Elvis Has Left The Building

Many of my friends read my last post yesterday.  They contacted me in various way to ask me "Is this a typo?"  "Is that a mistake?"  Last night, I went back to edit my post several times.  Thank so much, guys.  Most of my Japanese friends commented on one phrase "Elvis Has Left The Building", though.

They said many websites in Japan which teach English talked about the meaning of "Elvis Has Left The Building" and how to use it.  Is this phrase so important that English students have to study it?  Was this phrase in your English textbooks, guys?

Well, you guys know me.  I'm a very noisy person.  So, I did my Google search to check out this phrase.  In 0.37 seconds, I got about 3,210,000 results.  Wow!  For Google Japan, in 0.44 seconds, I got 3,350,000 results.  There are 140,000 more results!  So, I guess this "Elvis Has Left The Building" is very popular in Japan.

But, why?

Will Smith said it in Independence Day (1996).  Sorry, I don't recall I saw this film.

In television series Frasier (1993 ~ 2004), they paraphrased the phrase as "Frasier has left the building!"  Sorry, I didn't watch this sitcom.

And "Elvis Has Left The Building" was first used in 1956???

Why Japanese need to learn this phrase?  It's no Shakespeare!

I guess people in their 40s or older are still using "Elvis Has Left The Building", so, non-English speakers feel the need to study this phrase.

So, how often do Canadians use "Elvis Has Left The Building"?

The only Canadian I know is the etalk host Ben Mulroney.  He used this phase once at etalk years ago.

The scene:

An empty hallway.  A dark backstage without anybody.

Narrator (Ben Mulroney): 

"So and So Has Left The Building."

Sorry, I forgot who the person he referred to.

So, how often do you use "Elvis Has Left The Building"? 

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