utopy' of Thomas More. The word has become a commonplace referring to something unreachable which tends to darken somehow its originally meaning. I do not see any dark meaning in the notion of the 'free world' though.\n\nPlease, do not forget to vote for the best answer!
801029
Another fun fact! There's an amazing german song that translates to "Until the end of the world"\n\nI'm looking forward to the end of SOMETHING so I can either be proved very wrong (turns out there is a God) or very right (humans will kill themselves off somehow and in their last momments believe it's God's doing)
1136480
It is used now in many places. In songs and everywhere. I think that this line came from a "tall dark handsome stranger".\n"tall dark handsome stranger" came from language\nlanguage came from man\nman came from God\nSo ultimately God made this line = "tall dark handsome stranger".
6939
Perhaps you are thinking of this quote:\n\n"Massacre, torture, and black despair; / Reading it all in my easy-chair."\n\nThat quotation is from the poem "Theology in Extremis" by Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall (1835-1911).  The poem was first published in 1889.  Hope this helps. :-)
23392
This is what I found: "It sounds as if this expression for surviving or overcoming nearly insuperable obstacles ought to have a nautical origin, doesn’t it? But there’s no evidence to support that.\n\nIt appears in print around the beginning of the twentieth century. The first example I’ve found is from 1901, but there is a substantial set in the books and newspapers later in that decade, showing that it had by then become widely known. The first form that appears is hell and high water; the form you give, which is now standard, comes along several decades later, together with through hell and high water and variations.\n\nThe setting of many of the earliest examples strongly point to cattle ranching as the origin, in particular the driving of cattle to railheads in the mid West in the latter part of the nineteenth century. In 1939 Paul Wellman published a book with the title Trampling Herd: the Story of the Cattle Range in America in which he wrote: “ ‘In spite of hell and high water’ is a legacy of the cattle trail when the cowboys drove their horn-spiked masses of longhorns through high water at every river and continuous hell between.”\n\nAn article about an old-time cattleman that appeared in the Washington Post in November 1905 supports this: “He prospered in those palmy days until he became the largest cattle owner in the territory and felt able to take his regular blowout in St Louis, until 1884, when, between the alien land law, drought and rustlers, the “hell and high water of the cattlemen,” he ... walked out of the Kansas City stock yards a few hundred thousand dollars worse off and no cattle worth putting an iron on, much less pulling grass by hand to feed.”"
790116
It means that the the speaker is fearful of a rumored threat, and (as others have pointed out) comes from the classic Wizard of Oz.\n\nThere was no "song" accompanying this quote, though Dorothy, Tin Man, and Scarecrow chanted it rhythmically as they proceeded through the Spooky Forest (I'd turn back if I were you).
219084
It's from a Three Stooges movie, "Gents Without Cents" made in 1944. Curly says \n"Niagra Falls" and Moe (who was under some sort of post-hypnotic suggestion? I don't \nremember) turns on him and launches into the speech. (I dunno. Seemed funny when I was \na kid.) See www.imdb.com for good sources of movie quotes, trivia, etc.\n\n: : This was also from an Abbott and Costello movie entitled "Lost in A Harem".\n: : Many of Bud and Lou's best-known routines were vaudeville and/or burlesque \nstandards. The "Niagara Falls" bit ("Slowly I turned, step by step, inch by inch...I \ntook my revenge.") was performed by many teams before becoming identified with Abbott \n& Costello.
441123
Duh! got its start as a derogatory imitation of the sounds made by severely mentally handicapped people[citation needed]. Eventually, it worked its way into sarcastic usage.
809846
Blast from the past- it means up to mischief or " no good"  I do not know where it came from but it has been around since at least the 30-40's  \n\nI just googled shenanigans and it is from the 1920's and there actually was a play named that.  Try Wikipedia- but I am right about the meaning.
735769
The quote did not in fact come from the man (R.R.) hlmself, but from a Brit satirical TV show (1984-1996) Spitting Image. The program used to lampoon the good & great  (also the not so good) of that era. No one escaped the wrath of the puppets that portrayed the caricatures, even the Queen (Lizzie Windsor) and her husband (Phil the Greek) got a pasting. It was however deemed an "Honour" to be portrayed as a puppet, some even tried to purchase their "doubles".  All good clean typically British sense of humour. But one can almost see RR saying it.
1029528
The Robert Frost poem from which this phrase was pulled is an ironic poem.  Frost was actually saying the opposite of the title.  Fences, for Frost, make poor neighbors.
195641
The idiom is apparently derived from a centuries-old Scottish proverb, though some other references to pigs flying or pigs with wings are more famous. Here is one such reference from Lewis Carroll:\n\n"Thinking again?" the Duchess asked, with another dig of her sharp little chin.\n"I've a right to think," said Alice sharply, for she was beginning to feel a little worried.\n"Just about as much right," said the Duchess, "as pigs have to fly...." — Alice in Wonderland, chapter 9.
464283
Lol...Comedian Rodney Dangerfield said that one!\n\n\nP.S. Mark790, Rodney died almost two years ago :(
139535
No it's a reference to Cruella DeVille from 101 Dalmations.
737181
It sounds like a line from the old "Star Trek," when someone was insulting Mr. Spock.\n\nHis answer would probably have been something like, "If you are expecting an answer, your question is illogical. If your question is rhetorical I expect you are trying to insult me which is impossible since I'm incapable of feeling emotion and therefore - feeling insulted."
225140
I don't know if there's much etymology of the phrase, but here's an article about it which puts forth some interesting possibilities of the origin.\n\nQuote from the site:\n\n"Some linguists and historians think the expression must have been well known during the war years, citing a story about General Eisenhower's dog. The story goes that the dog (Felix) urinated on a map and the officers joked that the enemy was "pissed off." (Leonard Mosely, Marshall, 1982)."