Cheah baby we're gonna trip the light fantastic! - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

K-Wise · 05-09-2005, 03:26 PM

Well now..I figured this post perfect for here lol. I watched Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy last weekend..if you haven't seen it, I may spoil one tiny scene for you...this is NOT about the movie though!(not really)

It's about something I heard Sam Rockwell say in the movie...

Towards the end of the movie when they're fixin to go traveling Sam Rockwell tells that one woman "Cheah baby...we're gonna trip the light fantastic!"

I'd heard the phrase before I just didn't know where. I immediately started cracking up big time and slapping my knew and all that. The company I was with had no idea why I was laughing and I think I may have been the only guy who laughed at that.

They were like "Fern whats so funny?"(My nickname..don't ask) and I was like "What you've never heard trip the light fantastic before?" They were clueless. I couldn't explain to them what it means because I myself didn't know I'd just heard it.

So after that everyone I saw that I knew I asked them if they'd heard it and they just gave me the look like "What?" and then my bro n law and friends would tell me I'm crazy. Finally I called my parents...and it was conformed that it's actually a real saying. I figured it had something to do with dancing..my father had a different definition for it. Turns out I was right.

So lets see

Verb 1. trip the light fantastic - move in a pattern; usually to musical accompaniment; do or perform a dance; "My husband and I like to dance at home to the radio"

Okay now it's origins...

Quote:

[Q] From Lois Culver: “To trip the light fantastic. I know what it means, but why the light fantastic part?”

[A] You’re probably that much ahead of some readers, so let me nod in the direction of all those who do know, while telling everyone else that to trip the light fantastic is an extravagant way of referring to dancing, a phrase rather more common years ago than it is now.

Just for once, it is possible to point the finger at the author of a saying. The phrase is from the mind and pen of John Milton and appeared in his lyric poem L’Allegro, published in 1645. The Italian title can be translated as “the cheerful man”, and the poem is directed to the goddess Mirth:

Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee
Jest, and youthful Jollity,
Quips and cranks and wanton wiles,
Nods and becks and wreathed smiles
Such as hang on Hebe’s cheek,
And love to live in dimple sleek;
Sport that wrinkled Care derides,
And Laughter holding both his sides.
Come, and trip it, as you go,
On the light fantastic toe;
And in thy right hand lead with thee
The mountain-nymph, sweet Liberty;
And, if I give thee honour due,
Mirth, admit me of thy crew,
To live with her, and live with thee,
In unreproved pleasures free ...

We’ve lost the sense now, because to trip here doesn’t mean to catch one’s foot and stumble or fall, but rather to move lightly and nimbly, to dance. This was what the word meant when it appeared in the language in the fourteenth century. And fantastic (or fantastick, as Milton originally spelled it) has here a sense of something marked by extravagant fancy, perhaps capricious or impulsive.

Milton’s lines were borrowed as an elevated or humorous way to refer to dancing, first as the phrase trip the light fantastic toe. William Makepeace Thackeray included it in one of his lesser-known works, Men’s Wives of 1843: “Mrs. Crump sat in a little bar, profusely ornamented with pictures of the dancers of all ages, from Hillisberg, Rose, Parisot, who plied the light fantastic toe in 1805, down to the Sylphides of our day”. Later it was used in a truncated form without the final word. Losing that—as well as the ancient meaning of the first word and the original sense of fantastic—makes the whole saying more than a little obscure to us moderns.

That it has survived so long, at least in the United States, is probably due to a song of 1894, words by Charles B Lawler, which appeared in a musical comedy called The Sidewalks of New York (a title that was presumably borrowed for that of the recent film starring Ed Burns, as well as two previous ones). The relevant bit goes:

Boys and Girls together,
Me and Mamie O'Rourke,
Tripped the light fantastic,
On the sidewalks of New York.

Just to reinforce how mysterious the phrase now is to some people, one online site renders the relevant line as “We dance life’s fantastics”.

Ya know you just gotta love the internet...so many possibilities I tell ya. Good times good good times....I wish I could be in your heart!....TO BE ONE! With you loooooooove...Maybe I'll be there to shake your hand! Yeah! When we all live together and be a SIMPLEEEEEE!!! Kind of maaaaaan! Be something in the way she moves...effects me like no other oh yeah baby man I'm out

Asta!!

theguyondacouch · 05-09-2005, 04:17 PM

I'm going to say that from now on.

Coppertop · 05-09-2005, 04:38 PM

I feel pretty geeky for knowing this but...

it was also used in the movie L.A. Confidential by Danny deVito

Terry Pratchett also has a book titled The Light Fantastic

I did not have to look these things up.

