Peanut Gallery
Those darn people in the peanut gallery.. always causing a ruckus!
Why is it called he peanut gallery? And where is it anyway?
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Those darn people in the peanut gallery.. always causing a ruckus!
Why is it called he peanut gallery? And where is it anyway?
Remember to vote for your teacher over at the Best Weekend Ever Website.
You can vote up to 5 times a day.
I was always considered a member of the peanut gallery in my old English class
Marina, me and a few other guys are way back here in the Neat Pun Gallery.
I haven’t been seated in the peanut gallery, but I’ve been seated in the nosebleed section. I suppose it’s called the nosebleed section because you are so sitting so high up that the altitude will give you a nosebleed.
what is she saying from 2:11 2:24? can you teach me it, anyone?
I said: “So, even though getting rid of the peanut gallery might create a more quiet theater, you would also lose the money made from selling those seats! So maybe it’s not a good idea to get rid of it…. maybe some kind of wire mesh around the peanut gallery is the solution!”
Sorry for jumbling my words
If you put wire mesh around the peanut gallery, how do the peanuts get into the gallery?
“so, even though getting rid of the peanut gallery might create a more quiet theater, you will also lose the money made for selling those seats. so maybe it’s not a good idea to get rid of it.”
oh, damnit.
thank you for your reply, Marina! No, its just that my listening skill is not good. But why would we lose the money made from selling those seats even if they remove the peanut gallery…?
they can’t sell the seats anymore when they’re not there anymore …
Then in this case “you” means “managers of the theater”?
i guess it’s sort of like a non-personal you. like “one”.
one would also lose the money made from selling those seats.
Hello Marina,
I sit in the “peanut gallery” when I’m at a football game. I try to get close to the 50 yard line so I’m right in the middle of the field. I can see the whole field and the crowd is always loud and having a great time. I’ve bought tickets for seats down below and close to the playing field and just like you acted out everybody there is quiet and boring. You can’t see what’s happening when the teams are at the far end of the field. I’ve never gone back either- I’m just a peanut gallery fan and a peanut head gravatar.
Marina,
Good question I wouldn’t be able to give a factual answer
Greg
I can just picture Jimmy Carter buying the Peanut Gallery all to himself.
Last time in the peanut gallery…I was in at a baseball game for the local “farm team”, meaning minor league baseball. It was fun!
Actually, peanut gallery goes along with that song about baseball called “take me out to the ballgame” It says, “buy me some peanuts”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1z-hQePzs4&feature =related
Know which word would be kinda cool to find the origin?
The game “Cricket”
Or “Jai Alai”
Cheers, and can’t wait for your next lesson
Marina;
Just read John John’s Dad’s response. Funny what kind of affect this medium can have–that YOU can have–on people! It really is amazing and when all is said & done it is the good cheer that is the lasting element. I think. How cool.
Posted on wrong lesson<—–color me dumb
last peanut gallery i purchased was for a Braves game with my 10-yr-old son…
‘course, the good thing about the cheap seats at ball games is that you can move to other seats if the place isn’t crowded…
which, given the Braves’ season, it wasn’t…
but the coolest thing was that after the game, my son got to run the bases at Turner Field…
annudder
Wonderful, as always! Off to research whether a home or condo is a better retirement choice of housing? Which brings up the point: what is the origin of the word condominium?
a condo can’t be a home?
They are both types of housing but they aren’t the same. Housing association fees and board decisions for condos can be very different from living in a private home, especially if it is one without a homeowner’s association. So they are both places to live but the costs aren’t the same. Also, in some areas condos sell better than homes and in other areas, they are hard to sell. More complicated than it seems.
