Date:    Tue, 24 Feb 1998 13:32:32 -0500
<br>From:    Bob Haas  rahaas[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]HAMLET.UNCG.EDU 
<br>Subject: Re: Slimed
<br>
<br>Fred, I think the name of that show was _You Can't Do That on Television_.
<br>It was a kid's show in which members of the cast were frequently drenched
<br>from above with nasty green goo.  I don't know if they called the practice
<br>"sliming."  I didn't watch the show.  I do know that it was a Canadian
<br>production (I believe), and that Alison what's her name, whose album
<br>_Jagged Little Pill_ was a hit a couple year's ago, was a member of the
<br>cast. The other possiblity was Nik's game show for kids--Double-Dare--
<br>where contestants were also doused with slime.  The problem with these
<br>shows as sources for "slimed" is that they both aired after the original
<br>_Ghostbusters_ film, which I believe premiered in 1982 or 1983.  I think
<br>that both Nik shows came afterwards.  Anyone?
<br>
<br>On Tue, 24 Feb 1998, Fred Shapiro wrote:
<br>
<br>  On Tue, 24 Feb 1998, Tom Head wrote:
<br> 
<br>    Would this mean that the word actually came from _Ghostbusters_ (1985)?
<br>    I'd always thought the movie got it from another source.
<br> 
<br>  The term was probably popularized by _Ghostbusters_, and this is probably
<br>  where the political usage came from.  But it was used on Nickelodeon (I
<br>  don't have the name of the exact show handy as I'm typing this) prior to
<br>  _Ghostbusters_.
<br> 
<br>  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
<br>   Fred R. Shapiro                             Coeditor (with Jane Garry)
<br>   Associate Librarian for Public Services     TRIAL AND ERROR: AN OXFORD
<br>     and Lecturer in Legal Research            ANTHOLOGY OF LEGAL STORIES
<br>   Yale Law School                             Oxford University Press, 1998
<br>   e-mail: fred.shapiro[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]yale.edu               ISBN 0-19-509547-2
<br>  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
<br> 
<br>
<br>Bob Haas
<br>UNCG Department of English
<br>rahaas[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]hamlet.uncg.edu
<br>
<br>                    "No matter where you go, there you are."
<br>