(I'd Like to Get You on a) Slow Boat to China

Frank Loesser's daughter, Susan Loesser, authored a biography of her father, A Most Remarkable Fella (1993), in which she writes, The idea is that "a slow boat to China" was the longest trip one could imagine. Loesser shifted the phrase to a more romantic setting, yet it eventually entered general parlance to mean anything that takes an extremely long time. ==Media==

=== The phrase "a slow boat to China" (or a snowclone thereof) features === • The title of Gavin Young's break-through book, recounting a journey from Piraeus to Canton. • The title of a novel by Chen Danyan in Shanghai, China. • The title of a short story by Haruki Murakami, translated into English in the collection The Elephant Vanishes. • Played on in the title of the song "Slow Hole to China" on the 2003 compilation album Slow Hole to China: Rare and Unreleased by the band Clutch. • Referenced within the film 'The Apartment' with the innuendo "Boy I'd like to get her on a slow boat to China" • Played on in the title of the song "Slowcar to China" on the Gary Numan album Dance. • Referred to elsewhere in Only Fools and Horses; an episode is called "Slow Bus to Chingford". • Description of "girls [...] Stepping on that slow boat to China" in the Sailor song "Girls Girls Girls" • Used as a pun in a lyric for the Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? theme song by Rockapella. • Sung by Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman) to Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) in Paul Thomas Anderson's 2012 film *The Master. ==References==