Plius, there are emotional factors. Some people don’t want the bother of a lawn. Some people want the lawn, the land, the separate home. Condos can share walls with neighbors, similar to an apartment. It becomes a very personal decision, with financial levels, too.
my mother lives in a condo, and she calls it, “home”; so do i, when i travel there…
annudder
I knew a guy that lived out of his car. Whenever he drove by, I’d say, el condo Passat…
hmmm…given that my mother’s condo cost one helluvalot more’n the two-story house (with full basement) that i grew up in, plus all the condo association codicils and fees, i’m not sure if there’s a financial benefit…
annudder
I was just wondering where does the word picnic come from?
i request “tickled pink”
Hi Marina.
I just got done sitting in the “Peanut Gallery” at the John Mayer concert in Sacramento Ca. They were the cheap seats. However they were not that bad because the cheap seats are on a hill side of thick grass. (nice on a hot summert night.) We threw our blankets down and had a great time.
Nice!
You had a great time? I thought you said you were at a John Mayer concert. I’m confused.
The scenery dude ! the scenery . i.e. it was hot outside…. get it?
oh, and i hope you got to bring the beverage of your choice…that was always my favorite part of a concert-on-the-green…
well, that and the make-out sessions…
annudder
Last Saturday, I sat on blankets on the grass, too. The outdoor theatre production of AIDA at the Spring Mountain Ranch, which lies in Red Rock Canyon at the base of the Wilson Cliffs, just outside Las Vegas.
Dear teacher =D
I been seeking for the meaning for this word for awhile even my dictionary and school teacher can’t help me
The word cynicism,so please help me teacher >.<
I’d like to know about the pdrase “it will cure you or kill you”
If this conundrum causes you a headache keep taking aspirin until the headache goes away or kills you.
people who sat in the back are poor and could not afford to sit in front and they could not hear so they were rude and made it to where nobody could hear.A$$ HOLE$
You look like one of them, so you may explain what this word means: Angel
my computer is out of work ,i can hear,i wanna cry!
When ever I here “Peanut Gallery” I think of the two old guys from the Muppet shows.
The first year the Twins won the World Series, 1985, we watched a number of games from the peanut gallery. Should have been called “the beer gallery,” though, since we threw beer, not peanuts.
Your Shakespeare is marvelous. Why not a video on how many English phrases come directly from Shakespeare?
tt
I thought it was called the peanut gallery because that was what was tossed at the bad performers in the shows, peanuts.
Hi Marina,
When I heard the term peanut gallery I thought… cheap/inexpensive nuts in an area/gallery… meaning “the cheapos r nutty” section. All the antics come from the poor nutbars at the back of the place sort of idea. It’s a lot of fun there!
I was in the peanut gallery for the Led Zeppelin reunion concert in 2007, tickets were allocated through a lottery so we had no choice in the matter.
Hi Marina!…your newest class member!….the one at the back hoping he wont be asked a question on his homework that he hasnt done! lol
The word ‘ fabulous’….any thoughts?
hope you’re well
Cooldoq x
Thanks cooldoq, I think that word might make for a good lesson. Thanks!
Marina
Should I have waited and let you do the greetings.
Nike
MIke
Err … Nike, don’t wait, Just Do It.


Oh dear! Too late. He didn’t wait, had a hissy fit and left.
Hope he comes back again.
thanks Mike!
I had Betty Willis sign a lithograph on June 21, 2008. She is the lady who, in the late 1950s, designed the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign that is so famously associated with my home town. Sadly, she did not establish any legal ownership of this design. If she had, she would be very rich, as the sign is reproduced in many forms in tourist shops all over town. When I think of the word “fabulous,” I can’t help but associate it with Sin City.
Hi Marina; where does the phrase ‘mickey mouse’ (meaning ’shoddy’) come from?
I sat in the peanut gallery just a few weeks ago. I always get peanut gallery seats for concerts, I go for the music, not to see the band. Plus, the show in the peanut gallery can be very entertaining.
hey hotforwords i have a question on the word Rock And Roll
thanks for reading
I know its a genre of music but what i dont understand is how ti came to be “Rock and Roll” or what the rock signifies alongside with roll. i hope you can answer my question
Dear teacher
Thank you for this very interesting lesson. I didn’t know this idiomatic expression so… this lesson was a very interesting one indeed. Is it possible tomake a world request? If I may, I would like to have lessons about three words : bootleg, beyond and indeed!
