I'm rubber, you're glue

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Likely from a longer phrase, "I'm rubber, you're glue; whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you".

Phrase

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I'm rubber, you're glue

  1. (childish) Countering an attack on one's character.
    • 1948, Daniel Curley, “A Deal in Cards”, in The Atlantic Magazine, volume 181, Atlantic Monthly Co., page 61:
      “You’re nothing but a — a cheat,” Florence said.
      I’m rubber, you’re glue, everything you say sticks right back to you,” John said calmly, complete master with all the answers.
    • 2022, China Miéville, chapter 6, in A Spectre, Haunting: On the Communist Manifesto, →OCLC:
      Few anticommunist accusations are more trite than that Marxism is a religion, the Manifesto a religious tract and Marx himself [] a ‘religious eschatologist’. At a banal level, to many of the accusers can be said in retort: I am rubber, you are glue.
    • 2024 January 10, Jonathan Swan, Maggie Haberman, “One of Trump’s Oldest Tactics in Business and Politics: I’m Rubber. You’re Glue.”, in The New York Times[1]:
      And in the 2016 campaign, Mr. Trump applied the “I’m rubber, you’re glue” approach to a wide range of vulnerabilities.

Translations

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See also

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