“Do illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup?” is a joke that has been credited to comedian John Mendoza since at least 1988. Alphabet soup contains letter-shaped pasta and is often served to children. Reading skills are not required to consume the soup.
Google Books
Hispanic Link Weekly Report
Volume 6
1988
Pg. ?:
TODAY’S PROVOCATIVE THOUGHT: (offered by comedian John Mendoza on a September HBO comedy special): “Do illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup?”
31 January 1992, Buffalo (NY) News, “Noteworthy”:
With a sardonic delivery that makes him sound like a fatigued New York bookie announcing a snail race, Mendoza has been known to wonder aloud, “What if there were no hypothetical questions?” and “Do illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup?”
Google News Archive
1 January 2004, The New Era (Parker, SD), “Points To Ponder” by Jim Hensley, pg. 2, col. 2:
Do illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup?
Google Books
The World’s Greatest Email
By Sue Shifrin-Cassidy
Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse
2007
Pg. 55:
Do illiterate people get the full effect of Alphabet Soup?
Houston (TX) Chronicle
Hoffman: Read George Carlin’s books for comedic brilliance
By Ken Hoffman | June 23, 2008
Do illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup?
Google Books
The 2,548 Wittiest Things Anybody Ever Said
By Robert Byrne
New York, NY: Touchstone (Simon and Schuster)
2012
1,069
Do illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup? —John Mendoza
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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