Paulie want a cracker.

[amjokai]

So I'm sitting here with my friend discussing that my husband wants to name his gcc Paulie. We can not remember where the saying "paule want a cracker" came from or why. Who was paulie and why is he so famous?

 

[amjokai]

Or is it polky want a cracker? Either way.... What's the story.

 

[Allee]

I think the original quote was, "Polly want a cracker", the phrase was used in Robert Lewis Stephenson's, "Treasure Island" and was made popular again in the lyrics of a Nirvana song called "Polly". I think there was a movie about a parrot named Paulie? Not sure about that one.

 

[Sunset_Chaser]

Yep, they made a movie called Paulie, here's the wikipedia write-up on it (I thought it was a good movie!)

Paulie - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[SilverSage]

It is in fact a FANTASTIC movie! Hahaha, but I am pretty sure the saying was around way before that I will have to look up that quote in Treasure Island and the song!

 

[amjokai]

It definitely is a great movie. I cry every time no matter how many times I watch it.

 

[Psittaciformes]

I can't believe I've never heard of this movie before, definitely gonna watch it!

 

[cnyguy]

Way back in the 1940's-50's, the late comedian Jack Benny had a popular radio program, and one of the regular characters on the show was Benny's pet parrot named Polly (whose voice was provided by Mel Blanc, who also voiced countless cartoon characters over the years). That inspired lots of parrot people to name their parrots Polly, and caused non-parrot people to say to whatever parrots they met "Polly wants a cracker." Which many of those parrots learned to say (my old YCA George was one of them).

 

[SilverSage]

Aha! That sounds like the true origin!