T-Rex: I have recently acquired some snake oil, and it has inspired me to compile a list of professions that have been ruined by lexicalized phrases!
T-Rex: First: snake oil salesmen!
T-Rex: Since the phrase now means "con artist", nobody wants to be a snake oil salesman! But I presume there was a point when a man could procure some snake oil and go door-to-door selling it, and maybe those guys wrecked it for the rest of us. Maybe they were all chumps. MAYBE they were all, in fact, SUPERCHUMPS.
Utahraptor: That may actually be the case!
T-Rex: I knew it!!
Utahraptor: Yeah - early Western entrepreneurs tried to duplicate the successful Chinese snake oil they saw, but failed to recognize the reason it had SOME effect was Chinese water snakes are high in eicosapentaenic acid, an anti inflammatory agent! Western snakes aren't, and so their medicine didn't work.
Off panel: But they sold it anyway, often as a universal panacea!
T-Rex: PANACEA?! THAT'S THE SECRET WORD OF THE DAY!
T-Rex and Off panel: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
