Why do we say "Heavens to Murgatroyd"?

Meaning:

(Note, we'll also accept "Hand to Mouth" as a correct answer, since that works as well - although that wasn't what we had in mind when we created the puzzle!)

Background:

Heavens to Murgatroyd

Similar to “Heavens to Betsy,” “Heavens to Murgatroyd" is an American idiom used to express surprise, amazement, or frustration. It’s interchangeable with such phrases as “good heavens,” “my goodness,” “my word,” etc.

Those of us of a certain age will recognize ”Heavens to Murgatroyd” as the catchphrase of the cartoon character, Snagglepuss, a hot pink, anthropomorphic mountain lion clothed in an upturned collar with a black tie, and dress cuffs on his wrists.

Snagglepuss was a creation of Hanna-Barbera, an American animation company formed in 1957. The organization was responsible for some of the country’s most popular cartoons, including The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, and The Smurfs. One of its early efforts was The Quick Draw McGraw Show, which featured a white horse in the title role who acted as an Old West sheriff. It’s on this show that the very first version of Snagglepuss appeared in 1959, although he was orange, not pink, and was called Snaggletooth.

In 1961, Snagglepuss became a regular on The Yogi Bear Show, voiced by Daws Butler (1916-1988), Hanna-Barbera’s most prolific voice actor. Butler based his interpretation of the character on Bert Lahr ’s Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz. The impression was so good, in fact, that at one point Lahr threated to sue Hanna-Barbera. To this day, many incorrectly cite Lahr’s 1944 musical comedy, Meet the People, as the origin of the phrase “Heavens to Murgatroyd” because Snagglepuss’s voice and mannerisms are so similar to the actor’s.

Although “Murgatroyd” sounds like a made-up word, it’s actually an Old English name dating back to the 14th century, and it simply means “the district that leads to the moors.” And, in the 1887 Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera, Ruddigore , there are ten baronets named “Murgatroyd,” eight of whom are ghosts. It's believed, however, that The Yogi Bear Show’s writers simply used the phrase “Heaves to Murgatroyd” because the name was uncommon in the United States and would sound funny to American ears.

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