K-Wise · 05-09-2005, 05:22 PM

^ Thats awesome and good Lord I have a whole buncha spelling mistakes in there. I too am now bringing it back into my regular vocabulary

Asta!!

Sticky · 05-10-2005, 05:50 AM

I don't know...

It makes me think of:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whiter Shade of Pale-Procol Harum

We skipped the light Fandango

K-Wise · 05-10-2005, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sticky

I don't know...

It makes me think of:

Ah yes. My mother thought the same thing. Too bad I can't put an attachment here...Felt the sudden urge to sing that line

Oh well...OOOH A quarter!

Asta!!

Astrocloud · 05-11-2005, 11:50 AM

Light Fantastic was a blotter print of LSD back in the 80's -to refer to tripping with it refers to actually using the drug...

j/k

Sticky · 05-11-2005, 12:36 PM

Whiter Shade of Pale - Procol Harum

We skipped the light Fandango
Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor
I was feeling kind of seasick
But the crowd called out for more
The room was humming harder
As the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another drink
The waiter brought a tray

And so it was that later
As the Miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly
Turned a whiter shade of pale

------ organ solo ------

She said there is no reason
And the truth is plain to see
But I wandered through my playing cards
And would not let her be
One of sixteen vestal virgins
Who were leaving for the coast
And although my eyes were open
They might just as well've been closed

And so it was that later
As the Miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly
Turned a whiter shade of pale

And so it was.... (fade)

------------------------------------------------------------------

Apparently there is an unpublished second verse that never made it
onto the record because the record company thought the song was
already too long. I've heard they included this verse in concerts.

She said "I'm home on shore leave"
Though in truth we were at sea
So I took her by the looking glass
And forced her to agree
Saying, "You must be the mermaid
Who took Neptune for a ride"
But she smiled at me so sadly
That my anger straight 'way died

K-Wise · 05-11-2005, 01:02 PM

Ah man I'm singin right now..love that song

.

Asta!!

05-09-2005, 04:17 PM	#2 (permalink)
theguyondacouch salmon? Location: Outside Providence	I'm going to say that from now on. __________________ "Lick my frozen metal ass!"

05-09-2005, 05:22 PM	#4 (permalink)
K-Wise It's All About The Ass!! Location: In a pool of mayonnaise!!	^ Thats awesome and good Lord I have a whole buncha spelling mistakes in there. I too am now bringing it back into my regular vocabulary Asta!! __________________ "I love music and it's my parents fault (closing statement)." - Me..quoting myself...from when I said that...On TFP..thats here...Tilted Forum Project *It ain't goodbye, it's see ya later! I'll miss you guys!* - Asta!!

05-11-2005, 01:02 PM	#9 (permalink)
K-Wise It's All About The Ass!! Location: In a pool of mayonnaise!!	Ah man I'm singin right now..love that song . Asta!! __________________ "I love music and it's my parents fault (closing statement)." - Me..quoting myself...from when I said that...On TFP..thats here...Tilted Forum Project *It ain't goodbye, it's see ya later! I'll miss you guys!* - Asta!!

05-09-2005, 04:38 PM	#3 (permalink)
Coppertop Getting Medieval on your ass Location: 13th century Europe	I feel pretty geeky for knowing this but... it was also used in the movie L.A. Confidential by Danny deVito Terry Pratchett also has a book titled The Light Fantastic I did not have to look these things up.

05-11-2005, 11:50 AM	#7 (permalink)
Astrocloud Apocalypse Nerd	Light Fantastic was a blotter print of LSD back in the 80's -to refer to tripping with it refers to actually using the drug... j/k

05-11-2005, 12:36 PM	#8 (permalink)
Sticky	Whiter Shade of Pale - Procol Harum We skipped the light Fandango Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor I was feeling kind of seasick But the crowd called out for more The room was humming harder As the ceiling flew away When we called out for another drink The waiter brought a tray And so it was that later As the Miller told his tale That her face, at first just ghostly Turned a whiter shade of pale ------ organ solo ------ She said there is no reason And the truth is plain to see But I wandered through my playing cards And would not let her be One of sixteen vestal virgins Who were leaving for the coast And although my eyes were open They might just as well've been closed And so it was that later As the Miller told his tale That her face, at first just ghostly Turned a whiter shade of pale And so it was.... (fade) ------------------------------------------------------------------ Apparently there is an unpublished second verse that never made it onto the record because the record company thought the song was already too long. I've heard they included this verse in concerts. She said "I'm home on shore leave" Though in truth we were at sea So I took her by the looking glass And forced her to agree Saying, "You must be the mermaid Who took Neptune for a ride" But she smiled at me so sadly That my anger straight 'way died __________________ Sticky The Stickman