Why We Say “Close, But No Cigar”
Well now… here’s one of those sayings we toss around without giving it a second thought.
You know the moment. Someone almost wins something, almost guesses right, almost pulls it off… and somebody nearby says:
“Close… but no cigar.”
But have you ever stopped and wondered where that phrase actually came from?
Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat, the story goes back to the noisy, bright-light world of old-time carnivals and traveling fairs in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Back in those days, if you walked down a carnival midway you’d hear barkers hollering, bells ringing, and the clatter of games where folks tried their luck knocking down milk bottles, tossing rings, or pitching baseballs at stacked targets.
And here’s the funny part.
Cigars were prizes.
That’s right. Instead of stuffed animals or giant teddy bears, many carnival games handed out real cigars to the winners. Cigars were cheap, popular, and seen as a respectable prize for adults wandering the midway.
So picture it.
A fellow tosses a ball… almost knocks down the bottles.
The carnival barker grins and shouts something like:
“Ahhhh! Close, friend… but no cigar!”
In other words, you nearly had it—but the prize stays right here.
Newspapers started printing the phrase in the early 1900s, and before long it slipped into everyday conversation. People began using it whenever someone just missed success.
Over time the cigars disappeared from carnival prize counters, but the saying stuck around.
And today we still say it, even though most folks have no idea it started on a dusty carnival midway with a fast-talking game operator and a hopeful player trying to win himself a stogie.
Funny how language works like that.
A little slice of carnival life from more than a century ago… still hanging around in the way we talk.
And that, my friends, is the story behind “Close, but no cigar.”
Stick around here at Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat, because there are plenty more everyday sayings hiding some mighty interesting history.
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