Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead
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"Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead" is a catchphrase that originated in 1975 during the first season of NBC's Saturday Night (now called Saturday Night Live, or SNL) and which mocked the weeks-long media reports of the impending death of Francisco Franco. It was one of the first catchphrases from the series to enter the general lexicon.
Origin
The death (on November 20, 1975) of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco during the first season of NBC's Saturday Night originated the phrase. Franco's presumed imminent death had been a headline story on NBC News and other news organizations for several weeks. On slow news days, United States network television newscasters sometimes noted that Franco was still alive.
Following Franco's death, Chevy Chase, host of NBC's Saturday Night's comedic news segment Weekend Update, announced Franco's death and read a statement from former president Richard Nixon: "General Franco was a loyal friend and ally of the United States. He earned worldwide respect for Spain through firmness and fairness."[1] As an ironic counterpoint to this, a picture was displayed behind Chase, showing Franco giving the Roman salute alongside Adolf Hitler.[2]
In subsequent weeks, Chase developed the joke into a parody of the earlier news coverage of Franco's illness, treating his death as the top story. "This breaking news just in", Chase would announce – "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead!"[3] Occasionally, Chase would change the wording slightly in attempts to keep the joke fresh, e.g. "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still valiantly holding on in his fight to remain dead."[4] The joke was sometimes combined with another running gag in which Garrett Morris, "head of the New York School for the Hard of Hearing" would cup his hands around his mouth and shout the news as Chase read it. The gag ran until early 1977, with occasional callbacks in later seasons.
Legacy
The phrase has remained in use since Franco's death.
Although SNL's use is the most widely known, it is predated by the "'John Garfield Still Dead' syndrome," which originated as a result of extensive coverage in the wake of actor John Garfield's death and funeral in 1952.[8]
After a brief in memoriam during SNL's 40th Anniversary Special on February 15, 2015, Bill Murray ended the segment with the famous phrase which "just came in from Spain."
The phrase is listed in The Oxford Dictionary of Catchphrases.[9]
References
Citations
- ^ "Saturday Night Live, Season 1: Episode 6, Weekend Update with Chevy Chase". SNLtranscripts.jt.org. Retrieved November 3, 2010.
- ^ "Is Generalíssimo Francisco Franco Still Dead?". IsGeneralissimoFranciscoFrancoStillDead.com. Retrieved September 6, 2012.
- ^ "Saturday Night Live, Season 1: Episode 7, Weekend Update with Chevy Chase". SNLtranscripts.jt.org. Retrieved November 3, 2010.
- ^ Saturday Night Live, originally broadcast February 28, 1976, as preserved in DVD format, SNL: The First Season, 1975–76.
- ^ "Transcripts The Situation Room". CNN.
- ^ Catan, Thomas (March 2, 2009). "The Wall Street Journal – March 2, 2009". wsj.com. Retrieved November 3, 2010.
- ^ Roman, David (August 21, 2015). "Generalissimo Franco Is Still Dead, but for Some Not Dead Enough". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 30, 2015.
- ^
Collins, Gail (July 8, 2009). "Michael, a Foreign Affair". New York Times. Retrieved July 9, 2009.
The practice of churning out stories about a deceased celebrity for as long as possible is an old tradition. It used to be known as the "John Garfield Still Dead" syndrome, after the extensive post-funeral coverage of a movie star who had a fatal heart attack in 1952 in the bed of a woman other than his wife.
- ^ Farkas, Anna. The Oxford Dictionary of Catchphrases, pages 93-94.