Pound (Arlo Award nominee)
Cidu Bill on Dec 21st 2009
Morris Keesan: The only way this could possibly have gotten past any newspaper or syndicate censor is if they don’t know what “pound sand” is short for, i.e. “go pound sand up your ass”.
Filed in Arlo Award, Bill Bickel, Darby Conley, Get Fuzzy, comic strips, comics, humor | 26 responses so far
Judge Mental Dec 21st 2009 at 03:21 pm 1
I have to admit I would be in the same boat as the censor. I first heard the expression “go pound sand” over thirty years ago, but never knew the longer unexpurgated version existed.
In my defense, I have *never* heard the expression uttered period from anyone in my part of the country (southeast US) , unless it was somebody transplanted from the Midwest (particular Chicago)
Charlene Dec 21st 2009 at 03:25 pm 2
I’ve never even heard the abbreviated phrase before, let alone the whole phrase.
Naomi Dec 21st 2009 at 03:54 pm 3
I’m with Judge Mental, except I hear the expression fairly commonly (only the three word
version.) I always thought it meant “go away”, as in pounding sand with your feet as you
trudge away in defeat…. now I feel kind of uncomfortable for ever having used it myself. Ugh.
RyanE Dec 21st 2009 at 04:00 pm 4
I’m also in the uninitiated group, even though I watch a lot of British TV.
Never heard of a long version of ‘Pound Sand’. I just thought the point was that pounding sand was pretty futile process.
yellojkt Dec 21st 2009 at 04:00 pm 5
There are a lot of phrases such as “SNAFU”, “money shot” and “your turn in the barrel” that have very obscene or scatological origins that are now part of the common lexicon.
And I never knew that “pound sand” meant anything other than “walk away into the desert and leave me alone.”
Targuman Dec 21st 2009 at 04:08 pm 6
As far as I can tell there are a number of possible etymologies of the phrase out on the Interwebs, but none that match Morris’ *ahem* colorful version. Most have something to do with pounding sand in holes, pounding a sand bag (as in boxing practice, i.e., futility), or “hitting the street.” Nothing rude about any of them.
padraig Dec 21st 2009 at 04:15 pm 7
Now that this barrier’s been breached, I’m anxiously waiting for a polite version of the expression “go piss up a rope.”
Rasheed Dec 21st 2009 at 04:19 pm 8
I’ve heard pound sand, but never in the same sentence as donkeys.
fuzzmaster Dec 21st 2009 at 04:37 pm 9
I always thought it was salt that you pounded.
src666 Dec 21st 2009 at 06:17 pm 10
I’ve also never heard of the “long” version. The short version has always been intended as a “go away and perform some fruitless activity that will keep you the heck out of my face” statement, in every case I’ve ever heard it used.
someone else Dec 21st 2009 at 06:55 pm 11
The school system I work with has been rolling out a huge computerized student information system for the last several years. Last year they added a Curriculum & Instruction Module, and when it’s referred to as C.I.M. I want to avoid giving any sign I’m aware of the pornographic meaning for those initials.
Frank the curmudgeon Dec 21st 2009 at 07:51 pm 12
Considering the source, “Pound Kitty Litter” would have been more appropriate.
Chakolate Dec 21st 2009 at 09:19 pm 13
The only version I’ve heard is ‘pound sand in my ear’, as in, nagging on and on.
furrykef Dec 21st 2009 at 10:40 pm 14
someone else — I haven’t heard of that one, and I’ve “been around” the internets as much as anybody, I think. (Yes, I’ve looked it up, so you don’t have to explain…)
Heather D Dec 21st 2009 at 11:11 pm 15
“pound sand up your ass” doesn’t even make sense…
I’d also never heard the expression, and assuming that Bucky was indeed meaning “pound kitty litter.”
Mark in Boston Dec 22nd 2009 at 12:05 am 16
Tolkien slipped an even better one past the censors, in the “Riddles in the Dark” chapter of “The Hobbit”, where Gollum remembers sitting on the river bank next to his grandmother, teaching her to suck eggs.
Usual John Dec 22nd 2009 at 01:09 am 17
Like most of us, I’ve never heard this longer version, which appears to be a recent and not yet widely-accepted variation, having nothing to do with the original phrase. I would hope that a sensible editor would not block a good strip simply because a few people have started using a variant form of the phrase. Here are the relevant definitions and examples from the Oxford English Dictionary:
7. trans. N. Amer. colloq.
a. to pound sand: to engage in a pointless, menial task. Usu. as a command, expressing dismissal or contempt.
