• Question: (Hal Nitta/member/4/20/98)
  Hello Doc, In "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" His sister says to Ferris "Bite the big one,junior." at the very first part of the movie. Ferris tries to fake out the parents with a phony fever to ditch school and his sister knows it. The dialogue goes like this. Jeane:What's his problem? Mother:He doesn't feel well. Jeane:Yeah,you're right. Dry that one out you can fertilize the lawn. Ferris:Jeane,is that you? Jeanie,I can't see that far.... Jeanie:Bite the bit one,junior. Mother:Thank you Jeanie, You get to school. I'm not sure about the "dry that one...." part either, is she saying he is a "shit?"
  
  

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• Answer
  Dear Hal,
  The American-Australian Slang Dictionary by Robert P. O'Shea explains bite the big one this way: " vi. (From Saturday Night Live?) To conduct an activity too distasteful to be specified. Usually one is commanded to do this in an annoyed tone (e.g., ``Go bite the big one''). adjectival phrase. Bad, distasteful (e.g., ``that bites the big one'') (s.a. suck)." If you search other WWW pages, you can find many examples of people using bite the big one to refer to things they don't like, for example, a brand of bagels or a model of caror a brand of famicon software, or another software. Another page uses the expression in the sense of bite the bullet, to say you have to bite down hard to endure something painful. (The story for this expression is that before painkillers, people going to the dentist or doctor would bite down hard on a bullet, which wouldn't break because it is so hard, to be able to bear the pain better). On another page and another page it is used in the sense of "to die," but I rather think a more common expression for to die is "bite the dust" as in Queen's song. I saw the episode of Saturday Night Live, the enormously popular tv comedy-variety show, which O'Shea suggests, though with some doubt, as the source of the expression. The Conehead family appeared on a parody of a tv quiz show "Family Feud" and were asked to "Name something you bite." Laraine Newman answered .......... "The Big One!" and that turned out to be the Number One answer, ahead of romaine lettuce. I thought it was a very funny skit myself, in a silly nonsense kind of way. The sense of the expression is very silly really, because the Big One could be anything. Los Angelenos are half-expecting The Big One, as people in Tokyo are also. As for your second query, I am sure that the "that one" that Jeane says doesn't refer to Ferris himself but to Ferris' excuse of being sick, which is a big lie, which in strong slang is horseshit or bullshit or crap (or in more polite company is hooey or baloney or plenty of other colorful expressions), which can be visualized as being dried out for use as fertilizer much more easily than Ferris can be visualized doing so. Best wishes from Doc.