"I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass—and I'm all out of bubble gum"

The reason the above line sounds so lame is that it sounds and reads as if it were written by an English teacher or a screenwriter who thought it sounded like something a tough guy would say but lacked any familiarity with the urban neighborhoods where it was commonly used. I first heard this line in 1958 on the basketball court in San Francisco's Sunnydale Housing Projects. My parents later told me that folks were using this phrase when they were teenagers.

The phrase was never used as a real threat or even as a prelude to a fight. It was generally stated in a joshing manner and was employed solely to put somebody in their place with a snappy comeback. One of the other players on the court, for example, would call you for double dribbling or walking and declare that you had to give up the ball. If you had the ball, your response would be, "Man, I ain't givin' up nothing 'cept ass whippings and bubble gum and I'm fresh outta bubble gum."

If it was said with the right intonation and timing everybody would crackup for a moment or two and then the game would resume. You still had to give up the ball.