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</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">This article is about the usage and origins of the colloquial phrase. For other uses of the term, see <a href="Fall_Guy_(disambiguation)" class="mw-redirect mw-disambig" title="Fall Guy (disambiguation)">Fall Guy</a>.</div>

<p><b>Fall guy</b> is a colloquial phrase that refers to a <a href="Person" title="Person">person</a> to whom <a href="Blame" title="Blame">blame</a> is deliberately and falsely attributed in order to deflect blame from another party.

</p>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Origin">Origin</h2></div>

<p>The origin of the term "fall guy" is unknown and contentious. Many sources place it in the early 20th century,<sup id="cite_ref-google1_1-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-google1-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> while some claim an earlier origin. In April 2007, <a href="William_Safire" title="William Safire">William Safire</a> promoted a search to unearth its origins.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

</p><p>The term "fall guy" for one whom blame was directed upon in order to shield others had appeared in mass public culture in the U.S. at least by the 1920s. In 1925 it was the title of a Broadway play, <i>The Fall Guy</i>, by James Gleason and George Abbott, starring future Hollywood character actors <a href="Ernest_Truex" title="Ernest Truex">Ernest Truex</a> and Dorothy Patterson. This was turned into a <a href="Crime_film" title="Crime film">crime film</a> by Hollywood in 1930, <i>The Fall Guy</i>, with the "fall guy" again used by a gangster as an unwitting narcotics courier. It saw widespread use in the crime-dominated <a href="Film_noir" title="Film noir">film noir</a> era of the mid-to-late 1940s into the early 1950s.

</p><p>A related use of "fall guy" was for one to be left "holding the bag",<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> meaning to be abandoned to be caught and implicated in a crime, particularly holding stolen goods, either by design or circumstance. This in turn led to the term <a href="Bagholder" title="Bagholder">bagholder</a>, the victim of a fraudulent investment scheme. A related term was "patsy", which typically (but not exclusively) referred to someone set up before the fact to take a fall, as opposed to simply being left "holding the bag" when something went wrong in carrying out a crime.

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Errant_Teapot_Dome_conflation">Errant Teapot Dome conflation</h3></div>

<p>One suggestion that has been made in popular culture but discounted by Safire is that the word's origin dates to the administration of <a href="U.S._President" class="mw-redirect" title="U.S. President">U.S. President</a> <a href="Warren_G._Harding" title="Warren G. Harding">Warren G. Harding</a> (1921–1923), when <a href="Albert_B._Fall" title="Albert B. Fall">Albert B. Fall</a>, a <a href="U.S._Senator" class="mw-redirect" title="U.S. Senator">U.S. Senator</a> from <a href="New_Mexico" title="New Mexico">New Mexico</a> who served as <a href="United_States_Secretary_of_the_Interior" title="United States Secretary of the Interior">Secretary of the Interior</a> during Harding's years in office, became notorious for his involvement in the infamous <a href="Teapot_Dome_Scandal" class="mw-redirect" title="Teapot Dome Scandal">Teapot Dome Scandal</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="In_the_American_political_arena">In the American political arena</h3></div>

<p>A 1940s use of "fall guy" implying one inheriting work or responsibility - by default - appeared in the 1940s. A paper on "Isolationism is not dead" quotes an anonymous editorial from a paper in the Pacific Northwest on the topic of the <a href="Bretton_Woods_system" title="Bretton Woods system">Bretton Woods financial accord</a> and the Food Conferences in which the United States was depicted as the "fall guy, the one to carry the load".

</p><p>By the 1950s, the use of the term had morphed in the context of unions and industrial society to refer to the low man on the totem pole as one to whom the unpleasant tasks in a job or situation would be assigned.

</p><p>By the 1950s and 1960s, "fall guy" could be used in lieu of "<a href="Whipping_boy" title="Whipping boy">whipping boy</a>", someone to be ritually pilloried in the absence of (or avoiding punishing) a more specifically responsible party. In a 1960 paper called the "Politics of Pollution", Robert Bullard wrote public officials seeking to deflect criticism over landfills found a "fall guy" in the form of the faceless figures in "the federal government, state governments and private disposal companies".<sup id="cite_ref-bullard_6-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-bullard-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

</p>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Examples">Examples</h2></div>

<p>Some specific examples of the use of "fall guy" include:

</p>

<ul><li><a href="Assassination_of_John_F._Kennedy" title="Assassination of John F. Kennedy">Accused assassin of John F. Kennedy</a>, <a href="Lee_Harvey_Oswald" title="Lee Harvey Oswald">Lee Harvey Oswald</a>, was characterized as a "fall guy" in the traditional criminal sense (regardless of the fact that the assassination was a political event overlaying the criminal act of murder<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>a<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>) by writer Joachim Joesten in the title of his 1964 book <i>Oswald, Assassin or Fall Guy?</i>.</li></ul>

<dl><dd>In reviewing the Joesten book for the <i>New Times</i> American journalist Victor Perlo reinforced the theme that Oswald "was 'a fall guy,' to use the parlance of the kind of men who must have planned the details of the assassination".<sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></dd></dl>

<ul><li>Former United States Attorney General <a href="John_N._Mitchell" title="John N. Mitchell">John Mitchell</a> claimed he was being set up as a "fall guy" in the traditional sense of one "hung out to dry" or left "holding the bag" in the <a href="Watergate_scandal" title="Watergate scandal">Watergate scandal</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-10"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In <i>Public Doublespeak: On Mistakes and Misjudgments</i> Terence Moran uses the term in reference to a transcript of both <a href="Richard_Nixon" title="Richard Nixon">Richard Nixon</a> and <a href="John_Dean" title="John Dean">John Dean</a>. He also cites a scene from <i><a href="The_Maltese_Falcon_(novel)" title="The Maltese Falcon (novel)">The Maltese Falcon</a></i> in which Wilmer, the young gunman, is sold out and left to "take the fall".<sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li></ul>

