Shucky darn and slop the chickens

Shucky darn = cussy darn (euphemisms for "dammit", etc.)

Slop the chickens is a regional (country southern) expression of mild expletive (others might be "well slap my face", "well I'll be darned").

Hi,

I've never heard either of these.

Clive

I think that's part of the charm, Clive-- Garfield's phrase is a take-off on 'country talk'. It sounds very rural, but isn't real. An admixture of 'shucks' and 'darn' plus 'slop the hogs' and 'feed the chickens'.

I do not know about "slop the chickens", but folks I used to cowboy with in Southeastern Oregon would laugh at the use of "shucky darn." There it had a ribald meaning associated with shucking an ear of corn and using a darning needle.

I grew up in the South...Southern Oregon, that is, and we used "shucky darn" as "will I"ll be!" Since my mother's grandmother came from Missouri and my father's mother came from southern Indiana I suspect it is, as you stated, a "southernism."

"Shucky darn" is, of course, built up of sound-alike euphemisms: "shucky" is a diminutive of "shucks", a euphemism for, um, excrement, and "darn" for ****. The times I've seen/heard it used are ironic or sarcastic, like the example---as if Garfield is just so upset that Jon's mother is pushing food on him (that he, Garfield, has a shot at getting some of).

I have always interpreted it as an expression of content like “hot dog! Or “great day in the morning!”