I've been at parties or other gatherings, and, when it was time to leave, native speakers would come up with odd ways of saying "It's time to go."
One way would be:
Let's make like a bakery truck and haul buns.
Another was:
Let's blow this clambake.
I'm wondering if someone could explain why these phrases get used, and if there are any underlying puns or jokes that I may not be catching.
In short, why do these mean, "It's time to leave?"
Disclaimer: I already understand these expressions, but thought they would be interesting for the English language learner. (In fact, this question is based on an “actual problem I have faced”: in the past, some non-native friends have asked me to explain these phrases; I found them easy for me to understand, but hard to explain in a way that a non-native speaker could fully appreciate their whimsicality. Non-natives, feel free to give this one a try – it might be a fun “practice question.”
Best Answer
“Let’s make like a bakery truck and haul buns” is jokingly said when one wants to leave a party. Our buns (buttocks) are compared to a bakery truck, that is, they are as heavy and big as a bakery truck which hauls (drags) heavily.
On the other hand a bakery truck also sells buns (small, sometimes sweet breads) having a shape that resembles to a curvy contour of a girls gluteus maximus muscles as seen from behind: "Margie's buns look nice and tight now that she's working out.”
In other words buns sold by the bakery truck are compared to the slang word of ass, cheeks, buttocks. There is a pun which mixes our buns with the buns sold by a bakery truck.
As a result we can understand the pun this way: “let’s move our asses out of here” or “let’s get out of here”.
“Let’s blow this clambake” it’s a very silly way to say “Let’s get a move on”, where blow is the slang word for “ to go, leave, exit” or “leave this less than an interesting place”.