"har har"

Posted by Smokey Stover on April 25, 2006

In Reply to: "Har har" posted by Brian from Shawnee on April 24, 2006

: : : : What does the expression "har har" mean? How did it come about?

: : : It means "ha ha," or [laughter]. It often means literally "har har" as a sort of humorous or snide substitute for real laughter. SS

: : It is kind of a cartoon laugh. "Hardy, har, har." In fact, that was the name of a cartoon character - a "non-laughing hyena." See Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har at www.toonopedia.com

: Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har cartoons can currently be seen on the Boomerang classic cartoon channel on many U.S. cable systems. And by the way, Lippy was the second Hanna-Barbera character named after a baseball personality. Yogi Bear (Yogi Berra) was first, and Lippy the Lion was named after Leo "The Lip" Durocher who gained fame as manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers and then the New York Giants in the 1940's and 50's.

That was interesting, ESC and Brian, about Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har. But of course the phrase "hardy har har" was borrowed by Hanna-Barbera (in 1962?) from popular speech. People had been using the phrase "hardy har har" for many decades as a weakly sarcastic laugh. SS