What one says to apportion blame elsewhere. The giant at the top of the beanstalk caught Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, who pointed to Bugs and said decisively "He's Jack". To which Bugs replied insouciantly but firmly, "Oh no, you are quite definitely, Jack". So it doesn't always work.

The exchange appeared in Beanstalk Bunny, 1955, directed by Chuck Jones.

Guilt compels my locust brain to expand from that E1 fluff a bit...

Compare and contrast "I'm Jack", which also didn't turn out to work. In 1979 the Yorkshire Ripper was at work: he had already killed ten prostitutes in or around Yorkshire. Assistant Chief Constable George Oldfield was in charge of the case, and had of course many clues and red herrings to sift through, among them some letters claiming to be from the Ripper. In June they received a tape from someone with a Sunderland accent:

I'm Jack. I see you are having no luck catching me. I have the greatest respect for you, George, but lord, you are no nearer catching me now than four years ago when I started. I reckon your boys are lettin' you down, George. They can't be much good, can they?
...
At the rate I'm goin', I should be in the Book of Records. I think it's eleven up to now, isn't it? Well, I'll keep on going for quite a while yet. I can't see myself being nicked just yet. Even if you do get near, I'll probably top myself first.
Well, it's been nice chatting to you, George.

Eventually it was determined that this was a hoax, and though he was probably the letter-writer, he was taking phrases from the Jack the Ripper case a century before. (Compare Letters from Jack the Ripper.) The resources expended on this search enabled the real Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe, to kill three more before he was caught. The hoaxer was never caught, and the case was finally dropped on 19 September 2003.

Letters and tape in full can be seen and heard at: http://www.execulink.com/~kbrannen/tape01.htm

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