Thank you for the lesson.
Amicalement,
Don Felipe de las vegas
How about the word “meadows?” After all, Las Vegas means “The Meadows.” Here in Las Vegas, one of our shopping malls is called The Meadows Mall, and the street it’s on is called Meadows.
Dear fellow student,
The meadows, indeed! I wanted to have a spanish quote, so that’s why there is no meadows but only las vegas.
Amicalement,
Earl Philip from the meadows
Maybe also they had peanuts for brains….dunno……jk.
Homework: I was at a Circus-type thing in Rochester with my friend Weezle and my brother and we saw some really hot dancing with this circus lady doin’ her thang, and she was workin’ it. It was down. Anyway, Marina, we, unfortunately were in the peanut gallery whilst watching this spectacle and I couldn’t say that that circus lady was near as hot as hotness herself - Marina Orlova.
Avidly participating,
-Shawn M. Norris
are those the little cartoon black girls i have seen around on your shirt it’s really hard to tell
hello from the peanut gallery i wanted to ask you to cheer the u.s. rapid fire pistol team to victory they are using my favorite brand of pistol and they are fellow american people trying to do our country best and that and rifle shooting are my favorite i could probably shoot as good as some of them with my many years of long range precision shooting for hobby but i probably would not make the rest of the training like waking up in the morning that only happens during hunting season if i am lucky
I relized this in college:
Can any one come up with a phrase that almost everybody uses, and is grammatically incorrect? And why it is grammatically incorrect.
What is it? How about the new one that Paris Hilton used in that new video… “loves it”. ughh I don’t know which one you are referring to though smokey36bear.
The first thing is Paris Hilton speaks Pop.
She and her kind worship the Dollar .
Not in anyway are concerned with intellect….dude
totally
excellent
extreme
It is any version of they phrase “piss me off” or “pisses me off” because it is not proper to end a sentence in a preposition. sounds weird but to say it right it should be “off I am pissed”
this is so crap. “don’t end a sentence with a preposition.” come ON! what kind of fucked-up “rule” is that? who ever came up with that shit?
Ending a sentence with preposition? That is something up with which I will not put!
I don’t think “off” in “piss me off” is being used as a preposition. Isn’t “off” modifying “piss” and therefore it’s an adverb in that sense? Or, isn’t really just an idiom anyway - what the heck is “piss me off” anyway and how did it come to mean that one has become angry or vexed?
Teacher? Perhaps you’d care to investigate?
“it pisses me offly”? humm …
Not all adverbs have to have -ly at the end. See http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/off
Off can mean, as an adverb, “away from a place: to run off; to look off toward the west.” - so - to piss off might be like that - the Brits have saying “piss off” which means “get the fuck out of here you asshole.”
Also as an adverb, it means “away from what is considered normal, regular, standard, or the like: to go off on a tangent.” — so, if being “pissed” means to be angry - being “pissed off” maybe means - be abnormally angry.
Those are just guesses. But, nevertheless, off is an adverb sometimes and a preposition other times.
“off” does not in any way modify the verb. i’d argue that it’s part of the verb.
if it’s an adverb, you should be able to replace it with other adverbs.
(i) you’re pissing me off.
(ii) *you’re pissing me easily.
(iii) i’m pissed off.
(iv) i’m pissed off easily.
(v) ?i’m pissed easily.
(vi) piss off!
(vii) ?piss easily!
(viii) i’m slightly pissed (off).
(ix) i’m easily pissed (off).
(x) *i’m off pissed (off).
its a preposition, now piss off everyone.
I lioke to end my sentences with a proposition instead.
Is that like a dangling modifier?
aLx; The person who came up with “never end a sentence with a preposition” was English clergyman Robert Lowth, he wrote a neanderthalian gramar book back in the 18th century & that piece of advice stuck in peoples’ minds–and it has never been properly put aside.
