I was puzzled when someone in an authors' discussion forum DM'd me to say that his neighbor was selling a violin. I know this guy; he's not a spammer.
I asked, and he said he thought he remembered me saying I was looking on eBay for a violin, which I'm not.
I wondered who had actually said this, and it turned out to be ... me!
I'd written about how AI companies were saying that copyright settlements could bankrupt them, and I said "Excuse me while I go look for a smaller violin on eBay"!
It had never occurred to me that anyone would not recognize the joke about playing or looking for a smaller violin to accompany someone's weeping.
It goes back to old movies, where a solo violin would play Tobani's "Hearts and Roses" while someone wept or looked sad.
Apparently the first reference to the "world's smallest violin" was on an episode of M*A*S*H.
@bodhipaksa Is the music you're thinking of "Hearts and Flower" ? (rather than" Hearts and Roses as you said)
1️⃣ This section seems to confirm that
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearts_and_Flowers#cite_ref-4
(this topic was where a solo violin would play Tobani's song while someone wept or looked sad.)
2️⃣ Also which #MASH episode was it (was said "I remember that episode, Margaret was the 'violinist'.")
@freeschool I'm sure you were right. I was speaking from (very faulty) memory. I'm afraid I don't know in which episode "Hotlips" did her tiny violin playing. I don't even know if I saw that episode — I was only ever a sporadic watcher of the show.