Wellerism

The term wellerism is the international designation for a unique subgroup of proverbs. A wellerism usually consists of three parts: a short statement that is often a proverb or a proverbial expression, a speaker uttering it, and an unexpected situation in which the discourse takes place. Typical wellerisms from folk speech are “‘There’s no fool like an old fool,’ as the old man said when he married his fourth wife”; “‘Let there be light,’ murmured the raven-haired beauty, as she drew forth the peroxide bottle”; and “‘Keep your mouth shut,’ said Daniel, as he entered the lion’s den.” While such triadic formulations have also been called quotation proverbs, Yankeeisms, perverted proverbs, or anti-proverbs, the 19th-century word wellerism has been adopted as the general term. It was coined from the character Samuel Weller, who in Charles Dickens’s novel The Pickwick Papers (1836) makes ample use of such verbal twists that add considerable humor to his pregnant observations, among them “‘I only assisted natur,’ ma’m,’ as the doctor said to the boy’s mother, arter he’d bled him to death” and “‘If I do see your drift, it’s my ’pinion that you’re a comin’ it a great deal too strong,’ as the mail-coachman said to the snowstorm, ven it overtook him.”

To be sure, wellerisms did not originate with Dickens. They have been traced back to the Sumerian cuneiform tablets of about 2500 BCE; they have been found in writings of the ancient Egyptians; and they were certainly popular already in classical antiquity, with Plato citing “‘The water will tell you,’ said the guide when the travelers asked him how deep the river was.” Wellerisms have also been found in the oral tradition of Africa, but they gained particular popularity in northern Europe, with Martin Luther in Germany using their biting humor as an expressive form of satire. Following the success of Dickens’s Pickwick Papers in the United States, wellerisms became incredibly popular in magazines and newspapers as short statements full of puns, wit, humor, irony, and satire. The media experienced a literal welleristic craze with pages full of invented wellerisms based on this formerly orally transmitted genre of folk speech. The new literary creations exploited the triadic structure of the traditional wellerism to express various kinds of criticism by way of joking indirection. Some of these texts contained serious satirical comments regarding 19th-century American society and politics, while others were created for the sheer fun of verbal play that could also include sexual humor by way of a sanctioned folkloric structure. An example of frontier humor might be “‘Put on the steam! I am in haste,’ cried the snail that had crept into a railroad car”; having a bit of fun with the Bible comes through in “‘Eaves dropping again,’ said Adam, as his wife fell out of a tree”; and a wellerism like “‘Business before pleasure,’ as the man said when he kissed his wife before he went out to make love to his neighbor's,” enabled witty people to express some sexual humor in a rather puritanical environment.

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