My complaint about the original "No soap, radio" is the fact that it's an actual joke. The phrase 'No soap' is 1950s American slang for 'I hereby declare unsuccessful the effort in question or at hand'. So the polar bear is doing a play on words. It's as though you asked me for a d20 and I said "No dice." The joke is that the statement is both literally and idiomatically true.
The word "radio", by contrast, makes no sense, but I would assume from context that it was 1950s American slang for 'buddy' or something.
It could be that "no soap"="no dice" actually descends from the joke rather than the reverse. (Not entirely sure if we should be looking to these historical details for guidance on if "no soap radio" is in fact good or not...)
Chapter 42 of "Entropic Forces of the 21st Century".
My complaint about the original "No soap, radio" is the fact that it's an actual joke. The phrase 'No soap' is 1950s American slang for 'I hereby declare unsuccessful the effort in question or at hand'. So the polar bear is doing a play on words. It's as though you asked me for a d20 and I said "No dice." The joke is that the statement is both literally and idiomatically true.
The word "radio", by contrast, makes no sense, but I would assume from context that it was 1950s American slang for 'buddy' or something.
But is the 1950s slang etymologically relevant? Wikipedia gives an example of the joke being used as early as the 1750s.
The OED doesn't have any pre-Roaring-Twenties examples of 'No soap' being used to mean 'No dice', so I guess you're right!
It could be that "no soap"="no dice" actually descends from the joke rather than the reverse. (Not entirely sure if we should be looking to these historical details for guidance on if "no soap radio" is in fact good or not...)
Well, under no circumstances is it a *good* joke. But to anyone who understands the phrase 'no soap', the polar bears version qualifies as *a* joke.