Clayton Moore as the Lone Ranger on his horse Silver
22 November 2023
A recent post on Languagehat.com takes a look at the phrase my work here is done. The cliché is a good example of how difficult it is to determine when a simple collocation of words becomes a catchphrase and when a catchphrase starts to be used ironically.
In current usage, the phrase is often used in jest, either taking undue credit for some accomplishment or after fomenting some state of chaos. But when did this serious phrase become comic? Simply doing a search for the string of words does not help in sussing out the transition points from collocation to cliché to irony.
The earliest use of the collocation of the words my work here is done that I have found is in a 1652 pamphlet by Thomas Tany, a.k.a. Theaurau John Tany, an apocalyptic preacher and religious visionary:
Now I hope I shall offend none that now sits, for I speak in the truth of the Nations, true birth-right linially discending, duely conjoyned, and of right chosen, Magna Charta being their foundation stone or Center. Now if yee be offended by thar [sic], I know you to be but shaddows, for if ye be trve, then no offence; for it is a shadoe or weakness that is jeolous or offended, for truth is strong standing Centered in the main rock, which is God, for God is Truth who hath been made a Colour to colour all your false, falices under, & for his glory alone I contest with this Nation only to charge it with the works wrought in it, then my work here is done, for judgement follows the sound, but men by the sound shall be left without excuse.
But the words of an obscure seventeenth-century preacher hardly constitute a likely source of inspiration for a present-day catchphrase. And a search of the databases Eighteenth Century Collections Online and Nineteenth Century Collections Online fail to turn up a single instance of the phrase my work here is done. Of course, there are undoubtedly instances of the collocation from those centuries that didn’t make it into those collections, but its absence from the databases is strong evidence that it wasn’t a stock phrase.
Also from the seventeenth century is the use of my work is done, reportedly uttered in 1658 by Oliver Cromwell on his deathbed:
Again, hee said, I would bee willing to live to bee further serviceable to God and his People, but my work is done, yet God will bee with his People.
Cromwell was not an obscure preacher, and his words might realistically be taken up as a catchphrase, but I doubt this is the origin of the modern cliché. First, it is missing the here. There are, of course, older uses of my work is done, and it is a rather pedestrian phrase. It is the here that elevates it from the pedestrian to the memorable.
If the cliché is not from the nineteenth century or earlier, we must look to the twentieth, and the source that most people point to is the Lone Ranger, the western hero who reportedly frequently used my work here is done as a sign-off. The Lone Ranger began as a radio show in 1933, and the television series ran from 1949–57. The shows are certainly well known enough to have spawned the catchphrase.
The trouble is that I have been unable to find an actual example of the phrase from an episode of the Lone Ranger. I’ve gone through a number of the radio and television episodes that are available online (but by no means all), and the line my work is done here simply does not appear. There are, however, a number of episodes where the Lone Ranger says things like, “Tonto, our work here is finished” or “Tonto, our job is done here.” And in one case, another character says, “He never stays around once his work is done. He’s the best friend we’ve ever had. He’s the Lone Ranger.”
These similar lines hardly constitute anything like a routine signoff to the show; most episodes end with nothing like the phrase being said. Attributing my work is done here to the Lone Ranger is a misquotation along the lines of Casablanca’s “Play it again, Sam,” or The Treasure of the Sierra Madre’s “Badges, we don’t need no stinking badges.” But whether or not he actually said it doesn’t really matter for our purposes. Since something akin to the phrase was said often enough to make people think the Lone Ranger said it, then it is the likely inspiration for the catchphrase.
And as to when the phrase started to be used ironically, that is an even more difficult question to answer. Undoubtedly there are multiple people who independently used the phrase ironically. But my vote for the likely turning point, when the catchphrase gained traction as irony, is Mel Brook’s 1973 movie Blazing Saddles. A portion of the closing scene has Sheriff Bart saying farewell to the townspeople Rock Ridge:
HOWARD JOHNSON: Sheriff, you can’t go now. We need you.
(Townsfolk ad lib)
BART: My work here is done. I’m needed elsewhere now. (MUSIC: BEGINS POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE.) I’m needed wherever outlaws rule the West, wherever innocent women and children are afraid to walk on the streets, wherever a man cannot live in simple dignity and wherever a people cry out for justice.
TOWNSPEOPLE (in unison): BULLSHIT!!!
BART: All right, ya caught me.
Of course, Brooks and his fellow screenwriters (which included comedian Richard Pryor) were clearly evoking the belief that the Lone Ranger used the phrase when they had Bart say, my work here is done.
Sources:
Thanks to Ben Zimmer for pointing me to the recordings of the Lone Ranger radio show and to Stephen Goranson for helping me find episodes of the television series.
Brooks, Mel, et al. Blazing Saddles (screenplay), 6 February 1973 (revised 22 February 1973), 122. The Script Lab (pdf).
Languagehat. “My Work Here Is Done” (blog), 29 September 2023, Languagehat.com.
Tany, Thomas. Theavrau Iohn His Epitah and Evrops Looking-Glass. London, 1652, 7. Early English Books Online.
Walker, Henry, Ironmonger. A Collection of Several Passages Concerning His Late Highnesse Oliver, Cromwell, in the Time of His Sickness. London: Robert Ibbitson, 1659, 12. Early English Books Online.
Photo credit: ABC Television, 1956. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image.
A selection (by no means complete) of the relevant lines from the Lone Ranger radio and television shows:
“Along the Oregon Trail” (radio show). The Lone Ranger, 10 April 1942, 26:50. Archive.org.
“Our work here is done, Tonto.”
“Outlaw Point” (radio show). The Lone Ranger, 6 May 1942, 26:00. Archive.org.
“Now that his work is done, he’s on his way.”
“The Gunpowder” (radio show). The Lone Ranger, 17 September 1954, 22:00. Archive.org.
“Then our work is done, here, Colonel.”
“White Hawk’s Decision.” The Lone Ranger, S5.E6, 8 October 1956, 21:09. ABC Television. YouTube.com.
“Yes, Tonto. Our work here is finished.”
“Two Against Two.” The Lone Ranger, S5.E28, 21 March, 1957, 20:36. ABC Television. YouTube.com.
“Come on, Tonto. Our job is done here. Adios.”
“The Law and Miss Aggie.” The Lone Ranger, S5.E31, 11 April, 1957, 20:33. ABC Television. YouTube.com.
“Well, Tonto, our work is finished here.”
Unidentified episode. The Lone Ranger, 41:43. ABC Television. YouTube.com.
“He’s gone, Dad. He never stays around once his work is done. He’s the best friend we’ve ever had. He’s the Lone Ranger.”