One trick pony

Subject: One trick pony
From: greg stephens
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 09:30 AM

Two or three weeks back, this phrase was unfmailiar to me. Then in one week I heard Jo Grundy say it on the Archers, and also heard two BBC journalists use it on news programmes. Since then it has appeared unceasingly everywhere. What suddenly brought it to prominence?

Subject: Lyr Add: ONE TRICK PONY (Paul Simon)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 09:44 AM

He's a one trick pony
One trick is all that horse can do
He does one trick only
It's the principal source of his revenue
And when he steps into the spotlight
You can feel the heat of his heart
Come rising through

See how he dances
See how he loops from side to side
See how he prances
The way his hooves just seem to glide
He's just a one trick pony (that's all he is)
But he turns that trick with pride

He makes it look so easy
He looks so clean
He moves like god's
Immaculate machine
He makes me think about
All of these extra movements I make
And all of this herky-jerky motion
And the bag of tricks it takes
To get me through my working day
One-trick pony

He's a one trick pony
He either fails or he succeeds
He gives his testimony
Then he relaxes in the weeds
He's got one trick to last a lifetime
But that's all a pony needs

(Paul Simon)

Subject: RE: One trick pony
From: Jeri
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 09:54 AM

Possibly one of those butterfly wing things. Somebody said it at a party, and a scriptwriter heard it. The scriptwriter wrote it into the show and a lot of other people heard it and repeat it. It's a fad phrase.

The phrase 'hunker down' was all over the place during Gulf War I. People do this with songs, too. Have you ever gone to a festival and heard one song sung several times, by different performers? You go home, and the next time your around a group of people who are singing, somebody sings it. (And the guy sitting next to him exclaims, "Damn! I wuz gonna sing that!) It's oral transmission, alive and well in the 21st century. Can't help it - human beings are hard-wired to hear and (creatively) repeat.

Have some fun - start saying it wrong and see how far the wrong version will get. Maybe "One track pony," or instead of "He's a one-trick pony," say, "He's won a trick pony."

Subject: RE: One trick pony
From: Megan L
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 09:57 AM

Jeri your post reminded me of when my pal and i did just that we got called to the headmasters office because the entire school ended up collecting milk bottle tops for Blind dogs for the guides.

Subject: RE: One trick pony
From: Limpit
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 11:53 AM

My mummy calls it the Stanley Stamp gibbon cataloge

Limpit

Subject: RE: One trick pony
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 06:29 PM

love Paul Simon and the song and the film, cos Pauls in there, but he knows nothing about being an unsuccessful musician. lucky sod. which is incidentally the subject of the fim.

Subject: RE: One trick pony
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 12:39 AM

Jeri is so right. For a while recently I kept seeing the phrase "fresh hell." I know it's from a famous quotation, but I couldn't track it down.

Subject: RE: One trick pony
From: Snuffy
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 09:14 AM

Greg, the expression has been around for quite a while to my knowledge. It can be used at a festival when you hear a singer perform the same song for the fourth time that weekend (this is usually in singarounds, less frequently in concerts).

Subject: RE: One trick pony
From: Auggie
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 01:57 PM

The origin of the phrase goes back to the days of traveling circuses. Small ones with no major acts and no menagerie of exotic animals were derided as being dog and pony shows, since those were the major performers. To further denigrate the show, detractors would say that it had a one trick pony...why it's useage would suddenly become more commonplace is beyond me.

Subject: RE: One trick pony
From: Cool Beans
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 03:06 PM

"Fresh hell" comes from Dorothy Parker who, every time the phone rang is said to have grumbled, "What fresh hell is this?" The question was used as the title of a Parker biography. By the way, my wife and I say the same thing whenever the phone rings and we're usually right.
(Off-thread, but you asked...)

Subject: RE: One trick pony
From: JJ
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 09:05 AM

While it is indeed true that Dorothy Parker would mutter "What fresh hell is this?" whenever the phone rang, Mrs. Parker took the phrase from what we in the theatre call "The Scottish Play."

Subject: RE: One trick pony
From: Cool Beans
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 10:21 AM

Thanks, JJ! I didn't know that.

Subject: RE: One trick pony
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 09:07 PM

Thanks for the info. So often, it all goes back to the Bard.