It’s not a bad “general” rule. Obviously, it’s not appropriate in all circumstances.
One phrase I hear all the time is “where you at?” instead of “where are you?” I hate that.
I got one. When people say, ” I could care less”.
I hate it when people say that because the actual saying is.. “I couldn’t care less”.
If you say, ” I could care less”, THAT MEANS YOU CARE !!!
DUH!!!
I realize that it doesn’t have to do with ‘grammer’ but I thought i would throw that out there anyway.
The original form was “I couldn’t care less,” not “I could care less.” People are just careLess in their speech and things drop out over time so usages change, although rrrrilllly now, who cares about apathy?
I hear ya Penns….I hear ya.
I’ve never read anything to this effect - but, when I was a kid, I came to the conclusion that it meant “I care so little about this that I don’t care enough to care less about it…” - i.e. “I could care less…” but I don’t care enough about it even to care any less than i do…
Obviously, I just made that up, and typically I say “I couldn’t care less” just because it sounds better to me.
World Wide Words says that there is speculation that it could be a phrase like the New York Yiddish phrase “I should be so lucky!” I think they may be on to something there.
Hopefully someone will agree with me that hopefully is used inappropriately.
I often hear “Have you ever been?”
It means, “Have you ever been there” or “have you ever been to ___” but it’s just wierd to stop the sentence with a preposition.
But where’s the prepostion at?
GOOD CATCH
I was thinking preposition when I saw someone else use it. “Been” is a verb.
Perhaps it’s not grammatically incorrect. After all, people say
–Have you ran?
–What did you eat?
–Where did the truck blow up?
I still think it’s wierd to say “Have you ever been?” without a stated destination. I don’t have a problem with people saying it, and I don’t correct them.
When I hear “Have you ever been?” I get the same senation that I get when I put a piece of bologna in my mouth. I’m expecting meat, something tangible, and instead I get some odd fluffy mystery substance lacking in taste and texture. It has limited nutritional value– not really enough to recognize, but it’s enough to be sure that a person can survive…for a day or two
Where did the word “Orgasm” come from? Is it related to the words “Orgy” or “Orgiastic?”
I had to sit in the peanut gallery during a Shostokovich concert. It was two balconies above the floor, and it was like watching a flea circus with violins.
Hi Marina,
I’ve been wondering about the interjection “gee”, used in expressions like “Gee, I don’t know” or “Gee, I wonder…” or “Gee whiz!”
Where did this word “gee” come from? Did it perhaps derive from “Jesus”?
Cheers,
~ Chad
I’m not sure, but I think you’re on the right track, Chad. I think it started out so people could get away with blaspheme. Instead of saying Jesus Crist one would say gee wiz, or instead of god damn one would say gosh darn.
Let me know if I’m close Marina.
Jiminy Christmas! Somebody just blasted my femur!
So what? Someone just took a shotgun to my lemur! (Now I need a new pet.)
I once overheard a joke, where these dudes were all looking at smut mags and someone commented “Kids at a penis gallery” word request “penance”
I would like to know the origin of the word: revolution. And the connection it has to like the revolutionary war, and as in one revolution, like one lap on a track, or orbit of a planet around the sun.
Hi Marina, I’ve been thinking about your ’she has a k-nife’ video and I was wondering where the word autumn comes from?
Love the videos, keep up the good work.
And why is it spelled like that?

only “damn” and “autumn” end in “mn”
with the “n” being silent. Godd request!
I was watching the the asome shows of the olympics in beijing and that make me wonder the origin word of olympic
The Greeks have a mountain
named Mt. Olympia. Could it
be greek?
I think that’s what Michael Dukakis wants to do (mount Olympia).
That must be the mountain that is made up of empty beer cans.
It’s next to “Mount Lucky lager.”
Good one, pennsyltucky9!
Marina, awesome video! Funny stuff.
