Burning question: Where does "your friendly neighborhood..." come from?

[SimuLord]

Does anyone know the origins of the phrase "your friendly neighborhood..." I see it everywhere (hell, I USE it everywhere!), but I have no idea where in the world it comes from or who coined it. Google is of little help (typing "your friendly neighborhood" into it tends to spit out sites about the 2005 Spider-Man comic book), so I'm wondering if someone here knows...or has a good idea where I can go to find out?

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

For some reason, Something in this one's mind thinks it has something to do with police...
Well, it may have something to do with the police.

 

[Soxafloppin]

Ive only ever heard it in spider man dude, sorry.

 

[weary]

I imagine it was probably from a marketing campaign of some sorts trying to appeal to the local 'community' market

 

[Lullabye]

For some reason, Something in this one's mind thinks it has something to do with police...
Well, it may have something to do with the police.

This is what I always thought. When Spider-Man said it, he was trying to make people feel at ease by using a term that they knew was often used by police way back when....

 

[Binerexis]

I think it's from 1950's America but I could be wrong. It likely refers to the police force or some other local authority figure that the government of the time wanted you to put faith into. I want to stress, however, that this is just a theory I've had for a while and I am COMPLETELY talking out of my arse.

 

[Lukeje]

According to wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendly_Neighborhood_Spider-Man] it's a ``trademark self-referential comment often made by Spider-Man''.

 

[Abedeus]

Yeah, friendly neighborhood is definitely Spider-Man.

 

[DannyBoy451]

*Spider Man, Spider Man, friendly neighbourhood Spider Man*

 

[SimuLord]

Interesting...so the phrase seems to be associated with Spider-Man, possibly via the same sort of 1950s Americana that stuff like Fallout draws from.

Not like I can just walk up to Stan Lee and say "where did you get that phrase from?"

 

[TheGreatCoolEnergy]

i'm inclined to believe it is a term coined in the 50's, when family and community became icons of American life.

Wasn't spider man coined in the 50's?

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

As far as I know, Spider-Man really was the first to use it (He's actually a pretty old superhero), but it was based on the slogans like the 'To Protect and Serve'-esque old policing mottos.

 

[FactualSquirrel]

I think it's something the police said in America ages ago, and became one of those phrases noone knows the meaning of, before being repopularized by spidey.

 

[Pimppeter2]

I believe it comes from a friendly neighborhood.

 

[Cherry Cola]

I'm pretty sure it's Spiderman.

I use it because of him anyway

 

[SimuLord]

I sent an email to Marvel Comics; if they give me an answer I'll let everyone here know!

 

[cleverlymadeup]

Not like I can just walk up to Stan Lee and say "where did you get that phrase from?"

actually if you could find his email address you could try and ask him. from what i've heard he's a really nice and approachable guy, so he might email you back with the answer.

as for your question i do believe it came from Spiderman