The Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello and even Lucy Ricardo have performed this routine, which is to burlesque comedy what “Happy Birthday To You” is to popular music. The origin of the skit is a bit harder to track, however.

There’s no question that “Slowly I Turned” got its start on the vaudeville stage. The set-up is always the same; a kind-faced passing stranger meets a down-on-his-luck sad sack. Sad Sack proceeds to tell Kind Face about the scum that ran off with his girl. He followed the pair and caught up with them at Niagara Falls, and because of that, he can never hear those words without them sending him into a rage. “Niagara Falls?” Kind Face asks. “Niagara Falls! Slowly I turned… step by step… inch by inch… I crept up on the rogue that stole my gal…” and he goes on to describe (and demonstrate) how he pummeled the fink. Throughout the conversation, the hapless stranger is tricked into repeating the trigger words “Niagara Falls,” with brutal (albeit hilarious) consequences.

The most conclusive evidence points to the late Joey Faye as the author of this skit. Born Joseph Palladino in 1909, he got his start in vaudeville, but went on to become a comical sidekick in dozens of Broadway shows and Hollywood films. He also continued to nab small parts on various TV shows throughout the 1960s and 70s, until he landed a steady gig as the green grape in a series of Fruit of the Loom TV commercials.