‘STOP THE WORLD, I WANT TO GET OFF’: MEANING AND EARLY OCCURRENCES
Pascal Trégueretymology, music, United Kingdom & Ireland, USA & Canada folk etymology, newspapers & magazines, phrases, United Kingdom, USA
The phrase stop the world, I want to get off means I’m tired of life, but is intended serio-ironically, not in genuine despair.
It is often, but erroneously, claimed that this phrase originated in Stop the World—I Want to Get Off 1, the title of a musical with music, lyrics and book by the English composer, lyricist and playwright Leslie Bricusse (born 1931) and the English actor, singer and songwriter Anthony Newley (1931-1999). This musical was first produced at the Manchester Palace, Lancashire, England, on Tuesday 20th June 1961. The production transferred to the Queen’s Theatre, in the West End of London, on Thursday 20th July 1961. The musical then opened at the Shubert Theatre, New York City, on Wednesday 3rd October 1962.
1 According to the U.S. pianist, composer, author, comedian and actor Oscar Levant (1906-1972) in The Unimportance of Being Oscar (New York: Pocket Books, 1969), the title of this musical originated in a graffito:
Everyone has heard that the playwrights Albee and Newley got their titles Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Stop the World I Want to Get Off from graffiti signs.
In fact, the phrase stop the world, I want to get off was in usage before the musical. Here are the earliest occurrences that I have found, in chronological order:
