You can't help but wonder at its origins.

It's a common motif in folklore stories and jokes. The first time I ran across it was in an article about jokes from US GIs in Saigon about prostitutes and broken Coke bottles. The next time was in an folklore class where the professor pointed me at Stith Thompson Motif-Index of Folk-Literature: A Classification of Narrative Elements in Folktales, Ballads, Myths, Fables, Mediaeval Romances, Exempla, Fabliaux, F547.1.1. There are quite a few Native American and First Nation tales from Washington and British Columbia that use the motif.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.