Hold on to your potatoes

Question

What does the following phrase mean?Hold on to your potatoes

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,
Can you provide some context?

Clive

Philip · Answer

Without context, it's difficult to help you out.  I'm not familiar with the expression, but it might be used in some areas as the equivalent of "keep your pants on", "keep your shirt on", "hold your horses", "don't get your pants in a bunch" to mean don't be in such a rush.

Jackson6612 · Answer

okey dokey
Famously used in the movie Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which interestingly corresponds to that time era, by Short Round, the Vietnamese kid with the hat, who also starred in the Goonies.
Short Round: Okey dokey Dr. Jones. Hold on to your potatoes.

Philip · Answer

This isn't much of a linguistic context. It sounds to me like he's about ready to start a "wild ride" of some sort....making it like "hang onto your hat" [so it doesn't blow off].

CalifJim · Answer

PhilipIt sounds to me like he's about ready to start a "wild ride" of some sort.

Exactly. It's the beginning of the chase scene where the kid is driving the car pretty recklessly, trying to escape the bad guys. He's speaking to Indiana Jones at the time.
Since Hold onto your hat implies that the listener should hold onto his hat so as not to lose it during some violent motion that is about to ensue, one can pretty much guess what 'potatoes' Mr. Jones should hold onto so as not to lose in a violent car crash that might ensue. Whether hat or potatoes, it's all metaphoric, of course.
CJ

Anonymous · Answer

It's an invitation to preserve yourself. In French, it is used to encourage someone to hold on in a commotion or even just as a word of encouragement. I don't know it to be a common expression in English. I'm curious to know of its earliest occurrences.

My "meanwhile" hypothesis is that it is a French expression, mistakenly linked, and sifted into the script of a notable American m

My "meanwhile" hypothesis is that it is a French expression, mistakenly linked, and sifted into the script of a notable American movie, ergo popularizing it in some circles.

In the context of Indiana jones: Temple of doom

https://www.google.com/search?q=hold+onto+your+potatoes&oq=hold+onto&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i57j0l4.2919j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

The character shorty being of indochinese roots in the 1930s, likely imagined to have had some contact with French colonial powers if not being exposed to the french language heavily in his first 4 years before being "adopted" by Dr Jones who would have valued knowing many languages. . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Indochina

The expression "lâche pas la patate" is a popular French Canadian expression http://www.je-parle-quebecois.com/lexique/definition/expression-quebecoise/lache-pas-la-patate.html

In the 1970's the expression was popularized in Francophone American and Canadian culture by a song by Cadians signer Jimmy C Newman of Lousianna https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A2che_pas_la_patate

The among the american writters and makers of Indianna jones : Temple of Doom likely had heard some of these Fench Canadian expressions. If someone in the writting or making process of the movie linked that particular french expression to the french language of Indochina; then linked french to the indochinese character, they may have thought that it would be the sort of thing the boy would use. The expression would have slipped into the script it would then find itself in the script. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Jones_and_the_Temple_of_Doom

The movie is widely recognized has having been terrible for several reasons. Most, notably for poor writing and effects. The mistake, here being that a 1930 indochinese child who knows french likely wouldn't know a 1972 song and expression, would not have been corrected if no one was sufficiently well versed in the French language catch the mistake, was also working on the film, find it an important mistake and had the means to impose a correction.

While holywood has a considerable Francophone and French canadian workforce due to Quebec's significant film industry, the force may not have been as broad at that time. Workers on the film likely were not in a position to suggest such changes even if they caught on. Perhaps it was understood as a good joke if anything. Trust me, any francophone canadians who links "hold on to your potatoes" to "lâche pas la patate" is getting a good chuckle out it. If the cross cultural humor in the expression was deliberate that would disprove this last element of my theory. But note, if the humor intended it would have reached a likely small portion of Francophones, it was well ahead of it's time and would be one of the most outstanding winks in French Canadian and American cinema. It could even be seen as offensive and harsh in some Francophone circles due to the controversial nature of the song that popularized the expression.

This is only my theory, and it can be brought down in several ways. 1. Narrowing knowledge around the orgin of the idea for it being in the script to find a clearer explanation. 2. Finding older writings that prove the commonness of the expression in French. 3. Finding any other occurrence of the expression in writings or cultural productions in English before 1984 when Temple of Doom was released.

My hypothesis can be brought down partly or entirely by some light research. Until someone else posts in order to disprove it, I believe in the argument is a sturdy and imaginative explanation that is clearly still required. To be honest, I find it such a lovely turn of phrase, I wouldn't mind giving up my theory to know more about where abouts the expression comes from in one language or the other.

Hold on to your potatoes

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