“The peasants are revolting” (“The people are revolting”)
“The peasants/people are revolting” is a joke, playing of the meanings of “revolting” (“rebelling” and “disgusting”). The Peasants Are Revolting (1971), by cartoonists Brant Parker and Johnny Hart, is a collection of The Wizard of Id comic strips. This comic strip used the joke in 1967 and probably as early as 1964.
The Mel Brooks-directed comedy film History of the World, Part I (1981) included these memorable lines:
Count de Monet: It is said that the people are revolting.
King Louis XVI: You said it! They stink on ice!
Wikipedia: The Wizard of Id
The Wizard of Id is a daily newspaper comic strip created by American cartoonists Brant Parker and Johnny Hart. Beginning in 1964, the strip follows the antics of a large cast of characters in a shabby medieval kingdom called “Id”. From time to time, the king refers to his subjects as “Idiots”. (The title is a play on The Wizard of Oz, combined with the Freudian psychological term Id, which represents the instinctive and primal part of the human psyche.)
In 1997 Brant Parker passed his duties on to his son, Jeff Parker, who had already been involved with creating Id for a decade. In 2002 the strip appeared in some 1,000 newspapers all over the world, syndicated by Creators Syndicate.
Google News Archive
2 December 1964, Spokane (WA) Daily Chronicle, “Putting It Lightly: No Joke Is Quite Foolproof” by Ron Broom, pg. 4, col. 1:
FOR INSTANCE, only the other day a colleague said in a somewhat concerned tone, “The peasants are revolting.”
The frown of worry caused by this disturbing news seemed to set him off. He walked away laughing reprehensibly.
5 August 1965, Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, UT), “Lancelittle” comic strip by Paul Sellers, pg. 12C, col. 5:
Panel One:
MESSENGER: QUICK! SIRE! WHAT SHALL I DO?
Panel Two:
MESSENGER: THE PEASANTS ARE REVOLTING!
Panel Three:
KING: WELL, DON’T LOOK AT THEM, YOU FOOL!
Google News Archive
4 June 1967, The Sunday Star-News (Wilmington, NC), pg. 9-A, col. 5 ad:
WIZARD OF ID
BY Brant Parker & Johnny Hart
is coming to the STAR-NEWS NEWSPAPERS
KING ID
...a tyrant’s tyrant who,when informed, “The peasants are revolting,” agreed!
23 August 1969, Ames (IA) Daily Tribune, “Short Ribs” comic strip, pg. 2, col. 5:
Panel One:
MESSENGER: SIRE!
Panel Two:
MESSENGER: THE PEASANTS ARE REVOLTING!
Panel Three:
MESSENGER: SHALL I SEND OUT THE TROOPS?
Panel Four:
KING: NO, SILLY, SEND OUT THE SOAP AND WATER.
Google News Archive
28 September 1969, Victoria (TX) Advocate, “The Students Are Revolting” by Count Marco, pg. 7, col. 3:
There’s an old funny about an unpopular Empress whose maid, on viewing the riots outside the palace gates, dashes up breathlessly to the Empress and blurted, “Your Majesty, the peasants are revolting!”
Whereupon the Empress remarked disgustedly, “Yes, aren’t they?”
OCLC WorldCat record
The peasants are revolting
Author: Brant Parker; Johnny Hart
Publisher: Greenwich, Conn. : Fawcett Publications, 1971.
Series: The Wizard of Id, no. 3
Edition/Format: Book : English
The Internet Movie Database
History of the World: Part I (1981)
Quotes
Count de Monet: It is said that the people are revolting.
King Louis XVI: You said it! They stink on ice!
The Internet Movie Database
DragonHeart (1996)
Quotes
Young Einon: The peasants are revolting.
Brok: They’ve always been revolting, Prince. But *now*, they’re rebelling.
OCLC WorldCat record
The people are revolting! : (in the very best sense of the word)
Author: Jim Hightower; Paul David Wellstone
Publisher: San Francisco, CA : Alternative Tentacles Records, 2003.
Edition/Format: Audiobook on CD : CD audio : English
OCLC WorldCat record
The peasants are revolting! What plutocrats can do to take wall street back from the occupiers
Edition/Format: Article Article : English
Publication: Fortune, v164 n8 (2011 11 21):
YouTube
Count de Money / “The People Are Revolting”
WestLAGuy
Published on Jul 30, 2012