"Cold shoulder" is a phrase used to express dismissal or the act of disregarding someone. Its origin is attributed to both 19th-century literary works and as a result of folk etymology.

Although the exact origin is disputed, the first occurrence of the phrase "cold shoulder" appearing in print is in a Scottish dialect, from The Antiquary by Sir Walter Scott in 1816:

where "cauld" is the equivalent of cold and "shouther" means shoulder, which is further supported by contextual usage in The Antiquary. Neither eating nor food is expressed in the passage, but the phrase is presented in a rather allusive way. The phrase also appears in one of Scott's later works, St. Ronan's Well and after the 1820s it had traveled to America. Dated June 1839 in a letter to the editor in the New England newspaper The Bangor Daily Whig and Courier:

Another explanation is that the phrase stems from a particular way to serve food to an unwanted guest. In this case, "cold shoulder" refers to serving of an inferior cut of meat, namely a "cold shoulder of mutton" to an uninvited guest, as opposed to serving a hot meal or roast that was fresh out of the oven to an invitee, which was customary at the time. This acted as both a direct and subtle means to let the guest know that he was or had become unwelcome, and had extended his stay.

Paul Henri de Leeuw (born March 26, 1962 in Rotterdam) is a Dutch television comedian, singer and actor.

De Leeuw gained national fame in the late eighties and early nineties with television shows for broadcasting company VARA. Though satire was only a part of these shows and much of its humour was essentially harmless, he came into publicity with satire about Dutch show business personalities who were often ridiculed. Besides, many obscure musical acts were featured in his shows, many of which managed to gain national fame after they had been in De Leeuw's show (e.g. Twarres and René Klijn, a former boyband member who contracted AIDS).^{[citation needed]} VARA has since continued his shows apart from a few interruptions, often with considerable success.

In the early nineties, Paul de Leeuw also had some shows celebrating the new year. In the 1993-1994 show he satirized the new commercial television station RTL 5 by announcing another new station, "RTL 6" (RTL six, beter dan niks (lit. better than nothing)). This led to a lawsuit by the RTL company, who demanded that De Leeuw withdraw his joke.