A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

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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Entry from January 30, 2017
“How do you make a tissue dance?”/“Put a little boogie in it.”

“Booger” and “boogie” aren’t the same, but there’s a popular riddle:
 
Q: How do you make a tissue dance?
A: Put a little boogie in it.

 
The joke has been cited in print since at least 1990 and has been printed on many images.
         
 
Wikipedia: Boogie
Boogie is a repetitive, swung note or shuffle rhythm, “groove” or pattern used in blues which was originally played on the piano in boogie-woogie music. The characteristic rhythm and feel of the boogie was then adapted to guitar, double bass, and other instruments. The earliest recorded boogie-woogie song was in 1916. By the 1930s, Swing bands such as Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey and Louis Jordan all had boogie hits. By the 1950s, boogie became incorporated into the emerging rockabilly and rock and roll styles. In the late 1980s and the early 1990s country bands released country boogies. Today, the term “boogie” usually refers to dancing to pop, disco, or rock music.
 
Google Books
God’s Schools:
Choice and Compromise in American Society

By Melinda Bollar Wagner
New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press
1990
Pg. 54:
Lynn: How do you make a tissue dance? (pause) Put a little boogie in it.
   
Google Groups: k12.lang.art
Plays on words…
CMStoner
5/21/95
How do you make a tissue dance (was Plays on Words)
—Blow a little boogie in it.
 
10 August 1997, Newsday (Long Island, NY), “Smiles,” Kidsday, pg. 1:
How do you make a tissue dance? Put a boogie in it - Kim Anderson, Speonk
 
5 August 1998, Los Angeles (CA) Times, “Laugh Lines; Pint-Sized Punch Lines,” pg. E3, col. 3:
How do you make a tissue dance? Put a little boogie on it. (Susan Parker, 7, Los Angeles, St. Michael Elementary)
 
Twitter
Carrie Willard
‏@carrielee
How do you make a tissue dance? Put a little boogie in it - joke from Caleb
10:35 AM - 13 Jul 2007
 
Google Books
Just Jokes
A Collection of Kids Jokes

By Phyllis Agles-Johnson
Raleigh, NC: Lulu Publishing (Lulu.com)
2010
Pg. 68:
Q. How do you make a tissue dance?
A. You put a little boogie in it!
 
Google Books
Dick and Dom’s Big Fat and Very Silly Joke Book
By Richard McCourt and Dominic Wood
London: Pan Macmillan
2014
Pg. ?:
How do you make a tissue dance?
Put a little boogie into it
 
Google Books
Katie Woo’s Funny Friends and Family Jokes
By Fran Manushkin
North Mankato, MN: Picture Window Books, an imprint of Capstone Press
2017
Pg. 7:
How do you make a tissue dance?
Put a little boogie in it.

Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityMusic/Dance/Theatre/Film/Circus • Monday, January 30, 2017 • Permalink


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