The line from Jerry Maguire is, “You had me at hello.” It just a hilarious take on that.
It’s just the resemblance between Jell-O and “hello,” as in the line from Jerry Maguire. Even though, in that use, “hello” is pronounced with different stress than Jell-O.
Stan wins by a nose.
In Spanish, jello would sound a great deal like “hello” said with an accent. So it’s a reference to that movie line, as mentioned above. But wouldn’t a Mexican be in the kitchen and not the dining table, according to the standard tropes of comedy? And shouldn’t he have a sombrero or at least a poncho and a donkey, as per comic strip convention?
Of this could be political commentary. The USA government (the waiter) is posing this question to the potential immigrant as a shibboleth. First, his choice of Jello is suspect, since USers prefer chocolate cake because they are fat or apple pie because USA! USA! USA! as apple pie. So, the man’s selection of the low-calorie option, combined with his suspicious pronunciation shows his is an undesirable. Yes, I think that’s it.
Jack Benny, whose sponsor was Jello, did this every day: “Jello again, this is Jack Benny.” That’s the joke?
“Oddly, the English for jello is jelly. ” Thing I’ve never been able to quite figure out: Do the brits actually not distinguish between jelly and jam as significant; or do they simply not do jelly.
I’d interpreted the original comic as ‘he’s in a high-end restaurant, but wants Jell-O for dessert’.
And *I’m* getting all sorts of emails about the KETO diet; either someone’s [NSA?] been reading my comments on CIDU (albeit a different thread than this one) and/or SOMEone knows I’m overweight (actually, I’m underheight, but believes me).
I remember thread drift covered this, but I can’t remember which comic started the discussion. I DO know that, thanks to CIDUers, the phrase, ‘Let’s go in and see if there’s some jelly left.” from Dylan Thomas’ ‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’ makes a LOT more sense to me, knowing that ‘jelly’ is what we call gelatin/Jell-O.
Stan has it, though of course the gag requires a rather tortured pronunciation of “Jello.”
narmitaj: But a VAX didn’t have vacuum tubes! (Or are they hoover tubes? hoover valves?)
“though of course the gag requires a rather tortured pronunciation of “Jello.””
Does it really seem that torturous? I’ve heard many jell-o/hello/yellow jokes all my life. And if you say “Hello” as a surprised interjection (an alternative to “whoa”) or answering the phone aggressively rather than passive you do stress the first syllable of “hello”. I’d say a third to half the time we say “hello” it rhymes with “jell-o” and for the 2/3 to half times we don’t it’s too subtle that must wouldn’t even notice if we made the pun.
Yeah, I don’t think the pronunciation is that tortured either.
But “many”? We must run in different circles, woozy, I don’t think I’ve ever hear a jell-o/hello joke.
Depends on the person, maybe: I pronounce Jello with a very strong emphasis on the first syllable, while I pronounce “hello” with emphasis on neither syllable (and I know a lot of people who strongly emphasize the second)
” I don’t think I’ve ever hear a jell-o/hello joke.”
Ignatz referred to the most famous one.
Cartoonist for my college newspaper had four panel comic wear the first panel has the caption “tentative achromatopsiac answers the phone” and the next three panels are a person dead pan answering a phone and saying “yellow?” And people walking into the dining room and saying “Hello Jello!”.
I never said they were *good* jokes but they are things I’ve heard on and off several times.
Protein produced from bones and collagen;
For well-to-do
Desserts made out of gelatin.
A patent powdered form allowed the new:
Jello
It’s now easy to be made!
New technologies arise,
Make it easy to prepare;
Just boil it in some water,
And then put it in the fridge;
Add canned fruit or use a mold!
It’s in everything you see;
But let’s forget the ice cream:
Bill Cosby
Huh. I’ve been making the Jell-o/hello pun for years.
It appears there’s one or more T-shirts available with the “You had me at Jello” slogan, so that’s not new either.