Homework: Well I’ve never been in a palce where they have such a peanut gallery so I’ve never actually been in it, and mor commonly for me is to be on the stage not watching it hehehe.
Best Djinnies, Ath, Offering three wishes (Altho there is no promises of actual fullfilment, but you can’t get everything in this world.)
hi! i was wondering about the word “bitch” when referring to a female dog and does the word go along with any other animals?
Shawn
You can find it on this site…. THIS IS THE LINK
This is a good link to the “bitch”

lesson. Ya did good, Smokey!
Briefly she explains the answer
to your question, 89wheelz89.
It did indirectly answer the question
of where the phrase “bitch in heat”
comes from, as it applies to women.
DISREGARD THE LINK. I’M TIRED AND MISS UNDERSTOOD THE QUESTION…
Get some sleep!
You did a good thing with that link.
Any word given for a female dog would carries the meaning.
The word did not make the “female dog” a bad thing.
Last time I was in the “peanut gallery” would be Ozzfest, which honestly at our venue, SANDSTONE AMPHITHEATER (IN all caps cause it was recently restored to it’s original name from “Verizon Wireless Amphitheater” and so I’m happy so it must be in all caps
), the lawn seats are cooler anyway. You can see the whole stage,and you aren’t in cramped seats. You can relax on the grass. 
Hey, I heard tonight on the Olympics a Nike commerical that says, “I have a lot of soul, but I’m not a soldier” which made me curious of the origins of the two words, and if they are related?
which two words……soldier and soul?
Sole. I have a lot of sole.
I am sorry if I offended anyone with my Nascar comment below. None was intended. I have been to a race, watch them on T.V. Just for the record I think Fox does a better job with the races than NBC. My dad has even been to a race school in Vegas. I know how hard it is. I meant no disrespect.
I’m pretty sure no one was offended.
Your humorous assertion that NASCAR
is enjoyed by rowdys and rednecks
didn’t hurt MY feelings! Never felt the
chicken bone rain, but I have dodged
a few half full beers! Now, if you had
called them “Skoal” social set, this
would have made fans of “Redman”
unhappy! LOL
Offended??? Naw! Never. Let me show you some links.

This is the race track I practicably was raised on. Yakima Speedway.
This is the track my uncle announces on. Grays Harbor Raceway
I’ve been in this guys car a few times.
Bobby Allison #22
My dad wrote for the auto racing section of local newspaper.
Oh an my dad married a raceway trophy girl.
Yea you might say I’ve been around auto racing just a bit.
My kind of peanut gallery
I like it that gallery too.
Young children were often refered to as “peanuts”. There was a popular t.v. show called “The Howdy Doody Show” featuring various marrionett charachters as well as human charachters. Towards the end of the show the viewing children were told have their parents write in request for tickets for them to sit in “the peanut gallery”, which was a live audience of children that watched the show as a on stage audience.
BiLL
Hold the phone! If the peanut gallery is so far from the stage then it would take alot of force to get a light little thing like a peanut all the way to the stage! Right? Now,*if* the target was the crowd with the closer seats then it all makes more sense to this old duffer.
Tryant
Hi Tryant,
I think the phrase peanut gallery may well have originated in the Old South, where crowds were segregated by color, because “goober peas,” or peanuts as they are now known, were initially used as hog feed and as such, primarily looked down upon by white socialites as a black folks’ (read “poor-man’s”) snack food because if it was fed to hogs, it would have been, by definition less hoity-toity and refined than, say, popcorn. Now I could be wrong on this, so don’t quote me, but it has always been my distinct impression that the phrase carried some racial overtones in that only the people in the least sought-after seats i.e, way in the back or up on the second balcony, etc. would exhibit such a lack of “proper class” as to be seen eating “goober peas” in public back in those early times. So, regardless of all the aforementioned speculation on my part, you are correct. From that distance, it truly would have been impossible to hit the stage with a thrown peanut. But the shells from a balcony tier could certainly rain down upon the cheapest seats in the very back of the “white” section. Maybe that was the actual “peanut gallery!” Kind of like a shooting gallery where the targets were the poorest of the crackers below (those who couldn’t afford the best front-and-center tickets) and peanut shells were the ammunition. Oops, I inadvertently dropped another one! Hmmm. Food for thought, anyway.
