Go on! Put an egg in your shoe and beat it.
What does "Put an egg in your shoe and beat it" mean?
9
-
3It means, take an egg, put it in your shoe, and beat it :) – user3459110 Jun 1 '14 at 6:53
-
2cf "make like a tree and leave." – James McLeod Jun 1 '14 at 9:59
20
It's a pun involving two senses of the word "beat". "Beat it" means "get out of here" and one can beat an egg to scramble it.
There are a few similar puns, such as "Make like a tree and leave".
-
+1 I didn't get the "beat an egg" connection myself! Why was this downvoted? – Martin Smith May 31 '14 at 18:59
-
And to beat it, you have to run away, i.e. use your feet; feet=shoe(s). – Mari-Lou A May 31 '14 at 19:31
-
2
-
0
A quick Google search would supply you the answer from multiple sources.
It means "Leave!" or "Get lost!"
For example:
Ugh, can't you see I'm busy right now? Go put an egg in your shoe and beat it!
-
I've heard the expression "beat it" but not with the egg reference. Is this the origin of the shorter expression or is the longer one a play on it as Jim implies? – Martin Smith May 31 '14 at 19:03
-
@MartinSmith I assume the longer form comes from "beat it!" It makes sense intuitively. The command beat it (meaning) "go away" (was) first recorded 1906. The idiom referred to in the OP came about 50 years later. – njboot May 31 '14 at 19:10
-
From "beat a retreat" apparently (found an answer on this very site! english.stackexchange.com/a/67663/17611) – Martin Smith May 31 '14 at 19:13
0
The phrase smells like a manufactured idiom (i.e., no idiom at all) which means to 'Get out of here!'The model for this is 'Beat it!'. It means that one should beat an egg in one's shoe by moving their foot (toward the exit). As far as I know the only use of this so-called idiom was on a Saturday Night Live sketch, featuring Michael O'Donoghue as a nasty bartender at a roadside bar, dispensing cruelty to a boozy Laraine Newman. Newman is a whining woman who asks O'Donoghue for advice. He says: 'Put an egg in your shoe!'. Newman (puzzled): 'Put an egg in my shoe? O'Donoghue: 'Yeah... put an egg in your shoe--and beat it! ' O'Donoghue probably wrote this 'idiom' himself, as one of the writers of the show. He was that kind of guy.
-
First use on Google Books: 1910 (or earlier) in the story "What You Want" by O'Henry. Predates SNL by more than 60 years. – Peter Shor Jun 13 '14 at 14:51
-
Can't wait for year 2040. This 'idiom' comes around about as often as Halley's Comet. – user3847 Jun 14 '14 at 11:14
-
Wasn't "Put an egg in your shoe and beat it" first used in an old Leo Gorcey East Side Kids Movie? – user87058 Aug 3 '14 at 0:02
