Gag a Maggot off a Gutwagon

Here we come to save the day.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello.

Hi, who is this?

Hi, this is Schumet Dasgupta calling from Oakland, California.

What’s on your mind today, Schumet?

Oh, I got a question.

I had a friend of mine in college who had all these rather crass colloquialisms that he picked up from his father.

They’re wonderful.

A lot of them I can’t really say on the radio.

But, you know, I picked up on them and I used to go around saying them for years.

And one in particular is a way of describing, I guess, an unattractive woman.

And he would say, she’s got a face that could gag a maggot off a gut wagon.

Gag a maggot off a gut wagon?

Ew.

You could pair it, I guess, both ways and make gender equity.

But for some reason, I can only think of guys saying this.

So the question I had, actually, was for years, you know, I was, this phrase has been going through my head.

And I always just figured the gut wagon was just for effect, you know.

Everything seems to be rooted somewhere.

So I thought, is there an actual gut wagon and why?

-huh.

Is there a story behind the expression gut wagon?

Yes, there is.

And probably those of you who are eating breakfast right now might want to either turn down the radio

Or just reach for the crunchiest thing on your plate and crunch for a little bit while we explain,

Because it is pretty gross.

Are you ready, Shumit?

Yeah, I think so.

Okay.

Yes, a gut wagon is an actual thing.

It’s a wagon or truck that hauls the carcasses of dead farm stock.

Okay.

So a gut wagon is a pretty gross thing, and if you’re a maggot on a gut wagon, then you have a pretty strong stomach.

So if somebody’s got a face that could gag a maggot, not just any maggot, but a maggot on a gut wagon, that’s quite a face.

Oh, boy. Thanks for that, I think.

Thanks for that, I think.

Well, Schumann, one thing about the gut wagon, it’s actually not that common a vehicle.

You’re not going to find these on every block in town.

Thank goodness.

These days with farm culture basically being managed by the big corporations, it’s just the kind of thing that’s almost passed completely into colloquialism.

And you’ll find it used as a comparison device in a lot of colorful expressions.

So there are a couple that I know.

Are you ready for these?

None of them are as gross as what we’ve been talking about.

But you can say that somebody stinks so bad that they would stink a dog off a gut wagon in a dead faint.

Oh, that’s excellent.

The inverse to what your friend said, you could say a woman is so fine that the men were after her like buzzards after a gut wagon.

So you’ll find it in literature and in newspapers over the last, what, 100 plus years, Martha?

Quite a while.

At least back to the 1920s, yeah.

Yeah, people using it as a kind of device because it’s something so extreme.

It’s so filthy and disgusting that it’s kind of like a marking point of things being better than that or things being worse than that.

And it’s actually causing a very positive or very negative reaction in people.

One of my favorite ones, though, Schumann, I’ve got a bunch of these, but this is the last one I’ll tell you about.

Are you enjoying this, Schumann?

Not really.

It’s informative.

Oh, yeah.

Pretty much everyone says that about our show.

One last one.

He says, I knew him when he was nobody and had nothing.

He couldn’t flag down a gut wagon.

Which is kind of saying, you know, he couldn’t get the attention of anyone.

I like that one.

Excellent.

Thank you for that.

Love your show.

Thank you so much for calling, Chumet.

Still?

Glad to take the call.

All right.

All right.

Bye-bye.

All right.

Bye-bye.

If you’d like us to explain some stuff to you that’s not quite so gross, or maybe we’ll do the gross stuff.

Why not, right?

Why not?

Give us a call, 1-877-929-9673.

That’s 1-877-Wayword.