<ul><li>The phrase was used regarding the <a href="Iran%E2%80%93Contra_affair" title="Iran–Contra affair">Iran–Contra scandal</a> by Representative <a href="Louis_Stokes" title="Louis Stokes">Louis Stokes</a> during a 1987 session of Congress, maintaining <a href="Oliver_North" title="Oliver North">Oliver North</a> chose to play a "fall guy" by remaining steadfast and loyal during the hearings to those he had worked for to protect them.<sup id="cite_ref-12" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-12"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>11<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li></ul>

<ul><li><a href="Throw_under_the_bus" title="Throw under the bus">Throw under the bus</a></li>

<li><a href="Collateral_damage" title="Collateral damage">Collateral damage</a></li>

<li><a href="Bagholder" title="Bagholder">Bagholder</a> – Slang for shareholder left holding worthless stocks</li>

<li><a href="Sacrificial_lamb" title="Sacrificial lamb">Sacrificial lamb</a> – Person sacrificed for the common good</li>

<li><a href="Scapegoating" title="Scapegoating">Scapegoating</a> – Practice of singling out any party for unmerited negative treatment or blame</li>

<li><a href="Setting_up_to_fail" title="Setting up to fail">Setting up to fail</a> – Form of workplace bullying and no-win situation</li>

<li><a href="Straw_man" title="Straw man">Straw man</a> – Form of incorrect argument and informal fallacy</li>

<li><a href="Whipping_boy" title="Whipping boy">Whipping boy</a> – Historical profession</li></ul>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Notes">Notes</h2></div>

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<li id="cite_note-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-8">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">The killing was a murder under Texas law, but it was not a federal crime to assassinate a President at that time.<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></span>

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>

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</style><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://groups.google.com/group/alt.usage.english/browse_thread/thread/01f4571ca01a5354/c7794bc822a3d42c?lnk=raot&&_done=%2Fgroup%2Falt.usage.english%2Fbrowse_thread%2Fthread%2F01f4571ca01a5354%2Fc7794bc822a3d42c%3Flnk%3Draot%26">"Origin of "fall guy" - alt.usage.english | Google Groups"</a><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2013-03-01</span></span>.</cite></span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">William Safire, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/magazine/01wwln-safire.t.html">"Sweet Spot"</a>, New York Times Magazine, 1 Apr 2007</span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">William Safire, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/magazine/29wwlnsafire.t.html">"Fall Guy"</a>, <i>The New York Times</i> Magazine, 29 Apr 2007</span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-lef1.htm">"Q&A Left Holding the Bag"</a>. World Wide Words. 2002-11-30. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070103051159/http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-lef1.htm">Archived</a> from the original on 3 January 2007<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2006-12-03</span></span>.</cite></span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-5">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">William Safire, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/magazine/29wwlnsafire.t.html">"Fall Guy"</a>, <i>The New York Times</i> Magazine, 29 Apr 2007</span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-bullard-6"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-bullard_6-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFBullardBeverly_Hendrix_Wright1986" class="citation journal cs1">Bullard, Robert D.; Beverly Hendrix Wright (1986). "The Politics of Pollution: Implications for the Black Community". <i>Phylon</i>. <b>47</b> (1): <span class="nowrap">71–</span>78. <a href="Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.2307%2F274696">10.2307/274696</a>. <a href="JSTOR_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="JSTOR (identifier)">JSTOR</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/274696">274696</a>.</cite></span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-7">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/20/us/jfk-assassination-5-things">[1]</a> CNN, <i>5 Things you may not know about JFK’s assassination</i>, "Despite the assassinations of three U.S. presidents – Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield and William McKinley – killing or attempting to harm a president wasn’t a federal offense until 1965, two years after Kennedy’s death."</span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-9">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120205201538/http://karws.gso.uri.edu/jfk/The_critics/Joesten/Joestenbio.html">"Biography of Joachim Joesten"</a>. Karws.gso.uri.edu. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://karws.gso.uri.edu/jfk/The_critics/Joesten/Joestenbio.html">the original</a> on 2012-02-05<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2013-03-01</span></span>.</cite></span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-10"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-10">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFPress1973" class="citation news cs1">Press, United (1973-05-20). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.nytimes.com/1973/05/20/archives/mitchell-rejects-role-of-fall-guy-has-clear-conscience-says-he-did.html">"MITCHELL REJECTS ROLE OF 'FALL GUY' - Has 'Clear Conscience' Says He Did Nothing Wrong 'Mentally 'or Morally' in the Watergate Scandal Mitchell Rejects 'Fall Guy' Role And Denies Guilt on Watergate"</a>. <i>New York Times</i><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2013-03-01</span></span>.</cite></span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-11"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-11">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFMoran1975" class="citation journal cs1">Moran, Terence P. (1 January 1975). "Public Doublespeak: On Mistakes and Misjudgments". <i>College English</i>. <b>36</b> (7): <span class="nowrap">837–</span>843. <a href="Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.2307%2F375189">10.2307/375189</a>. <a href="JSTOR_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="JSTOR (identifier)">JSTOR</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/375189">375189</a>.</cite></span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-12"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-12">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">See official transcript, but also "The discourse of American civil society: A new proposal for cultural studies". Jeffrey C. Alexander and Philip Smith. <i>Theory & Society</i>: Vol 22, No 2, p 189.</span>

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2></div>

<ul><li><span class="noviewer" typeof="mw:File"></span> The dictionary definition of <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Special:Search/fall_guy" class="extiw external" title="wiktionary:Special:Search/fall guy"><i>fall guy</i></a> at Wiktionary</li></ul></div><div><div class="zim-footer">

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