Q&A: Where does ‘hold my beer’ come from?

Each week here at the Australian Writers’ Centre, we dissect and discuss, contort and retort, ask and gasp at the English language and all its rules, regulations and ridiculousness. It’s a celebration of language, masquerading as a passive-aggressive whinge about words and weirdness. This week, the beer facts…

Q: Hi AWC, where does the phrase “hold my beer” come from?

A: It’s actually quite recent – attributed to American comedian Jeff Foxworthy in the 1990s. Today, the term typically is said in response to a particular event, signalling that you’re going to make an even better – or worse – attempt.

Q: Yeah, so if someone runs 100 metres in 11 seconds, Usain Bolt might have said “hold my beer” before smoking them.

A: Yep, and while the “beer” in question CAN be very real (such as a darts game in a pub), it’s typically a figurative one.

Q: You also mentioned doing something worse?

A: Well yeah, like if another boat in 1911 had simply broken down on its way to New York from Europe, the Titanic in 1912 might say “hold my beer” before hitting an iceberg and sinking.

Q: Wooooah! Spoilers! I haven’t seen that movie yet.

A: Sorry about that. But an interesting point regarding the “hold my beer” line is that it originally had a slightly different meaning. 

Q: How so?

A: Its origins came from Foxworthy’s “You might be a redneck if…” comedy bits and covered the reckless things that rednecks would initiate – i.e. not in response to something else. It eventually took on the “hold my beer” wording.

Q: Examples?

A: “Hold my beer while I kiss your girlfriend” or stating that 90% of Texan driving deaths’ final words were “hold my beer and watch this!”

Q: Ouch. So it’s essentially the show Jackass?

A: Yep. That culture absolutely grew out of this kind of thing. And the American South has embraced it. You are likely to see the comparison meme online a lot, where Company A might do something terrible and you just see “Company B: Hold my beer” in place of a widely known worse thing.

Q: Like the Titanic thing?

A: Yep. But we didn’t want to give anything else away about that very well-known tragedy.

Q: Thanks. So to recap, “hold my beer” started off at the beginning of doing something reckless, but over time has become about one-upping in a good or bad way?

A: That’s it!

Q: What about “beer goggles”? Who invented them?

A: Well, for starters, they’re not actual goggles – although some novelty store has probably made something over the years. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the term “beer goggles” first appeared in US colleges in the early 1980s as what Macquarie Dictionary defines as “Colloquial (humorous) imaginary glasses, through which someone appears more attractive than they are, an effect induced by too much alcohol.”

Q: Kappa Lambda Sigma! Chug chug chug…

A: That’s right, total Frat Boy vibes. It is apt therefore that the first occurrence of the term in print was in the January 1987 edition of Playboy magazine.

Q: Of course it was.

A: Any other beer phrases?

Q: What about “beer and skittles”? I’m not sure those two things would go well together.

A: No, we’re not tasting the rainbow with the candy variety. The “skittles” in question here are like bowling pins – except instead of ten pins, in a game of skittles, you have nine.

Q: Nine-pin bowling?

A: Basically, yes. The term “beer and skittles” originated in the pubs of England and is defined as pure enjoyment – “absolute pleasure or ease”. It first appeared as “porter and skittles” in Charles Dickens’ Pickwick Papers in 1837 and eventually as “beer” in 1855.

Q: What fun.

A: The term is however typically used in the negative.

Q: How so?

A: “Life’s not all ‘beer and skittles’ you know.”

Q: Ahhh okay. So a more modern equivalent is “It’s not all fun and games”?

A: Correct! But you’ll still see the beer and skittles popping up from time to time.

Q: Well, this was fun, but if you could hold my beer, I now have to go take a selfie with a box jellyfish…

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