Funk and Wagnalls
Funk and Wagnalls is a
publisher based in
New York City.
Isaac Kaufmann Funk founded the business in 1876 as
I.K. Funk & Company. The firm's first publication was the
Metropolitan Pulpit. In
1877,
Adam Willis Wagnalls, one of Funk's classmates at
Wittenberg College, joined the firm as a partner. The two changed the name of the firm to
Funk & Wagnalls Company in
1890.
Prior to 1890, F. & W. published only religious-oriented works. The publication of
The Literary Digest in 1890 marked a change for the firm to a publisher of general reference
dictionaries and
encyclopedias. The firm followed in
1894 with its most memorable publication,
The Standard Dictionary of the English Language.
1912 saw the publication of the
Funk & Wagnalls Standard Encyclopedia.In
1953, the firm began to sell its reference publications through a supermarket continuity marketing campaign, encouraging consumers to include the latest volume of the encyclopedia on their shopping lists. By
1971, the company, known as
Funk & Wagnalls, Inc. had been bought by
Reader's Digest Association in
1965 and then again by the firm
Dun & Bradstreet. In subsequent years, the publication rights to the company's reference works (aside from the encyclopedia) were acquired by other firms.
The publication rights to the encyclopedia were spun off by Dun & Bradstreet in
1983, and were bought up once more in
1990 by K-III Holdings Inc. In
1998, as part of the Information division of Primedia Inc. (renamed K-III Holdings),
Funk & Wagnalls Standard Encyclopedia became the website funkandwagnalls.com. This short-lived venture was shut down in
2001. The encyclopedia exists today only as
Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia, an electronic reference provided to educational institutions by the World Almanac Education Group.
Some content from the encyclopedia became a part of
Microsoft's
Encarta digital encyclopedia.
*One of the
catch phrases on the late '
60s American television show
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In was: "Look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls".
*Also a
catch phrase on
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, as part of the recurring "
Carnac the Magnificent" routine done by
Ed McMahon and
Johnny Carson, as in "These answers have been hermetically sealed in a mayonnaise jar on Funk and Wagnalls' porch since noon today!"
*A catch phrase of Eric Cartman on the
Comedy Central show "
South Park" is "What the Funk & Wagnalls are you talkin' about?" is a reference to Funk and Wagnalls, used to humorously avoid the use of the work
fuck so as to pass muster with
Standards & Practices.
Episode Script in Which this Phrase is Used*Bandmember
Jerry Garcia used a Funk & Wagnalls dictionary to randomly pick the words for the bandname ''
Grateful Dead.
* C.J. Cregg used the line in Season 1 of
The West Wing.
* Marty Sheargold and Fifi Box from the Australian radio show,
The Shebang, often use the phrase "is it in the Funk & Wagnells?" to validate a point. On the 24th Feb 2006, they read excerpts of this Wikipedia article on their radio show, but stated that they do not hold a lifelong ambition to get their names to appear in a Funk & Wagnell listing, contrary to a previous version of this article.
* The phrase was also used in "
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (TV series): The Complete Epic Series: Disc 1". Episode title "Planet of the Slave Girls (Part 1)". The
BBC had several queries in the 1990's, when the show was repeated, asking if Buck had sworn. Funk and Wagnall's was not commonly known in the UK.
Major Duke Danton: "Recon 1, I appreciate your concern, but I'd appreciate it all the more if next time you'd refrain from interfering in a Directorate training mission."
Captain Buck Rogers: "What? If you call that interfering there's something wrong with your
Funk & Wagnalls."
Major Duke Danton: "I don't know what you mean by that, but how'd you like to repeat that in the flight hanger?"
Captain Buck Rogers: "I'd love to."
*
FunkandWagnalls.com - archive.org version
