Yet Another Web Comic (YAWC)

I don’t know why, but Mary going up, poking the cop and calling him Officer Stereotype had me in stitches. And by that, I mean I was laughing.

Does anyone know where “had me in stitches” came from? Being stitched up (or worse, the next few weeks with those stitches) is pretty far from funny in my book. I can think of a few things further from funny, but they are far outweighed in quantity by those which are closer to funny. If events were normally distributed around the mean of funny, we’re talking 4, maybe 5-sigma territory.

But back to the business at hand: Anyone who can explain the origins of the saying to me gets the right to find a cookie and eat it. Found cookie!

UPDATE: Valued friend and entertained reader* Robbie C. sent me this:

Lou,
A stitch is a term for a pain in one's side; so the idiom, "in
stitches," to denote a condition of extreme amusement suggests
laughing to the point of pain. I'll start looking for cookies now.

Of course! Stitches! How could I possibly have forgotten that? It just goes to show you that even the best of us mess up; The worst of us just do it more often. Thanks, Robbie! good luck finding that cookie!

* - Your definition of “entertained” may differ from mine, which most likely differs from the definition given by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. Your mileage may vary.