M N X Files

I did not expect to let a whole month pass before explaining my last post.

The gag should be self-evident — or easily realized once the character peeking in registers — to Americans born during, oh, the past 70-80 years. I thought of it when texting with my niece about this routine my grandfather used to recite:

“F U N E X?”

“S, V F X.”

“F U N E M?”

“S, V F M.”

“O K, L F M N X.”

There’s a lot of material dating to the era of his childhood and young adulthood —
very broadly speaking, the first half of the 20th Century — whose provenance is hard to determine with oral tradition in social gatherings and at vaudeville shows predating, and then informing, radio broadcasts (let alone television, and never mind broadcasts that were reliably preserved).

Our current technology has made such hunts easier due to so many conversations and even artifacts being shared on and globally searchable via the Internet, but the ultimate source of the above is almost certainly lost to the mists of time. I don’t want to seem ignorant of the antecedents of my Green Eggs and Ham gag, however, plus which repeating the routine here may draw in a visitor with knowledge of its origins, if any is to be had, some fine day.

Moreover, I enjoy the opportunity to remember my grandfather in a public space and remain deeply grateful to the universe that all eight of his great-grandchildren have memories of him and my grandmother, sad though it is that this bounty was exclusive to one side of the family.


Related: Words to the Wise • Oh, The Places I’ll Go in My
Head to Amuse Myself • This Is the Title of This Blogpost