Quote Origin: You Don’t Have To Be Crazy To Work Here, But It Helps
Walt Disney? Carolyn Kay Shafer? Douglas Adams? John Lloyd? Adam Breede? Ralph Spence? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: I first encountered the following quip many years ago. Here are two versions:
(1) You don’t have to be crazy to work here, but it helps.
(2) You don’t have to be mad to work here, but it does help.
Would you please explore the origin of this humorous remark?
Reply from Quote Investigator: This joke has been employed by famous individuals. For example, in 1933 the entertainment entrepreneur Walt Disney received credit for the jest from his secretary:¹
“We have a staff of exceptionally young people. Good fellowship predominates, but we all work hard.
“Mr. Disney is never too busy to be genuinely interested in each individual. He often says jokingly: ‘You don’t have to be crazy to work here, but it helps!’”
This remark fits the following template: “You don’t have to be crazy to X, but it helps” A family of expressions of this type is sometimes called a snowclone. Here is an overview with dates which depicts the evolution of the joke:
1920 Jun: A man don’t have to be crazy to believe in Free Trade, but it helps. (Anonymous)
1921 Jul: A man don’t have to be crazy to play golf, but it helps a great deal. (Attributed to unnamed business man in St. Paul, Nebraska)
1925 Nov: You don’t have to be crazy to dance the Charleston, but it helps. (Attributed to Ralph Spence)
1925 Jun: You don’t have to be crazy to play this on a saxophone, but it helps a lot. (Crossword clue in “Judge” magazine)
1926 Aug: One doesn’t have to be crazy to pick an all-star team but it helps. (Columnist Percy the Pest)
1930 Dec: “Do you have to be crazy to write poetry?” “No, but it helps” (Anonymous)
1932 Jul: Mr. Allison also admits that one doesn’t have to be crazy to write columns, but that it helps. (Attributed to Albert Allison)
1933 Nov: You don’t have to be crazy to work here, but it helps! (Attributed to Walt Disney)
1934 Sep: You don’t have to be a nut to go hunting and fishing, but it helps. (Columnist Hank in Springfield, Illinois newspaper)
1941 Feb: It is not necessary to go crazy over the work, but it helps. (Engineering student at University of Michigan)
1948 Mar: You don’t have to be mad to work here, but it does help. (Anonymous sign)
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In 1920 the periodical “American Economist: Devoted to the Protection of American Labor and Industries” published the following anonymous filler item. The statement used “don’t” instead of “doesn’t”. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:²
A man don’t have to be crazy to believe in Free Trade, but it helps.
In July 1921 an article in “The Phonograph” of St. Paul, Nebraska credited an unnamed local business man with an instance referring to golf:³
One of the business men of this city remarked last year, when certain fellows were trying to organize a golf club, that “A man don’t have to be crazy to play golf, but it helps a great deal.” That man now carries a golf bag and he plays the game with the rest of the fellows …
In September 1921 The Omaha Daily Bee of Omaha, Nebraska printed a short article which credited a local person with an instance referring to golf:⁴
Adam Breede, invited to join a country club, responds somewhat enigmatically that while one does not have to be crazy to play golf, it helps a lot.
In November 1925 a movie columnist in “The New York Times” presented a version referring to a popular energetic dance:⁵
One of the captions, written by Ralph Spence, reads: “You don’t have to be crazy to dance the Charleston, but it helps.”
In June 1925 the humor magazine “Judge” published a crossword puzzle with a clue that referred to playing the saxophone. The answer to the clue was the word “solo”:⁶
You don’t have to be crazy to play this on a saxophone, but it helps a lot.
In August 1926 a columnist called Percy the Pest in a Quincy, Massachusetts newspaper employed another instance:⁷
One doesn’t have to be crazy to pick an all-star team but it helps.
In December 1930 “The Arizona Daily Star” of Tucson, Arizona printed an instance within a section dedicated to contributions from readers:⁸
P.S. — “Do you have to be crazy to write poetry?” “No, but it helps.”
In July 1932 a columnist for a Knoxville, Tennessee newspaper credited Albert Allison with an instance:⁹
Mr. Allison also admits that one doesn’t have to be crazy to write columns, but that it helps.
In November 1933 “The Evansville Press” of Indiana published an article about Mrs. Frank Churchill (formerly Carolyn Kay Shafer) who was the personal secretary of Walt Disney. She credited Disney with a comical instance about the workplace:¹⁰
“We have a staff of exceptionally young people. Good fellowship predominates, but we all work hard.
“Mr. Disney is never too busy to be genuinely interested in each individual. He often says jokingly: ‘You don’t have to be crazy to work here, but it helps!’”
In September 1934 a newspaper in Springfield, Illinois printed the following using the word “nut” instead of “crazy”:¹¹
Not to mention the already overly discussed government tax on migratory bird hunting licenses. Oh well, you don’t have to be a nut to go hunting and fishing, but it helps.
In February 1941 engineering students at the University of Michigan published a joke about English professors in the “The Michigan Technic” magazine:¹²
English professing, according to some friends of ours, is one of those things into which some men are pushed. Once in the English professing game, they find it is not necessary to go crazy over the work, but it helps.
