This is a quick question. What is the origin of the term "tossed salad"? I've asked a bunch of friends and they all say the same thing: "Well, you know...." but I don't know and they never answer. One friend told me that he thinks it is because the action is similar to using salad tongs, which I don't think is ever close.
Anyway that's it. Thanks for your column and you're It Gets Better campaign.
Salad Barbarella
My response after the jump...
The origin of the term "tossed salad" can be traced, I believe, to the documentary Prisoners of the War on Drugs, which aired on HBO in 1996. Here's the clip:
Chris Rock deserves credit for popularizing the term. Rock did a hilarious riff鈥攁 hilarious and homo/buttphobic riff鈥攐n the "tossed salad man" in Bring the Pain, which also aired in HBO in 1996:
And someone very special to Slog is working hard to keep the tossed salad meme alive:
Sarah Palin tosses a mean word salad, like Jon Stewart says. But can a person with her head up own ass successfully toss her own salad, word or otherwise? Or toss anyone else's salad? It's an existential dilemma, one I'm going to ponder while I knock back a couple of cocktails at Liberty.
Cocktails! Most all gays do that too!