But what the hell do I know? I’m just a stupid cracker who isn’t even from the Deep South, nohow!. Plus, I’m too damn lazy to research it because it’s summer and school’s out. So you’re on your own there, pal.
See ya ’round the campus.
Hmmm,yeahhh,I like the concept,it’s speculative,as You say,but has some basis in horse-sense with the added bonus of being a bit convoluted too! Just the kind of thinkin I like! Right,wrong,or in-between.
Now that I finally found a school I like You bet Yer bippy I’ll be “around campus”.
I wonder if Proffessor Marina was expecting all the prersonalities She recieved here at this fine online institution?! See Ya pennsyltucky.
Ummmm,Little Miz Marina,speaking of,”convoluted”-”horse-sense”-”bippy”,may I make a them a triple word request? TY much.
Hey pennsyltucky9,
“Peanuts” was also considered “something that was small or unimportant”. As when playing a game of poker or dice and the “pot” was small you would consider this as “playing for peanuts”.
Opps, I forget to say that maybe this is why the section was called a “peanut gallery” since everybody there might be considered a nobody- small or unimportant.
Funny that Warren would discuss “peanut gallery” when his gravatar is Charlie Brown, a Peanuts character!
Hey Marina. Just for you to know this is my first comment. I have a word request… GOOSEBUMPS…
Thanx.
Hi Sergiocadavid Marina has that effect on people to give them goosebumps as pretty as she is. Welcome to the site. Unofficial door greeter here. If you will look at the top of this page there is a lessons list on what lessons she has done. I don’t think goosebumps is in it so it might be a good word to do. Just give her time as she has many requests. Have fun here and if you have any problems or questions get up with Captain Jack as he is the teacher’s assistant or just ask anyone they will try to help you.
Mike
Wwwwwhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaassssssssssuuuuuuuuuuu uppppppppppp!
Wondering about the origin (and meaning) of the phrase “pound sand”.
I have a few guesses, but nothing more substantial than a guess.
The “Peanut Gallery” came from “Howdy Doody”, a kid’s TV show in the 1950s
It’s also possible that they used the term for the audience as a joke.
You’re probably right. Lots of old
vaudeville and theater words and phrases
were adopted by early TV shows.
“Bang! Zoom! Straight to the moon”
was made famous by Jackie Gleason,
but he said in an interview that he had
heard this in vaudeville when he was six.
You recently did the words pub & bar , which I like to frequent . Where did “cocktail” come from ???? My friend ponytail56 would like to know also.
Cheers !!
How About Paganism??
I have a word request Marina. the word is:
catholic
I watched a St. Louis Blues hockey game from the cat walks of the Kiel Center the first year it was open since someone in my family had ties to building it. Why are they called “cat walks” anyway? Also, you should’ve said “pipe down” to the members of the peanut gallery in tribute to Captain Jack!
What happened to the ability to star the lessons within hotforwords.com?
Cat walks. Humm thats interesting.
hahahha Pipe Down.. Funny Neanderthal…
The star ratings on the HFW site were only for the posts. The recored nothing on YT. There where many request from the students of where to rate the lessons on the HFW site. Since YT only accepts rating of videos from there YT page, she abandon the rankings on HFW site. Also she said they use to many resources that bog down the site.
Are you saying our ratings only count on YT?
Yes.
But you can still compliment her on her videos if you think they are up to par. Just tell her that they are good or bad or a four or five star video. I think the vocal comment on rating her videos helps her to know if she is doing a good lesson or not. It helps her ego if nothing else.
Mike
Hey Marina,
what’s the word “somersault” come from?
it has nothing to do with summer or sault!
hehe quote fromtv
I have a book of matches!