JOHNNY GETS THE RUNS

[stevezodiac]

I wonder if the editor had a little giggle when he put this in the comic.

[Phoenix]

I doubt it, Steve, because I think the expression to get the runs in the sense of diarrhoea is relatively modern. The first serial with the title Johnny Get The Runs started in The Wizard in June 1957. The sequel, the one your illustration comes from, started in April 1958, and added the subtitle Captain Of Australia only in issues 1687, 1688, 1690 and 1691. I have decent English dictionaries from the thirties, the forties, the fifties and the sixties, but the expression to get the runs does not appear in any of them. This doesn't actually prove that the expression wasn't in general use, of course, but my gut feeling is that it wasn't and that the diarrhoea meaning would not even have crossed the editor's mind. For me it is in the same category as stories like The Boy Who Licked Napoleon, which started in Adventure in March 1946, the double meaning only vaguely amusing even now.

[Lew Stringer]

Sorry to contribute to another toilet humour thread but it's quite an old fashioned phrase and I'm sure it would have been in use in the 1950s.

[Phoenix]

it's quite an old fashioned phrase and I'm sure it would have been in use in the 1950s.

If you could back up your certainty with proof, Lew, it would be helpful. I don't know the answer, as I have already said, but before posting my reply to Steve this afternoon I did take the trouble to consult a range of dictionaries, phrase books, including one on their origins, three books on slang, ancient and modern, Roget's Thesaurus and a book of euphemisms, without finding any reference to the phrase whatsoever. There is one in my New Oxford Dictionary of English, but that only dates from the nineties.

[Digifiend]

Even so, in these politically correct times, I doubt they'd use that title nowadays.

[Phoenix]

Even so, in these politically correct times, I doubt they'd use that title nowadays.

The title doesn't use the word gets, Digi. It uses get and is therefore more an exhortation to the young batsman Johnny Gillard to help deliver victory by getting the necessary runs for his side, or a nickname because that is precisely what he does. In any case getting the runs is a genuinely acceptable usage within the game of cricket so I don't see why it couldn't be used nowadays as a title for a story. What is politically incorrect about it?

[Lew Stringer]

Even so, in these politically correct times, I doubt they'd use that title nowadays.

I think we could quite easily. Toilet humour is all the rage don't you know. Haven't you read Toxic and Dandy Xtreme?

As for the overused term "political correctness" comedian and comic fan Stewart Lee nails it brilliantly in his stand up routine...

(Warning: Extreme bad language in this clip):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGAOCVwLrXo

[Lew Stringer]

it's quite an old fashioned phrase and I'm sure it would have been in use in the 1950s.

If you could back up your certainty with proof, Lew, it would be helpful. I don't know the answer, as I have already said, but before posting my reply to Steve this afternoon I did take the trouble to consult a range of dictionaries, phrase books, including one on their origins, three books on slang, ancient and modern, Roget's Thesaurus and a book of euphemisms, without finding any reference to the phrase whatsoever. There is one in my New Oxford Dictionary of English, but that only dates from the nineties.

You could well be right Phoenix but I'm not getting bogged down into researching it.

[Raven]

You could well be right Phoenix but I'm not getting bogged down into researching it.

"No, you wouldn't want to get too ANAL when researching THE RUNS, eh, readers!"

[Phoenix]

As for the overused term "political correctness" comedian and comic fan Stewart Lee nails it brilliantly in his stand up routine.

Nice clip, Lew.

You could well be right Phoenix but I'm not getting bogged down into researching it.

Well you've still got a living to make, Lew. At least I'm retired and can waste my time, if the fancy so takes me, on such time-consuming research and hairsplitting without incurring any loss of earnings.

[Kashgar]

As I recall Johnny was still getting the runs in the pages of Victor in the late 1960's,
and in pictures too!
It is hard to imagine that a phrase as descriptive as 'getting the runs' for a condition that has plagued mankind's innards since time imemorial is not itself of antique origin.
I'd certainly think that its been part of the British vernacular since at least our conquest of India. The sub-continent having exacted its revenge on the British alimentary canal since the days of Clive and beyond with ailments as diverse as the Bombay Crut and the Delhi Trots.

[Phoenix]

It is hard to imagine that...
I'd certainly think that...

As always, your views are interesting, Kashgar, but they are in essence no different from Lew's. However, what I'm doing is asking for proof that the expression existed prior to the first Johnny Gillard serial in The Wizard. I actually don't care two hoots but I will not be persuaded until somebody can provide me with a quotation from a newspaper, comic, travelogue or novel etc., which would resolve the issue one way or the other.

[colcool007]

As I recall Johnny was still getting the runs in the pages of Victor in the late 1960's,
and in pictures too!
It is hard to imagine that a phrase as descriptive as 'getting the runs' for a condition that has plagued mankind's innards since time imemorial is not itself of antique origin.
I'd certainly think that its been part of the British vernacular since at least our conquest of India. The sub-continent having exacted its revenge on the British alimentary canal since the days of Clive and beyond with ailments as diverse as the Bombay Crut and the Delhi Trots.

And it was great art by Bert Vandeput as well.

[Kashgar]

I'm sure if you trawl through Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' their is a reference to 'getting ye runs' in the Wife of Bath's Tale.
Spot on with Bert Vandeput as the artist on the Victor strip version Col. BTW the heading block from the original was drawn by George Ramsbottom.

[Phoenix]

I'm sure if you trawl through Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' there is a reference to 'getting ye runs' in the Wife of Bath's Tale.

In my previous post I asked for a quotation from a work rather than the work itself. If you would please direct me to the relevant lines, Kashgar, it would save me a lot of trawling time.