Happy Birthday Shakespeare!

Thank you for leavening the world with wonderful words and phrases:

Leapfrog and Bedazzled and Swagger

          All that glitters is not gold.

          Jealousy is the green eyed Monster.

          It’s a brave new world.

All Shakespeare.

But did you know that he is also the father of the Knock, knock! joke?

Yes! the Knock, knock! joke!

It all began in his famous tragedy.

In Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 3,  suddenly there is a knock knocking:

“Here’s a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of hell-gate, he should have old turning the key.

[Knocking]

Knock,
knock, knock! Who’s there, i’ the name of Beelzebub?”

The Bard’s tragic phrasing is far from the little supercilious jokes i told as a child:

Knock, knock!
Who’s there?
You.
You who?
Yoo-hoo! Anybody home?

Knock, knock!
Who’s there?
Canoe.
Canoe who?
Canoe come out now?

Knock, knock!
Who’s there?
Howl.
Howl who?
Howl you know unless you open the door?

Still, it’s good to remember—especially today—that Shakespeare was a trendsetter!

 

~Kimberly