“Protein produced from bones and collagen;”
When I was in hospital and vegetarian (two items not related), I returned the jello from my meal because it was NOT vegetarian. Huh, nobody knew that.
I don’t know what the Spanish word for “Jello” is, or whether they just pronounce it “Hello”, but I recently learned that “yellow” is how one pronounces the Spanish word for “ice.”
@ MiB – That doesn’t quite capture the aspirated dipthong in “hielo“, but it’s a serviceable approximation.
Online translators suggest “gelatina”.
I don’t really know Spanish, and I can’t do the sounds. I tried to say “perro” but it came out “pero”. Two different R sounds but I can’t tell you the difference. The first means “dog” but the second probably doesn’t mean anything at all. “El perro.” “Que?” “The dog.” “Oh, si, el perro.” I suppose it’s like when a foreigner asks for “sneakers” and it never occurs to you that he wants a Snickers bar. I think I’d better not ask for ice in my drink if I can’t even hear the h in hielo.
In the 1700s “jello” was not yet invented but even then the British called it jelly when they ate it.
@ MiB – Actually, “pero” (with one “R”) is indeed a word in Spanish, it means “but” (with one “T”). When I was learning Spanish in school, I was never able to learn the “rolled” sound that corresponds to “rr” (or to a single “r” at the beginning of a word). My teacher finally admitted (but not until near the end of my second year) that there are some native speakers who can’t do it either, which was only a minor consolation.
P.S. There is a similar “trilled” R in some (southern) German dialects, but luckily I don’t live anywhere near there, so I don’t need to pronounce it, nor listen to it (I’ve never been fond of Bavarian German).
P.P.S. Comparing doubled consonants that do (or do not) result in homonyms, translating “But the dog has a butt” into Spanish produces “Pero el perro tiene un trasero“.
Comics I Don't Understand 
The line from Jerry Maguire is, “You had me at hello.” It just a hilarious take on that.
It’s just the resemblance between Jell-O and “hello,” as in the line from Jerry Maguire. Even though, in that use, “hello” is pronounced with different stress than Jell-O.
Stan wins by a nose.
In Spanish, jello would sound a great deal like “hello” said with an accent. So it’s a reference to that movie line, as mentioned above. But wouldn’t a Mexican be in the kitchen and not the dining table, according to the standard tropes of comedy? And shouldn’t he have a sombrero or at least a poncho and a donkey, as per comic strip convention?
Of this could be political commentary. The USA government (the waiter) is posing this question to the potential immigrant as a shibboleth. First, his choice of Jello is suspect, since USers prefer chocolate cake because they are fat or apple pie because USA! USA! USA! as apple pie. So, the man’s selection of the low-calorie option, combined with his suspicious pronunciation shows his is an undesirable. Yes, I think that’s it.
Jack Benny, whose sponsor was Jello, did this every day: “Jello again, this is Jack Benny.” That’s the joke?
The customer is obviously a Mormon…
RHPS fans: “Hey Riff, what’s Spanish for Jello?”
Oddly, the English for jello is jelly.
But then the English for vacuum cleaner is hoover, such that it is not unusual to hoover with a Dyson, Henry or Vax.
Of course, this showed up in my mailbox this morning: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/invention-of-gelatin-jello
“Oddly, the English for jello is jelly. ” Thing I’ve never been able to quite figure out: Do the brits actually not distinguish between jelly and jam as significant; or do they simply not do jelly.
I’d interpreted the original comic as ‘he’s in a high-end restaurant, but wants Jell-O for dessert’.
And *I’m* getting all sorts of emails about the KETO diet; either someone’s [NSA?] been reading my comments on CIDU (albeit a different thread than this one) and/or SOMEone knows I’m overweight (actually, I’m underheight, but believes me).
I remember thread drift covered this, but I can’t remember which comic started the discussion. I DO know that, thanks to CIDUers, the phrase, ‘Let’s go in and see if there’s some jelly left.” from Dylan Thomas’ ‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’ makes a LOT more sense to me, knowing that ‘jelly’ is what we call gelatin/Jell-O.
