Peanuts by Charles Schulz for April 22, 1997
April 21, 1997
April 23, 1997
Transcript:
The Literary Ace sits on the doghouse. He types, "It was a dark and stormy night."<BR><BR> Lucy reads the story.<BR><BR> Lucy hands the paper to the Literary Ace and says, "No, not again . ."<BR><BR> The Literary Ace reads the page.<BR><BR> Snoopy types, "It was one of those dark nights when you weren't sure if it was going to be stormy or not."<BR><BR>
From Wikipedia -
The phrase had earlier been used by Washington Irving in his 1809 “A History of New York.” Its status as a catchphrase for bad writing comes from the opening sentence of Bulwer-Lytton’s novel Paul Clifford:
It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.There’s a bad novel contest based on this.