Not Your Average Joe

Posted by ESC on January 01, 2006

In Reply to: Not Your Average Joe posted by lsfrankel on January 01, 2006

: Anyone know where the phrase "Not Your Average Joe" is from?

"...from the 1920s through the 1940s 'Joe' began to rival 'John' as the popular name for any typical guy. ('Joe Zilch' was a 1920s term, 'Joe College' and 'Joe Blow' are from the 1930s, and 'a good Joe,' 'an ordinary Joe,' and 'Joe Doakes' reached their peak popularity in the 1940s.)." From I Hear America Talking: An Illustrated History of American Words and Phrases by Stuart Berg Flexner (Von Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York, 1976).