Freedom Girl

Some smarty-pants of the word-nerd variety wrote a short column on this in August 2005: http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-sma2.htm
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In my experience the usage is less negative or derogatory, more good-naturedly teasing*; do you find it this way too?
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[Being a sugarholic of the sourpuss variety, this expression makes me think about smarties, the little round tart candies ~as opposed to Canadian SMARTIES, which are kind of like M&M's only, well, smarter.]
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*maybe because I sometimes am one

Posted by: ro6ot at February 11, 2007 7:55 PM

I think there was a boy sitting in his classroom one day in 1930, eatting candy in his junior high school class during a lesson when he wasn't supposed to. The teacher kept walking past, which made the boy nervous, so everytime that she walked past he would keep hiding his candy on his lap under his desk and pretend to be practising his cursive hand writing skills. Each time that she would return to her desk to write another example on the chalkboard that they were to copy, he would retun to gobbling up his smarty candies.
Well the next example that she wrote was extemely long-not just one word, but a whole paragraph of text and once she was finished she back to walk the aisles od desks once again and when she came to his, she stopped, and stood there the entire time-pointing out evey flaw and making him continually re-write the passage until his practise made perfect. In that time the candy already warm from being held in his hands when he was actually consuming each little piece adhered to his trousers. He spent the rest of period pulling and pulling and the little sticky pieces, trying to collect them from the corduroy, but alas his attempts failed. Preparing to exit the classroom for recess later in the day, he stood up and the sight of his trousers greatly amused all the fellow classmates stood around him able to bear witness to the hilarity of the situation. Not only did he have candies stuck all over his lower half, the evidence of his disobeying the rules was now in full view. In full view first to the twelve classmates stood around him, then to his teacher, and then to the rest of the school as he was paraded out of the classroom, through the halls, and into the principal's office in front of all of the school's students exiting for recess amid pointing, laughing, and taunts of "Smarty Pants! Smarty Pants!" referencing the brand of candy stuck to him.
Years past and World War II had now begun. Much had changed-the US was in a state it had never experienced before in infinite ways-from available goods, to labor, to the draft. Still somethings had gone unchanged and the nickname that had adhered itself to the little mid-western boy in a school house in Tecumseh, Michigan still clung to him, even while fighting on behalf of the Allied Powers in the air over Europe.
When meeting his fellow troops, and soon to be brothers before shipping out he was asked the only question he was not prepared to be asked.
"What they call you back home?"
And with a sigh of reluctance, he admitted the nickname that his fellow classmates had refused to let him outgrow. How one day had come to define his existence, he did not understand. Still, being referred to it in a foreign land would remind him of home, something he needed to remember and keep insight so desperately already that there was no use fighting it.
"Smarty Pants."
"Pleasure to meet you Smarty Pants!"

After his tour of duty came to and end due to a life altering injury, he returned home to the same old town of Tecumseh, only it wasn't the same. War had changed it even if the war wasn't in the US. His mother now spent her days at work, while before she had been at home taking care of him and his younger siblings.
Everything was rationed-when she took off for work in the day her outfit was made complete with an absence of nylons, since the material was needed by the military for parachutes and tents.
Stopping by the local store, which wasn't so local since it was over ten miles from their farm, he could not even locate the candies of his namesake. Every luxury of his childhood, from the candy to his innocence had disappeared in just the passing of a couple years.

Dropping by the farm to assist in the chores, the younger boy now abruptly stopped shoveling hay and leaned against the pitchfork inside the barn.
"Why they call you Smarty Pants?"
"What do you mean?"
"Do they call you that because you think you're so smart?"
He did have an air of confidence that translated to others as him thinking he was better than others, but in that moment he realized the boy had never known the candies called Smarties.
He didn't care to inform the boy of all that he was missing because of the war and replied, "Yeah-that's why they call me Smarty Pants."

From the next day and everyday after, each time the boy saw another student excelling in school he shouted at them "Smarty Pants!" and the trend continued from there forward with each of those students identifying others with the term until it became well known in that respect, but the true origin of the term lost until now.

Posted by: Nilina at February 11, 2007 8:18 PM

Personally, I add the word "pants" onto a variety of descriptor words in order to make a more sassy remark.
"smarty-pants"
"sassy-pants"
"shorty-pants"
"grumpy-pants"
etc......
I think the pants part means that you are in some sort of mood- it's not YOU, just the emotional pants you are currently wearing, so to speak.
Either that, or "pants" just has a nice ring to it :)

Posted by: sarah at February 12, 2007 7:03 PM

Great TRUE story Nilina. I sure enjoyed to know about the story of that boy and I am happy to see someone actually remembered it.
I will from now on always make sure to remind people of that story. Thank you so much.

Sarah,
Nice. I like the "emotional pants". Today, I am wearing my "sneaky pants" ! ;)

Posted by: joon at February 13, 2007 8:47 AM