"How now brown cow" is a phrase used in elocution teaching to demonstrate rounded vowel sounds. Each "ow" sound in the phrase represents an individual diphthong. The phrase does not have an explicit meaning per se but can be used as a light-hearted greeting.[1] Although the exact origins of the phrase are unclear, its use in teaching elocution can be dated to at least 1926.[2]
In the movie "There's No Business Like Show Business" from 1954, Donald O'Connor's character, Tim Donahue, says the line.
In the 1980s, a World Wrestling Federation skit featured George "The Animal" Steele getting electroshock therapy at the recommendation of his manager, Captain Lou Albano. Just before the therapy went horribly wrong, the previously incoherent George clearly states "how now brown cow" - indicating the treatment was, at first, a success.
Ron Burgundy uses the saying in the movie Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.
Uma Thurman uses it as a password in the telephone booth to get into the secret base in the 1998 movie, The Avengers
In The Nanny, Maxwell and Niles use the phrase 'how now brown cow' to teach Ms Fine how to speak properly.
In Courage The Cowardly Dog, Muriel uses this phrase to audition for a part in a play.
This phrase was used on a Teletubbies episode aired to TV.
This phrase was one of the first phrases spoken by the talking horse in the pilot of Mister Ed
In the early 90's, the punk rock band Green Day used to change the lyrics of the song When I Come Around by saying "How Now Brown Cow" instead of "When I Come Around".
Sometimes the phrase is used as "How Tow Brown Cow"
John Butler Trio use the phrase in their song "Used to get high for a living".[3]
In PBS Kids series Martha Speaks, Martha says this phrase in the theme song.
This phrase is used humorously during an interlude near the end of the Monkee's hit, "I'm Gonna Buy Me A Dog"
Hip- hop group A Tribe Called Quest used the phrase in Scenario, the last track of their 1991 album The Low End Theory,
There is a British English pronunciation textbook by Mimi Ponsonby titled "How Now Brown Cow?: A Course in the Pronunciation of English with Exercises and Dialogues".[4]
The phrase is used by the protagonist in the novel "Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said," a 1974 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick.