is there any old-timey phrase more annoying and dumb than "search me"

[Uncle]

when you're a kid in the 80s you get books written by people who grew up in the 50s and 60s and still think their lingo is hip with the youth of today

cleaning out some old stuff from my parents' house I found an old awful joke book for kids

the author pretended he had different joke formats by breaking it up into chapters with different styles that didn't actually change anything

i.e. chapter 1 - tickle your funny bone!!!

Q: why did the chicken cross the road?
A: to get to the other side!

chapter 2 - wayne and wanda

wayne: why did the chicken cross the road?
wanda: I haven't the foggiest.
wayne: to get to the other side!

in an effort to avoid being monotonous, the second character had increasingly more ridiculous ways of saying "I don't know" that no actual human would ever say

and one of these was "search me" and I remember being irrationally irritated by this stupid phrase even as a kid

like what the fuck? "I don't know the answer to the question so much, that you can perform a full body cavity search on me, and you still won't find the answer"

I also remember seeing this as a joke in some old black and white movie that MST3K probably covered, somebody says "search me" and the other person says "lol ok" and pretends like they're going to until the other person says "get your paws off me"

I dunno it's just one of those things that fills me with contempt and makes me glad we've moved on to phrases like "problematic"  and "your truth" and "stochastic terrorism"

[HeavenIsAPlaceOnEarth]

I was trying to think of the last time I heard the phrase, and honestly, beats me.

[Kurt Russell]

I was trying to think of the last time I heard the phrase, and honestly, beats me.

What's the book called?

[benji]

This predates Miranda so a lot of people didn't know about their rights, now we understand this just gives cops an excuse to obtain evidence.

[filler]

I was trying to think of the last time I heard the phrase, and honestly, beats me.

What's the book called?

search me!

[imsotired]