1857 A. SMITH City Poems 169 Peopled now By outcasts, sullen men, bold girls who sat Pounding sand in the sun. 1905 Decatur (Illinois) Rev. 9 Apr. 5/2 If he told them to pound sand, they would pound sand, and think that it was the finest thing in the world. 1926 L. H. NASON Chevrons vi. 195 You guys was too easy!.. Whyncha tell him to pound sand? 1977 Lethbridge (Alberta) Herald 7 May (Mag. section) 3/3 Masses of men and women are going to tell the McMartrys and Carters of this world to go pound sand. 2004 T. BERLING Reeling in Years v. 153 Usually I tell the individual advancing the critique, ‘Go pound sand up your ass’.
b. to have sense enough to pound sand: used chiefly in negative constructions to imply a lack of competence or intelligence.
1877 Globe (Atchison, Kansas) 26 Dec. 1/4 We don’t know whether the young man you refer to knows enough to pound sand or not. 1894 Los Angeles Times 19 Aug. 5/4 The chairman who didn’t know enough to pound sand with a club. 1937 W. M. RAINE Bucky follows Cold Trail ii. 17 You haven’t sense enough to pound sand in a rat hole. 1963 Washington Post 24 June A24/2 If the United Golf Association had the brains to pound sand, Francis would have been refree [sic] of this round. 1994 Charleston (W. Va.) Gaz. (Electronic ed.) 24 May 11A, He ain’t got sense enough to pound sand in a rathole.
Father Bruno Di Frocco Dec 22nd 2009 at 04:04 am 18
Pounding sand up one’s anal orifice was a common directive in the US Army at least as far back as the Vietnam war. I’d guess the expression worked its way fairly easily into the Southeast, what with all the Army installations in the region. Like “get bent,” it was/is a gentler, kinder way of telling someone to … uh … engage in behavior that We Nice People would consider not only nasty but also sorta improbable, physically.
aoeu Dec 22nd 2009 at 04:04 am 19
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/go-pound-sand.html
This is sometimes used with the intention of meaning ‘go and beat/whack sand’ - with the back of a shovel or similar. That’s not the original meaning though, as is made clear from the longer and less-often used version of the phrase - ‘go pound sand up your ass’.
Indeed, quite Arlo-worthy - but nobody knows that.
“Sod off” is similar, with “sod” coming from “sodomy”.
Hunt Dec 22nd 2009 at 08:57 am 20
It seems to me that the short version makes sense, and is supported by the oldest really relevant quotation above, the OED one from the OED. I would posit that the longer version is just an intensifier, sort of like “and the horse you rode in on.”
Jeff S. Dec 22nd 2009 at 09:39 am 21
Neither my wife nor I had heard of the longer version until now. I’ve only heard the short version, which I always took to mean “piss off”.
padraig Dec 22nd 2009 at 10:49 am 22
The mention of “sod off” reminds me of how British characters on American TV shows often get away with expressions that aren’t allowed on BBC, like wanker and tosser, because presumably Americans don’t know what they mean. Spike on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” constantly used Brit vulgarities. I snorked at his description of the stuffy English character Giles’ life flashback: “Spot of tea, spot of tea, almost got shagged, spot of tea…”
p.s. to Buffyphiles — Spike didn’t know Giles was also Ripper. Still funny.
The Bad Seed Dec 22nd 2009 at 11:27 am 23
Whether the short phrase or the longer version came first is inconsequential to whether the censors should have flagged the short version. Everyone knows what curse word “freaking”, “fracking”, “frigging”, and the like are pretty thinly-veiled replacements for, yet they pretty instantly skipped right into regular parlance, including prime-time TV. I remember being shocked how quickly mainstream America embraced these words, considering how close they are to the original.
CIDU Bill Dec 22nd 2009 at 01:44 pm 24
Better yet, Padraig, right there on the opening credits each week, we saw Spike giving the British version of the “middle finger.”
Mark in Boston Dec 22nd 2009 at 04:49 pm 25
John Cleese, on an American talk show, refered to someone as “a right Berk.” The host asked what a Berk is. “It’s Cockney rhyming slang.” Rhyming with what? “Berkeley Hunt.”
Todd Dec 23rd 2009 at 04:03 pm 26
I have to go with those who believe “pound sand” means pounding the sand under your feet with your feet, as in walk away, and the longer version came from James Dean-wannabe who thought he was being witty.