What Will the Milky Way?

"Pickle Dill Etchings. If the earth weighs 200,110,000,000,000,000 pounds, what will the Milkey-way? Oh, you milk maid."

This early twentieth-century humorous postcard starts out with a goofy heading, "Pickle Dill Etchings," which may have been used for a series of similar postcards. Below that is a riddling question that turns out to be a silly pun–"What will the Milky Way weigh?" And the exclamation at the bottom of the card–"Oh, you milk maid!"–extends the milk allusion but also refers to a song, "I Love, I Love, I Love My Wife–But Oh! You Kid!," that was all the rage in 1909 (for a discussion of how immensely popular it became, see Jody Rosen's fascinating Slate article,"How a Sexed-up Viral Hit from the Summer of '09–1909–Changed American Pop Music Forever").

The "oh you kid" catchphrase also generated many other variations. For additional examples, see Oh You Lemon!, Oh You Chestnut!, and Oh! You Lobster.