Stan has it, though of course the gag requires a rather tortured pronunciation of “Jello.”
narmitaj: But a VAX didn’t have vacuum tubes! (Or are they hoover tubes? hoover valves?)
“though of course the gag requires a rather tortured pronunciation of “Jello.””
Does it really seem that torturous? I’ve heard many jell-o/hello/yellow jokes all my life. And if you say “Hello” as a surprised interjection (an alternative to “whoa”) or answering the phone aggressively rather than passive you do stress the first syllable of “hello”. I’d say a third to half the time we say “hello” it rhymes with “jell-o” and for the 2/3 to half times we don’t it’s too subtle that must wouldn’t even notice if we made the pun.
Yeah, I don’t think the pronunciation is that tortured either.
But “many”? We must run in different circles, woozy, I don’t think I’ve ever hear a jell-o/hello joke.
Depends on the person, maybe: I pronounce Jello with a very strong emphasis on the first syllable, while I pronounce “hello” with emphasis on neither syllable (and I know a lot of people who strongly emphasize the second)
” I don’t think I’ve ever hear a jell-o/hello joke.”
Ignatz referred to the most famous one.
Cartoonist for my college newspaper had four panel comic wear the first panel has the caption “tentative achromatopsiac answers the phone” and the next three panels are a person dead pan answering a phone and saying “yellow?” And people walking into the dining room and saying “Hello Jello!”.
I never said they were *good* jokes but they are things I’ve heard on and off several times.
Protein produced from bones and collagen;
For well-to-do
Desserts made out of gelatin.
A patent powdered form allowed the new:
Jello
It’s now easy to be made!
New technologies arise,
Make it easy to prepare;
Just boil it in some water,
And then put it in the fridge;
Add canned fruit or use a mold!
It’s in everything you see;
But let’s forget the ice cream:
Bill Cosby
Huh. I’ve been making the Jell-o/hello pun for years.
It appears there’s one or more T-shirts available with the “You had me at Jello” slogan, so that’s not new either.
“Protein produced from bones and collagen;”
When I was in hospital and vegetarian (two items not related), I returned the jello from my meal because it was NOT vegetarian. Huh, nobody knew that.
I don’t know what the Spanish word for “Jello” is, or whether they just pronounce it “Hello”, but I recently learned that “yellow” is how one pronounces the Spanish word for “ice.”
@ MiB – That doesn’t quite capture the aspirated dipthong in “hielo“, but it’s a serviceable approximation.
Online translators suggest “gelatina”.
I don’t really know Spanish, and I can’t do the sounds. I tried to say “perro” but it came out “pero”. Two different R sounds but I can’t tell you the difference. The first means “dog” but the second probably doesn’t mean anything at all. “El perro.” “Que?” “The dog.” “Oh, si, el perro.” I suppose it’s like when a foreigner asks for “sneakers” and it never occurs to you that he wants a Snickers bar. I think I’d better not ask for ice in my drink if I can’t even hear the h in hielo.
In the 1700s “jello” was not yet invented but even then the British called it jelly when they ate it.
@ MiB – Actually, “pero” (with one “R”) is indeed a word in Spanish, it means “but” (with one “T”). When I was learning Spanish in school, I was never able to learn the “rolled” sound that corresponds to “rr” (or to a single “r” at the beginning of a word). My teacher finally admitted (but not until near the end of my second year) that there are some native speakers who can’t do it either, which was only a minor consolation.
P.S. There is a similar “trilled” R in some (southern) German dialects, but luckily I don’t live anywhere near there, so I don’t need to pronounce it, nor listen to it (I’ve never been fond of Bavarian German).
P.P.S. Comparing doubled consonants that do (or do not) result in homonyms, translating “But the dog has a butt” into Spanish produces “Pero el perro tiene un trasero“.