Text:

The devil is in hell beating his wife with a frying pan.

Background:

My mom told it to me probably in Louisiana on one of my trips there because she learned it from her family who’s lived in rural southern Louisiana for a long time which I think is important cuz it’s not so much a Cajun thing as a southern Louisiana thing. I like how it doesn’t mean anything, it’s just a funny image that really has no significance when uttered, it’s just something people associate. If I don’t like anything about it, it’s that kinda same thing that this weird nonsensical thing about violence related to rain. I can only imagine that it caught on when one guy was like oh man this is such a weird occurance that there must be something going on in the other world so he just said something super ridiculous and outlandish and it caught on. I think that’s why people remember it, I think that’s why I remember it.

Context:

Whenever you see the sun out while it’s raining, not like behind a cloud or whatever, like it’s shining bright, but it’s raining. And you just know, Satan’s doing his thing.

My Thoughts:

I’m really interested to know if there’s more mythology about the devil’s wife. Is that just the sun in this context? Or could the sun be the frying pan since it’s round? Anyway, I also want to know if there are more sayings like this which have the same context of raining while the sun is out. I suppose that phenomenon is only observable in certain parts of the world, so it wouldn’t happen everywhere. But it is bizarre enough that I would think other cultures would have some sort of saying or ritual to accompany it.