Tough Life

At first I thought she was laughing at one of my jokes, but soon realised she’s just exhausted from another day on the sofa.

The origins of phrases often turn out to be pretty gruesome.

I looked up ‘Cat got your tongue?’    It originates from the 18th century English Navy, where errant sailors would be lashed with the ‘cat’ - a whip with nine tails. Afterwards the poor sailor, lying in silent agony,  would be teased by the other sailors shouting ‘cat got your tongue?