Who created the phrase"the best thing since sliced bread"?

I think that was my grandmother... or maybe it was your grandmother..... maybe it was Al Gore!! After all, he claimed to have created the internet as well.

Somebody who really really liked toast.

the best/greatest thing since sliced bread (humorous)

if someone or something is described as the best thing since sliced bread, people think they are extremely good, often better than they really are. "Portable phones are marketed as the best thing since sliced bread, but to me they're just another expensive gadget. The way he goes on about her - you'd think she was the greatest thing since sliced bread."

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/best%2Fgreatest+thing+since+sliced+bread

Idioms: greatest thing since sliced bread

Also, best thing since sliced bread. An excellent new invention, as in Harry swears that this new program is the greatest thing since sliced bread. This phrase, used either straightforwardly or sarcastically, alludes to the convenience of buying bread that is already sliced. [Mid-1900s]

http://www.answers.com/GREATEST%20THING%20SINCE%20SLICED%20BREAD

The phrase "the greatest thing since sliced bread" (and variations thereof) is a commonly used hyperbolic means of praising an invention or development. Sliced bread appears to be something of an arbitrary selection as the benchmark against which later inventions should be judged. It has been said that "the phrase is the ultimate depiction of innovative achievement and American know-how", although it is commonly used in the United Kingdom as well.

The popular use of the phrase derives from the fact that Wonder Bread, the first mass-marketer of sliced bread as a product, launched a 1930s ad campaign touting the innovation.

http://www.search.com/reference/Sliced_bread

GREATEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD -- "It's the greatest thing since sliced bread -- What a brilliant idea! What a fine thing! Said of any innovation more important than a bread slicer. Often used sarcastically. The expression originated in the mid-twentieth century. Chinese checkers, chopped liver, packaged bread, swinging doors, chewing gum, the hula hoop, or the hamburger may replace (the term) 'sliced bread' (in the expression)..." For example, "the greatest thing since the hula hoop." "Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings" (1996) by Gregory Y. Titelman (Random House, New York, 1996).

Wonder Bread is the source of the phrase, according to an article in the January 2006 Reader's Digest, Page 155, "Ever Wonder Where the First Sliced Bread and Other Famous Foods got Their Names?" by Evan Morris, author of "From Altoids to Zima."

".Created in 1921 by the Taggart Baking Company of Indianapolis, Indiana, the new bread was almost ready for market when the question of a name arose. Vice president Elmer Cline happened to attend a balloon race one day. The sight of dozens of brightly colored hot-air balloons in the sky filled him with, as he later said, 'wonder.' Wonder Bread was born without further ado. Cline, in fact, was so impressed with the sight of those balloons that he covered his new product's wrapper with red, yellow and blue balloons (still the Wonder package design today). You might think that a product combining balloons, bread and a sense of wonder couldn't get any better. But in 1933 Wonder introduced the very first pre-sliced loaf of bread to America's consumers, the popularity of which is reflected in that phrase 'the best thing since sliced bread.'"

A history on the Wonder Bread site says: "In 1925, the Continental Baking Company bought the Indianapolis bakery and 'Slo-baked' Wonder Bread soon became a national brand. The Continental Baking Company altered the course of bread forever in the 1930s when it introduced sliced Wonder Bread. Sales were slow at first as suspicious consumers were slow to accept a pre-sliced bread, but convenience overruled apprehension and soon everyone wanted sliced Wonder Bread on their dinner table."

http://www.wonderbread.com/history.html

http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/45/messages/129.html

Someone who'd never heard of electricity.

Presumably someone who had previously considered sliced bread the most wonderful innovation since the wheel, :-)

John McSlicedbread I think.

My ass did! Random comment of the week: And that's what I have to say about monkeys.