[Idiom] ExPression: Come on down.

[Gilles L]

Dear teacher,
When a lecturer addresses speaks to an audience from the podium and requests someone to come and join him on the platform is is proper for the lecturer to say: "come on down". I sort of get confused with the idomatic expressions such as "up" and "Down". Would it be more appropriate for the lecturer to say: "Come on up"?
Thank you

 

[Rover_KE]

If the members of the audience are on a higher level than the lecturer, 'Come on down' is appropriate.

If they are lower, 'Come on up' is better.

If in doubt, he could always say 'Come and join me on the platform'.

Rover

 

[BobK]

It's possible that the lecturer's borrowing a TV catch-phrase. 'Come on down' is fairly informal, and before the '60s/'70s game-show (whose name I forget) the lecturer is more likely to have said something like 'Come and join me at the podium'.

The TV audience for this show was on raked seating, and the question-master used to invite members of the audience to play the game, using the formula '...so why don't N and M COME ON DOWN'. The 'down' just stuck to 'come on' meaning 'come and join me in a place of prominence'. So this new form of 'come on down' doesn't necessarily refer to position (although it normally would in a lecture theatre).

b

 

[Ouisch]

It's possible that the lecturer's borrowing a TV catch-phrase. 'Come on down' is fairly informal, and before the '60s/'70s game-show (whose name I forget) the lecturer is more likely to have said something like 'Come and join me at the podium'.

The TV audience for this show was on raked seating, and the question-master used to invite members of the audience to play the game, using the formula '...so why don't N and M COME ON DOWN'. The 'down' just stuck to 'come on' meaning 'come and join me in a place of prominence'. So this new form of 'come on down' doesn't necessarily refer to position (although it normally would in a lecture theatre).

b

Poor Bob, to not have the cheesy TV goodness of The Price is Right permanently ingrained in his psyche. ;-) This classic game show has run for over 30 years on US TV, and the cry of "Come on down!" to summon audience members to Contestant's Row has become part of AmE vernacular. (For your viewing pleasure, here is the historic clip of contestant Yolanda who bounced right out of her tube top while "coming on down.") Anyway, other than TV hucksters inviting viewers to "come on down" to their used car lot this Sunday for the best bargains in town, usually when summoning a person from the audience to the stage or podium the speaker would invite them to "come up" or "come on up."

 

[BobK]

Poor Bob, to not have the cheesy TV goodness of The Price is Right permanently ingrained in his psyche. ;-) This classic game show has run for over 30 years on US TV, and the cry of "Come on down!" to summon audience members to Contestant's Row has become part of AmE vernacular. (For your viewing pleasure, here is the historic clip of contestant Yolanda who bounced right out of her tube top while "coming on down.") Anyway, other than TV hucksters inviting viewers to "come on down" to their used car lot this Sunday for the best bargains in town, usually when summoning a person from the audience to the stage or podium the speaker would invite them to "come up" or "come on up."

Of course ;-) I had no idea it was that old (although I had little idea that 1980 was that long ago - I guess I have a chronic case of underestimating recentness!)

b