"Lord, if I can’t be skinny, please let all my friends be fat” is a jocular saying that has been printed on many gift items, such as T-shirts, buttons, bumper stickers and posters. The saying has been cited in print since at least 1998 and is of unknown authorship.
Google Groups: ok.edmond.online
KThur86854
4/7/98
KWT BUMPER STICKERS
Name and Address: KENNETH W. THURMAN (KWT)
P.O. BOX 83191
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA 73148
# 470 - LORD, IF I CAN’T BE SKINNY PLEASE LET MY FRIENDS BE FAT
Google Groups: alt.fifty-plus.friends
Linda
9/24/99
(...)
Lord, if I can’t be skinny, let all my friends be fat.
Google Groups: alt.wisdom
Sayings
EvieC123
2/27/00
(...)
3. Lord, if I can’t be skinny, let all my friends be fat.
Google Books
Women and Dieting Culture:
Inside a Commercial Weight Loss Group
By Kandi M. Stinson
New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press
2001
Pp. 85:
Recently I spotted a bumper (Pg. 86—ed.) sticker that read, “Lord, if I can’t be thin, let all my friends be fat.”
29 April 1983, Augusta (GA) Chronicle, “Undoing what’s done is job of Legislature” by Bill Kirby, pg. B1, col. 4:
PRAYER FOR TODAY: “Lord, if I can’t be skinny, let all my friends be fat.”
Google Books
I Fail to Miss Your Point
By Jim O’Bryon
Longwood, FL: Xulon Press
2007
Pg. 59:
Bumper Sticker: God If I Can’t Be Skinny, Let All My Friends Be Fat
Google Books
Optimize Your Life!:
Interactive Worksheets CD Edition
By Bernhoff A. Dahl
Bangor, ME: Apellicon-Pearson Press
2011
Pg. 185:
Lord, if I can’t be skinny, please let all my friends be fat.
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Oct. 17, 1931, Turf Play, p. 7.
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.
This site is edited by Barry Popik. Technical matters are handled by Grant Barrett of Double-Tongued Word Wrester Dictionary.