In April 1940 the jest was still circulating at the Walt Disney Studio according to a report in a Vancouver, Canada newspaper:¹³
“You don’t have to be crazy to work here, but it helps,” one Disney employee explained. And that’s the slogan of almost every Hollywood technician.
In March 1948 engineer H. Astbury delivered a speech to the Rotary Club of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, England. Astbury described an instance using the word “mad” instead” of “crazy”:¹⁴
The company roared with laughter when he quoted a motto he had seen over a laboratory In America: “You don’t have to be mad to work here, but it does help.”
In 1977 “A Dictionary of Catch Phrases” compiled by Eric Partridge included an entry for: “you don’t have to be mad to work here — but it helps”. The entry described the rapid dissemination of the quip:¹⁵
‘… instantly memorable and spread through offices and workshops like wildfire. The sort of thing one can buy a printed sign of in a joke shop.’ Since c. 1960.
In 1983 Douglas Adams and John Lloyd published “The Meaning of Liff”. The authors invented definitions for words such as “snitterfield”:¹⁶
Snitterfield (n.)
Office noticeboard on which snitters (q.v.), cards saying ‘You don’t have to be mad to work here, but if you are it helps!!!’ and slightly smutty postcards from Ibiza get pinned up by snitterbies (q.v.).
In conclusion, “You don’t have to be crazy to X, but it helps” is the template of a snowclone. An instance with X = “believe in Free Trade” was circulating by June 1920. The creator was anonymous. Subsequent variants included “play golf” and “dance the Charleston”. In November 1933 Walt Disney received credit for “You don’t have to be crazy to work here, but it helps!”
Image Notes: Picture of a boardroom from Benjamin Child at Unsplash. The image has been cropped.
Acknowledgements: Great thanks to Laurence Horn, Bill Mullins, and Dan Goncharoff whose discussion thread inspired QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Also, thanks to British quotation expert Nigel Rees who discussed this topic in “Cassell’s Humorous Quotations” and included a 1969 Peter Nichols citation.
[1] 1933 November 12, The Evansville Press, Mickey Mouse Played Cupid Role in Romance of Former Evansville Girl, Quote Page B1, Column 4, (Credit was given to Walt Disney by his secretary Carolyn Kay Shafer (Mrs. Frank Churchill)), Evansville, Indiana. (Newspapers_com)
[2] 1920 June 25, American Economist: Devoted to the Protection of American Labor and Industries, Volume 65, Number 26, Quote Page 329, Column 3, (Filler item), New York. (Google Books Full View) link
[3] 1921 July 14, The Phonograph, It Must Be Great Sport To Play Golf, Quote Page 1, Column 5, St. Paul, Nebraska. (Newspapers_com)
[4] 1921 September 28, The Omaha Daily Bee, (Filler item), Quote Page 6, Column 2, Omaha, Nebraska. (Newspapers_com)
[5] 1925 November 2, New York Times, The Screen by Mordaunt Hall, Quote Page 20, Column 2, New York. (ProQuest)
[6] 1925 June 20, Judge, Key to Judge’s Crossword Puzzle №34, (Clue for Horizontal 64), Quote Page 32, Leslie-Judge Company, New York. (Google Books Full View) link
[7] 1926 August 28, Quincy Patriot Ledger, Four Fore River Players On This All-Star Twi Combine By Percy the Pest, Quote Page 8, Column 1, Quincy, Massachusetts. (GenealogyBank)
[8] 1930 December 6, The Arizona Daily Star, Happy In Old Pueblo Days (The Happy Day column is a contributors’ corner), Quote Page 10, Column 5, Tucson, Arizona. (Newspapers_com)
[9] 1932 July 5, The Knoxville Journal, Gay Talk by Bill Worden, Quote Page 6, Column 2, Knoxville, Tennessee. (Newspapers_com)
[10] 1933 November 12, The Evansville Press, Mickey Mouse Played Cupid Role in Romance of Former Evansville Girl, Quote Page B1, Column 4, (Spoken by Secretary of Walt Disney Carolyn Kay Shafer (Mrs. Frank Churchill)), Evansville, Indiana. (Newspapers_com)
[11] 1934 September 23, Illinois State Register, Out In The Open With Hank: Cost of Hunting, Quote Page 15, Column 7, Springfield, Illinois. (GenealogyBank)
[12] 1941 February, The Michigan Technic, Volume 59, Number 5, The Technic Reflects, Quote Page 18, Column 1 and 2, Published by the students of the College of Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Google Books Full View) link
[13] 1940 April 3, The Vancouver Sun, Screenings and Reel Dust by Ken Grant, Quote Page 14, Column 1, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. (Newspapers_com)
[14] 1948 March 5, Bury Free Press, It helps if you are mad, Quote Page 1, Column 4, Suffolk, England. (British Newspaper Archive)
[15] 1977, A Dictionary of Catch Phrases: British and American, from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day, Compiled by Eric Partridge, Entry: You don’t have to be mad to work here, Quote Page 264, Column 1, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London. (Verified with scans)
[16] 1983, The Meaning of Liff by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd, Entry: Snitterfield, Quote Page 127, Pan Books and Faber & Faber, London. (Verified with scans)
