Customer suspected of stealing meat dies in fight with employee at grocery store

WFTV ^ | June 25, 2020

[Amberdawn]

We use the phrase around here too in SE Pa.

[Pollster1]

You guessed correctly.

[Fightin Whitey]

Right, thanks.

Of course in my youthful days the word "kid" was filled in with a more shi...I mean more gritty term lol.

[frank ballenger]

Jack Paar made the phrase famous and wrote his autobiography with the title:

I Kid You Not (1961 hardcover)

---

Story:
I KID YOU NOT - Catchphrase used by Jack Paar. Paar, host of the Tonight Show from 1957 to 1962, “invented the talk-show format as we know it: the ability to sit down and make small talk big,” said Merv Griffin. Paar died on January 27, 2004, at age 85. “Even youngsters sent to bed before Mr. Paar came on parroted his jaunty catchphrase, ‘I kid you not.’” From “He invented late-night talk, then walked away,” and article in the Herald-Leader, Lexington, Ky., January 28, 2004.
“Mr. Paar took over the flagging NBC slot some months after Steve Allen left with his variety show... Despite his continued popularity, Mr. Paar grew tired of the grind and quit his late-night show in March 1962. That October, after a succession of interim hosts, Johnny Carson began his 30-year run as host.” From Obituary: Original King of Late Night
JACK PAAR - 1918-2004. St. Petersburg Times, Fla.,

[Fightin Whitey]

Great to know.

Thanks for digging it up.

I was too young and dumb for Paar but I remember adults I was around would comment that Carson was a lightweight compared to Paar.