“‘My business is looking up,’ as the man with the ‘Penny a peep’ telescope told the policeman” was printed under “SAM WELLERISMS“ in Judy: The London Serio-comic Journal (London, UK) on April 30, 1890.
“I’ve Just opened a shop selling telescopes.. Business is looking up” was posted on Twitter by Bob Kostic (and others) on December 27, 2012. This version probably originated on the Sickipedia website.
Wikipedia: Wellerism
Wellerisms, named after sayings of Sam Weller in Charles Dickens’s novel The Pickwick Papers, make fun of established clichés and proverbs by showing that they are wrong in certain situations, often when taken literally. In this sense, wellerisms that include proverbs are a type of anti-proverb. Typically a wellerism consists of three parts: a proverb or saying, a speaker, and an often humorously literal explanation.
Google Books
30 April 1890, Judy: The London Serio-comic Journal (London, UK), pg. 214, col. 2:
SAM WELLERISMS.
(...)
“My business is looking up,” as the man with the “Penny a peep” telescope told the policeman.
Google Books
1931, Punch (London, UK), pg. 281:
One hears many complaints about bad trade, but the man with the telescope at Westminster Bridge tells us that business is looking up.
Twitter
528Hz
@MarkoESQ
I’ve Just opened a shop selling telescopes..
Business is looking up.
9:37 AM · Dec 27, 2012·Twitter Web App
Twitter
Benji Prescott
@Benji_Prescott
I’ve Just opened a shop selling telescopes..
Business is looking up.
9:41 AM · Dec 27, 2012·Facebook
Twitter
Bob Kostic
@causticbob
I’ve Just opened a shop selling telescopes..
Business is looking up.
9:41 AM · Dec 27, 2012·TweetDeck
Twitter
QT@Anon
@QTAnon1
I recently opened a shop selling telescopes. My business is looking up!
9:55 AM · Nov 12, 2019·Hootsuite Inc.
Reddit—3amjokes
Posted by u/Rav4xle June 22, 2020
I’ve just opened a shop selling Telescopes.
Business is looking up.
COMMENTS
cannot_describe_it
You’ll be able to magnify the profit in no time! The business won’t even take up much space!
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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