Sunday, April 22, 2007

Well now, here we all are: Ike, Mike and Mustard

One of the funniest and most quotable movies of recent years is Shane Black's great Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. It has memorable quotes coming out its hole. Almost on a daily basis while having a shower* I say to myself:

Well here we all are: Ike, Mike, and Mustard

Said by literate henchmen, kinda like in Sin City, always intrigued me as I thought it was a reference to some obscure 1970s action movie or 1950s comedy troupe that I was not aware of. So geek that I am I spent about 45 minutes yesterday trying to find out who were, Ike Mike and Mustard. Like most Internet 'research' leads one round in trivia circles as all the search results reference the movie. There's even a blog called Ike, Mike, and Mustard this list of the best lines is good too.

So I'm still not sure whether it was a genuine reference of a tv show or a made up reference to specifically annoy geeks like me into thinking they didn't 'get' something and they get 'trivia panic' and have to look up stuff in the middle of the night like, how many actors have played Orson Welles, or what's that film where Katie Holmes played an actress whose audition is to read the Rene Zellewegger part in Jerry Maguire, what stock footage from old sci-fi movies was used in other sci-fi movies etc. etc.

So it turns out more or less Ike and Mike just means salt and pepper, I found that in this list of Diner lingo so the meaning of Ike, Mike and Mustard kind works itself out, I'm disappointed they weren't some sort of Banana Splits type 1970s kids TV show. There's also Mike and Ike sweets, or 'candy' as they say stateside. Their Web site asks the reader to 'flav up' I presume that's marketing talk for 'eat sweets'.

Well now, here we all are: Ike, Mike and Mustard


*I have a shower on a daily basis, but don't often have the same thoughts every day.

6 comments:

SleepyGirl said...

Okay, so I know you posted this 6 months ago but I asked my dad (who actually writes trivia for a living) after watching 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang' and apparently 'Ike, Mike and Mustard' is in reference to off-color jokes, usually regarding sex. They were really popular in the 40s and 50s but died out before the revolution of the 60s. They were also known as Pat Mike and Mustard jokes. It's impossible to find on the internet, as they died long before the now generation cares. Hope this puts your mind at ease.

Jamwes said...

Ok, I know this was posted over a year ago but I got the "What is Ike, Mike, and Mustard" bug today. Since this was the first like to show up on Google I thought I should post my findings here. I was able to find an example of a Ike, Mike, and Mustard joke.

Ike, Mike and Mustard were on a weekend outing staying at The Olde Log Inn resort. Mustard decided to take a nature hike and ended up missing for two days. When he turned up in the local infirmary literally beaten to a pulp Ike and Mike rushed to see what had happened. According to Mustard, he had gotten lost. After wandering around for what seemed like hours he finally spotted a parked car with what appeared to be people in the back seat. Unfortunately, the last thing he remembers was sticking his head through the window and asking "How far is The Olde Log Inn?"

Anonymous said...

After talking with my girlfriend this morning about how we needed to trek from Brooklyn to Manhattan to buy mustard seeds, I declared that we should open a mustard seed store in Brooklyn. We should call it Mustard Seed Mustard Do... or Ike, Mike, and Mustard Seeds. This reminded me of when I was a small child (late 1970s in Alabama) and my dad would tell these really funny, but off-colored jokes. I would then tell my mom that he told us these jokes, and he'd get in trouble. So I started my search just now to find out if he had made these jokes up, or from where they had originated.Dad's say the funniest things.

Anonymous said...

My dad told us "Pat and Mustard" jokes when I was a kid. He was the only person I know of that ever heard of and re-told these jokes. According to the jokes my father told us, all Pat and Mustard ever really did was go to get themselves in some sort of predicament and then end up shitting on people some way or another. It seems like I only heard about three or four jokes.

One joke my father fold me was the following:

Pat and Mustard checked into a motel room. There was only one toilet for the entire floor. It so happened that the toilet was out of order. Pat had to take a major shit. Out of desperation, he opened the window, put his naked ass out the window, and proceeded to take a dump. He ended up shitting all over a cop who was walking his beat.

I know its kind of a stupid joke, but it is what it is...

Anonymous said...

My grandfather used to tell us that joke (it was Mike and Mustard from him) but you left out the punchline!

The cop comes upstairs mad and asks: "who shit on my head?"

Mike said "it must have been mustard."

The cop replied: "mustard hell, that was pure shit!"

Anonymous said...

Reminds me of the Pete and Repeat joke.
Pete and Repeat were sitting on a fence. Pete fell off. Who was left?

Repeat.

Pete and Repeat were sitting on a fence…

Well….You get the idea. Funny for kids.