I'm rubber, you're glue

English

Alternative forms

• I am rubber, you are glue
• I'm rubber and you're glue

Etymology

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

Phrase

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

I'm rubber, you're glue

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: not used in Mandarin

• Danish: det man siger er man selv
• Dutch: wat je zegt ben je zelf
• Finnish: se, joka haukkuu, on itse
• German: was du sagst, (das) bist du selbst, wenn du deine Klappe hältst
• Hungarian: aki mondja másra, az mondja magára
• Italian: Specchio riflesso se ti muovi sei un cesso
• Romanian: cine zice, ăla este
• Russian: кто пе́рвый обзыва́ется, тот так и называ́ется (kto pérvyj obzyvájetsja, tot tak i nazyvájetsja)
• Spanish: rebota, rebota y en tu culo explota
• Swedish: den som sa det, var det

See also

• I know you are but what am I