If your preferred feed is Twitter, you can follow to get My name is Steve Dodson I’m a retired copyeditor currently living in western Massachusetts after many years in New York City. ** Whenever I occasionally hear Bob’s signoff now, my mind automatically associates it with another thumb pain joke that I remember guffawing at in my childhood, the great Gonzo attempting to put the thumbscrews to Lynn Redgrave (at 7:32).Ĭommented-On Language Hat Posts (courtesy of J.C. My brother kept his intro and signoff short, but he sometimes lost points from judges who wanted something longer. He told me some of his competitors would spend as much as thirty seconds (of their five-minute time slots) on their signoffs-branding exercises for their fictional radio shows.

He detested having to have a fake introduction and signoff for his presentations, as if he were a real radio jock. * My younger brother competed in the radio commentary event at speech tournaments when he was in high school. RAY: This is Ray Goulding reminding you to write if you get work.īOB: Bob Elliott reminding you to hang by your thumbs.īesides just being silly, these were a parody of cheesy radio signoffs.* The additional joke in Bob’s, “hang by your thumbs,” is that it sounds superficially like an upbeat exhortation to hang in there-except that actually hanging by the thumbs would be painful** to the point of probable impossibility, ruining the metaphor. The usual signoff for Bob and Ray’s various shows would be a variation of:

37 ‘Shall I tell him you’re coming?’ ‘Yes please. 17/5 Switchboard operators have been trained not to keep any caller ‘hanging on’.ġ969 S. 70 Hang on a moment… Mummy wants to speak to you.ġ960 Daily Tel. Used in a telephone conversation in the sense of ‘hold the line’.ġ936 R. 26/1 Hang on a minute… I’m coming with you.Ĥ. Slang 34 Hang on!, be reasonable! Not so fast.ġ971 Woman’s Own 27 Mar. 262 I’d better hang on and have a word with her.ġ941 S. Frequently in imperative: ‘be patient’, ‘be reasonable!’ġ939 J. 179 Hang it on, purposely to delay or protract the performance of any task or service you have undertaken, by dallying and making as slow a progress as possible.ģ. to hang it out at Phrasal verbs ( slang.)ġ819 J. to hang it on: to delay or protract a matter cf. 259/2 Each aircraft hangs on to the tail of the one directly in front.Ģ. 193/1 Lacking roots in the soil of any particular country, Whistler had always to ‘hang on by his eyebrows’.ġ958 Listener 21 Aug. (1931) 260 She is always hanging on by her eyebrows, whereas the German is comfortably seated in a solid, permanent, broadbottomed engagement.ġ931 Times Lit. 56 What does he do now? Oh, he hangs on at the Nonpareil.ġ899 G. 61 Charlotte.is still hanging on at her mother’s.with nothing to do.ġ861 E. To remain clinging, to continue to adhere: usually implying expectation, or unwillingness to sever one’s connection.ġ860 J. ‘I’ll hang in there now that I’ve waited this long.’ġ. 25/7 Mrs Mao had him down and almost out, but he hung in.ġ984 J. Heller Good as Gold 347 Hang in there, if you can, until his eyes turn glassy and he starts to yawn.ġ982 Observer 26 Sept.

39 Rose Mary Woods is hanging in, but her friends say it has been difficult.ġ979 J. To make sense to fit in or carry through, as a conclusion that is appropriate for what went before.ġ974 New York 18 Mar. Amer.) 15/1 Hang in there, buddy, you’ll soon feel better. 98 Hang in (there).ġ971 Atlantic Monthly May 6/1 has a long history of coming from behind.and of confronting adversities, and it would be in his nature to hang in there and fight.ġ972 Dict. colloquial (chiefly U.S.).ġ969 New Yorker 14 June 44/3 He tries a careful, hang-in-there, soft crosscourt top-spin dink.ġ971 E.

To persist in spite of adversity (as of a boxer apparently facing defeat) to hold out or endure also, to wait around. Here’s the OED entry, with citations (s.v.

Hang in there phrases