The word “stew” (a dish cooked by stewing) also means “a state of agitated excitement, worry, and/or confusion.” A joke is:
Patient: Doctor, doctor, I feel like a carrot.
Doctor: Don’t get yourself in a stew.
The joke has been cited in print since at least 2013.
Twitter
⚽ TYPE ONE TONY ⚽
@TONYHAMILTON69
@tonyblackburn
Doctor doctor,
I feel like a carrot
Don’t get yourself in a stew
3:42 PM · Apr 9, 2013·Twitter Web Client
Twitter
MacEwan Plan
@macewanplan
Daily Joke: Doctor doctor, I feel like a carrot
• Don’t get yourself in a stew
12:18 PM · Apr 22, 2013·Hootsuite
6 June 2013, The Sunday Mail (Adelaide, Australia), “Giggles,” pg. 4:
Doctor, doctor, I feel like a carrot!
Don’t get yourself in a stew.
Google Books
What do the grown-ups do?
Fiona the Doctor
By Mairi McLellan
Leicestershire, UK: Matador
2014
Pg. 28:
“Doctor, doctor, I feel like a carrot.”
Don’t get yourself in a stew.
Twitter
Dennis Staples
@gosporttomarlow
Replying to @aidansmyth6
Doctor doctor, I feel like a carrot
there there Don’t get yourself in a stew
7:06 AM · Apr 8, 2018·Twitter Web Client
Twitter
Turan T Turan
@Coldsmoking
Replying to @lottelydia
Doctor Doctor,,,I feel like a carrot...... Well don’t get yourself into a stew!
5:46 PM · Jan 30, 2019·Twitter Web Client
Twitter
Lorraine Jo King
@lahlahbean
#sidesplittingsunday
Doctor, doctor! I feel like a carrot. Don’t get yourself in a stew! Grinning face with smiling eyes
3:35 AM · Mar 15, 2020·Hootsuite Inc.
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.
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.
This site is edited by Barry Popik.